The Telephone Theatre. Can live theatre really work over the phone? By Sophia Hatfield
After months and months of hard work, technical meetings, trials, rehearsals and over 200 live 1-1 performances, we’re now drawing to the end of a nine-week tour of our latest production ‘You Don’t Know Me But…’.
This 20-minute audio play explores real stories of care and, unlike anything we’ve ever tried before, is performed live over the phone to one or two people at a time.
This project has been one of our responses to this global pandemic and was the result of a lengthy research and development period in June, working with a wonderful care home in Stoke and our commissioning partner organisation B Arts to explore what it means to care and be cared for.
Our director Gwenda Hughes and I spent a month curating remote activities, conducting conversations and interviews, writing letters and learning all that we could about what care means to different people, at every stage of life.
The stories in ‘You Don’t Know Me But…’ are fictional, but inspired by what we learned from those conversations with residents and carers and, although this show has been performed on telephones up and down the country, the themes have had a universal impact.
At Stute Theatre our entire ethos is focussed around celebrating live theatre and creating work that can reach people who don’t normally get to experience it. Despite all the wonderful live work online over the past few months, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there were people without internet, tablets and screens, who would like to be entertained and transported by a story. And that’s what we’ve tried to do (whilst learning a few things along the way).
We’ve overcome technical sound hurdles, discovering the best way to perform over the phone with minimal interruptions. We opted for Zoom phone, Q Lab, Loopback and a decent microphone. This was all harder than it seems, but we’ve incorporated sound effects, live foley effects and live music thanks to the brilliant work of our skilled sound team Joe Barber, Vanessa Nuttall and Andy Partington.
We’ve also had to overcome practical hurdles like running a remote box office from a home office and reaching audience members who don’t engage online. Our producer Kath Walton, Community Producer Veronika Diamond and the team at B Arts have really helped us make links with groups and take this work out to people who have found it really hard to get out recently. Aside from our usual online marketing we’ve been sending flyers, making phone calls and doing everything we can to spread the word. It’s been a challenge and a huge team effort.
And then there’s the performances. This show has been performed around 30 times a week since mid-September. Everything is done live by one performer. From the live violin and sound effects, to the writing and direction, this piece has been created to work over the phone and feel like real theatre (if you use your imagination a little).
We’ve tried to recreate a little of that magical theatre atmosphere with sound effects and announcements to give the play a feeling of occasion. But without the traditional barriers of curtains and stage doors, there is a very direct relationship with the audience that you just don’t usually get. I’m used to performing in schools and libraries where your audience are virtually on stage with you, but this form of performance takes it to a completely new level! Some people like to sit and quietly listen, others join in, move around, even start hoovering or put the kettle on. With every performance, I’m welcomed into someone’s home. It’s wonderful to be able to greet an audience member, perform just for them and then speak to them again straight after.
Most of all, it’s been a joy to collaborate with our team and perform live work at this time. With so many performances each week, many people have asked me whether it’s been tiring. But the honest answer is that it’s been energising. Live performance makes us feel alive. Whilst I don’t think a project like this is the cure for isolation, it’s given me and all of our audience members a piece of human connection and care at a time when we’ve really needed it. I hope it’s also shone a light on hidden stories of care work. Everyday acts of care and compassion that are seldom seen, but very much appreciated.
If you’re interested in The Telephone Theatre, you can watch a captioned filmed performance here: ‘You Don’t Know Me But…’
