Day 7 #PULSE18

7 Jun 2018 Pulse

Well, Wednesday evening brought a great range of theatre. The first show was User Not Found by Dante or Die theatre company and created by Daphne Attias, Terry O’Donovan and Chris Goode. The show was up in the bar and there were lots of tables with headphones on. All the ‘audience members’, it didn’t really feel like we were an audience, put on the headphones and were each given a mobile which matched up with what Terry was saying and describing, while what he said was also going straight into our headphones. The show explored what happens to our digital footprint we leave behind when we die and I thought it was such an interesting discussion as it is something we have only recently had to think about. We discover Terry’s ex-boyfreind, Luka, has died but had signed up to this App that lets you choose someone to decide what happens to your social media when you’re gone. It was fascinating to watch Terry’s dilemma on what to do, especially as the two hadn’t ended things on good terms. I really enjoyed the immersive piece and I think they portrayed how people use social media very accurately which doesn’t always happen in theatre. Would you want your digital media footprint to live forever or to go with you?

Then we had Elephant And Castle which had the audience in stitches. It revolved around husband and wife. Tom, who was a sleep talker and walker, and Lily, who had to deal with Tom’s night-time escapades, which are made a lot more troublesome, as like Marilyn Monroe, Tom also likes to sleep naked. They told the story through song, live music and recordings of Tom’s sleep talking, and Lily had a great voice, I found out she even did the score for 1927’s Golem, which was the finale of last year’s PULSE. The show was very funny but also tender and sweet as you really got a sense of Tom and Lily’s love for each other.

The final show of the night was YESYESNONO’s Five Encounters on a Site Called Craiglist about five of Sam’s sexual encounters through the advertising website Craigslist. I really liked the vibe Sam created for the show, the auditorium felt like a very open and respectful space. Sam got people from the audience to help act out his different encounters and I even volunteered to go on stage! Sam asked me some of the 36 questions that psychologist Arthur Aron came up with that lead to love. The first question was who would be your dream dinner guest and I said Alex Turner, the Arctic Monkeys frontman, but thinking about it now, David Bowie or Nina Simone would be pretty high up on the list too. I definitely recommend that you try out these questions with your partner, friend, or, I don’t know, pet parrot, because you do really get to know someone.

Next Stop – Dance Day!

Be sure to get your tickets for The Audit and Education, Education, Education on Friday and Hammerhead and We’ve Got Each Other on Saturday!