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      Interview: Mimi Monteith’s Last Call for Closure, a show about saying goodbye and hostage taking

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      The play works to match the internal tension between the characters with the external panic and terror going on so nearby

      Mimi Monteith’s Last Call for Closure is heading to The Vaults next month. It’s a tale of saying goodbye to an ex, against the backdrop of a hostage situation just a few doors down. And whilst we’ve never been held hostage, we can probably all relate to saying goodbye. We caught up with Mimi to find out more about the play and how it’s been shaped by lockdown?
      So Mimi, first things first, what’s the play all about then?
      Have you ever been in the situation where you’ve been invited to a friend’s birthday at the pub, and your ex is also there? You don’t talk to them all night but then you find an excuse to be the last ones to leave so that you can have a catch-up? That’s what the play is about, but instead of it ending there, due to a pub down the road being held hostage, they get stuck in their pub for 6 hours, until it is safe to leave. The play works to match the internal tension between the characters with the external panic and terror going on so nearby.
      We love the idea that the pair are locked in due to a hostage situation nearby, we assume the inspiration isn’t from first-hand experience of ever being held hostage. So, what then was the initial spark for this story
      In lockdown I kept coming back to the idea of being trapped somewhere because of an invisible enemy. A lot of my friends’ relationships have broken down because of lockdown and this ‘invisible enemy’ and I wanted to create something similar to that, but give the enemy a face. It has of course developed a long way from there, but in classic pandemic style, the spark was from COVID-19.
      We’ve surely all had that “difficult” conversation when we’ve broken up with a partner, are there elements from your own life present? Any ex’s likely to spot something they might recognise? 
      Haha! I think with all writing there is an element of auto-biography to it, even if it is hidden deep in subtext, I’m sure there are lines that an ex or two out there can relate to. That being said, I think if you were to look for similarities to my love life and this show, you’d come up short. 
      Interestingly, the more that the play has been rehearsed, I am realising that without noticing, I’ve written about what I call ‘the decision to be an adult’. There are certainly elements from my ‘decision’ to grow up that are littered throughout the script; it is almost as if the pair breaking up are my current self with my younger self – Does that makes sense?
      The show’s a two-hander, how involved were you in deciding on Eleanor de Rohan and Daniel Lockett as your breaking-up couple?
      I was absolutely involved! I have worked with both actors on previous shows that I’ve had and when it came to casting they were definitely top choices – I only had to see whether their chemistry worked. I was in floods of tears in their audition together, they’re FANTASTIC.
      The press release reads between both serious drama and comedic, is that a fair take of what to expect in the play’s style?
      Yes, 100%. I’ve always found that ‘pressure cookers’ in theatre are created through finding that moment where something that is so awful it is somehow funny. Remaining on that ledge is something I’ve always loved exploring and it has the opportunity to be solved by simply laughing, or explode; it’s extremely exciting.
      And just before we say goodbye for now, if you did happen to get caught up in a hostage situation whilst the show is on next month, anyone you’d like to be locked in with at the time?
      I’m pretty sure El de Rohan and Dan Lockett have now nailed exactly how to handle the situation, I’d stick my their sides any day. 
      =====================================
      Thanks to Mimi for her time in chatting to us about her new play. You can catch Last Call for Closure at The Vaults between 9 and 13 November, tickets can be purchased direct from the venue website below. More

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      Interview: Jack McNamara on Stay Safe, a WhatsApp driven play.

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      Anything that we become so dependent on also opens up new vulnerabilities.

      photo credit @ Emanuele Costantini

      We are always fascinated to see how theatre makers push the boundaries of what a show can be, so when we saw the premise for Stay Safe, we really wanted to know more. It may be, to the best of our knowledge, the first play told over WhatsApp. The audience become members of a “parents” group chat for the evening, where an innocent question about a class teacher leads to unsettling revelations. At just one pound to take part, it seems an absolute bargin as well. With such a unique concept, we just couldn’t resist approaching the show’s writer, Jack McNamara, to find out more.
      Stay Safe is being “performed” over WhatsApp, can you explain how that is going to work in reality? Will we be sitting watching our phones, waiting for the next ping to signify new message for an hour?
      The audience members join a WhatsApp group and will watch as a group chat unfolds in real time on their phone. They become witness to an exchange that begins with all the usual tropes of Whatsapp (emojis, typos LOLs) but develops into something far more unsettling. The show lasts around 20 -30 mins max, so your neck shouldn’t hurt too much by the end of it.
      And does this mean there are no “actors” involved in the traditional sense?
      Yes there are characters that speak together, share files etc,  but these are not spoken/triggered by actors but by a very clever mysterious man named Joe who manages the whole experience remotely.
      The storyline revolves around an “unsettling revelation” about a school teacher, without giving too much away, is there going to be a Halloween feel to things?
      Yes, it begins with a seemingly innocent question about someone who was spotted in the school and then escalates into something more sinister, with tension mounting amongst the chatting parents. And while there will be a few of the recognisable horror motifs in there (strange houses, anonymous videos) the real horror that is revealed is something a bit closer to home for all us phone addicts.
      What attracted you to using WhatsApp as opposed to any of the other message sharing platforms available?
      I am fascinated by how these various platforms encourage and enable different ways of talking and self-presenting. What is striking about Whatsapp is that it tends to combine both the personal touch of email/text with the more outward statement making of social media. This felt like an interesting tension to explore in dialogue form as it is so different to how we communicate face to face. It’s this private public that fascinates me, and something I explored earlier in our postcard project Love From Cleethorpes.Use of Whatsapp has apparently soared since lockdown, and the fact that we find ourselves more and more used to relying on these platforms makes it ripe for exploration. Anything that we become so dependent on also opens up new vulnerabilities, and so I suppose it was only natural that my first foray into this medium found itself on the horror spectrum.  People have said that Whatsapp is already becoming a platform of the past with newer slicker mechanisms replacing it. That’s good with me, as it means we can work with Whatsapp here in a way that feels almost over familiar. With new platforms that come in I think they need to be given time to really embed themselves in the culture before we start opening them up. I like the idea that our use of Whatsapp is already a little retro!
      Will the audience be getting involved, will they be replying in any way to messages?
      No they will be observers. There is huge potential with this form of course to incorporate the audience. But this didn’t happen to be the story for that.
      Has Covid-19 and lockdown been the reason you’ve tried these alternative formats to put on a show, or has this been something you’ve planned before this year?
      We’ve always been interested in other forms. We had an epic podcast series PlacePrints planned long before Covid-19 came along, but once we released it looked like a response to the pandemic. But this situation, for all the toll it’s taken on us all, has definitely summoned many creative demons. Our postcard project was a direct result of me thinking about rural audiences being cut off from live theatre at this time and what we could do to reach them away from screens. And this project came about from me looking at Whatsapp exchanges over this time and sensing a new loneliness and urgency in the need to commune and connect.
      Are you concerned that the drama and tension that would normally be present in a theatre space is going to be lost with the audience all sitting alone at home?
      We are working with a completely different type of tension. It is in no way trying to replicate a live theatre tension. It works with the solitude of the audience member, the miniature form of the exchange, the strange detachment of receiving information through your phone. With any theatrical environment, you have to work smartly with the elements available to you, and try and turn them to your advantage.
      So you’ve done postcards and WhatsApp; any other such unique ideas you’re currently working on?
      Yes, lots. As mentioned, this time has expanded our horizons vastly. First off the bat is an alternative Christmas project that will be announced very soon. But every platform is ripe for exploring at the moment. In addition to slick digital stuff I find myself increasingly drawn to the clunkier more analogue forms. I’m yearning for a more tactile time, and to work with methods of communication that are almost extinct. Perhaps we should do a telegram play next but sent as an actual telegram.
      ====================================
      Our thanks to Jack for his time to tell us about Stay Safe. The play is part of the Signal Fires, a nationwide project inspired by one of the original forms of theatre – storytelling around a fire.
      Stay Safe is performing from Thursday 29 October – Saturday 31 October, with start times of 8pm, 9pm, 10pm plus midnight on Saturday. Tickets are just one pound. More

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      Eight Small New York Theaters Sue Cuomo Over Pandemic Restrictions

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      A group of eight small theaters and comedy clubs in New York City has filed a lawsuit challenging the closing of their venues during the coronavirus pandemic.The lawsuit, filed Friday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, argues that the orders shutting down theaters “shock the conscience and interfere with plaintiffs’ deeply-rooted liberty and property rights, including the right to work, right to contract, and right to engage in commerce.”The theaters filing suit include the Theater Center, the Players Theater, Actors Temple Theater, SoHo Playhouse, the Gene Frankel Theater, the Triad, Broadway Comedy Club and New York Comedy Club, all of which are in Manhattan and have 199 seats or fewer, and most of which are commercial operations. They sued Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio.In the lawsuit, the theaters argue that pandemic restrictions have been enforced arbitrarily, noting that bowling alleys, casinos, catering halls, gyms and shopping malls have been allowed to reopen, as have schools, colleges and “Saturday Night Live.” They ask a court to overturn the executive orders barring theaters from holding performances.The lawsuit was put together by Catherine Russell, an actor who is the general manager of the Theater Center, which has already installed an improved air filtration system in hopes of reopening to masked, socially distanced, temperature-tested audiences. She said she was inspired by reading about the production of “Godspell” at the Berkshire Theater Group and decided to pull together a group of theaters to press for an easing of restrictions in New York.“Small theaters are much more capable of doing this safely, and if people walk into our theaters and feel safe and protected, they’ll be more likely to see ‘Hamilton’ or ‘Six’ next summer,” Russell said in an interview. “Also, people need to go back to work. We were closed with restaurants and bars, but they’ve been open for a while, and it’s actually safer to be in a theater because you keep your mask on.”Some of the venues present their own programming and some rent their spaces to other producers; at the time of the shutdown the Theater Center had a long running production of “Perfect Crime,” starring Russell, as well as “The Office! A Musical Parody.”One-person shows are typical fare at the SoHo Playhouse, including Phoebe Waller-Bridge in “Fleabag” in 2019 and Drew Droege in “Happy Birthday Doug,” which had its run cut short this spring by the pandemic.Other businesses and organizations have tried to challenge New York’s pandemic protocols, including the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, bars, restaurants, gyms and strip clubs. In several of the cases, the plaintiffs were represented by James G. Mermigis, the lawyer who is now representing the theaters.“We get sued virtually every day for virtually every action taken during this pandemic, and frankly I’ve lost track of all the frivolous suits filed against us,” said Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to the governor. “We are moving heaven and earth to contain this virus and we know some people are unhappy, but New York continues to have one of the lowest infection rates in the nation, and better to be unhappy than sick or worse.”A spokeswoman for the city’s law department said her agency would wait to comment. “We will review the lawsuit when served and respond accordingly,” said the spokeswoman, Kimberly Joyce. More