LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL
Digital Media {THEATRE}
IN THE WHITE ROOM
Malcolm Jack gets a sneak preview of what might well be the digital future of the Fringe show
In the glass-ceilinged foyer of Glasgow’s Briggait, there’s a room within a room, a rudimentary windowless wooden box of about 18 cubic metres. It’s the venue for what may prove the most innovative and enchanting show at this year’s Fringe. As I stand facing the closed door, video footage on the iPad
I’ve been given – all shot in the ‘pod’ – ushers me to turn the handle and enter the whitewashed space inside, which is lit only by a naked light bulb and furnished with just a bare bed and a stool. As the camera pans down, prompting me to lower the screen likewise, it comes to rest on two pairs of shoes side-by-side on the floor, one an adult’s and one a child’s. A red-haired little girl enters the picture, her gap-toothed expression a mixture of mischief and curiosity. Through the slowly shifting vista of the 21st-century looking-glass in my grasp, the bare space around me becomes slowly transformed into her bedroom . . .
‘Thanks for being our guinea pig,’ says Eilidh MacAskill, creative director of Fish & Game, as I step, blinking, into the light. One key element hasn’t been completed in time for The List to get the first sneak-peek of Alma Mater – a score by experimental music group Ensemble Thing, which will play through headphones. Yet even experienced in silence, it’s an immersive and challenging piece of live art/theatre that leaves you spinning gently on your axis.
In Edinburgh, two pods will run simultaneously at St George’s West. Around 48 people a day will get the chance to step inside Alma Mater for its 17-minute duration.
Fish & Game – MacAskill and her creative partner Robert Walton (who recently relocated to Melbourne) – developed the pod-based version of Alma Mater partly to be eligible for the Made in Scotland showcase, supported by the Scottish Government’s Expo Fund, which encourages international touring – something Alma Mater is now all set for in its cleverly transportable new model. Construction of the pods is more straightforward than most theatre sets – they can easily be assembled to spec.
Post-Fringe a new Alma Mater will be created to mark the 40th birthday of the MacRobert Arts Centre in Stirling. Its evolution won’t stop there. There are all sorts of prospects for future applications, and all sorts of scope for developing the model to incorporate elements of live performance and even multiple iPads operating simultaneously. MacAskill’s hopeful the Fringe will open doors: ‘I’m looking forward to meeting other producers and seeing what the potential is,’ she says. ‘Because other people will have ideas.’ ■ Alma Mater, St George’s West, 225 7001, 6–29 Aug (not 15), shows runs every ten minutes from 11am–6.50pm, £5. Preview 5 Aug, £3.
4–11 Aug 2011 THE LIST 63
F E S T I V A L
came up with the idea, it seemed too techy or too geeky but since then, this kind of technology has become much more widely available and not so expensive.’ Having worked in traditional theatre for over ten years, Lewis felt confident that (g)Host City was a logical next step for her ambitions.
‘If you’re interested in how people tell stories and how they experience each other and the many ways in which we connect in the world, then it absolutely makes sense to produce work which is about new technologies and critiques that,’ she says. ‘What is really exciting for me about making work in that media is that there is no common practice, no rulebook. No one has set out how it should be done.’
You Wouldn’t Know Him, He Lives in Texas, meet at Underbelly Cowgate box office 15 minutes before show time, 0844 545 8252, Aug 6 & 7, 13 & 14, 20 & 21, 27 & 28, 6pm & 8pm, £15 (£12.50); (g)Host City is available online at virtualfestival.org, 1 Aug–4 Sep, £2 (non-ticketed).
Ewan Morrison, Christopher Collier and Hannah McGill.
Laura Cameron Lewis, the mastermind behind this artistic exploration of Edinburgh describes the event as ‘a collection of artists’ responses to the city over time. The brief was to submit a proposal concerning a place in Edinburgh, particularly the New Town. It could be sculpture, theatre, audio or something which could happen at a particular time or place’.
Each artist’s performance is available online and can be experienced at any time convenient to you, the audience. Lewis describes the idea as ‘pervasive performance’ – the blurring or breaking of boundaries between participants and the audience, creating a ‘mixed reality’ where the performance can extend into people’s homes.
find
‘You can either the performances by searching under the artist’s name and choosing to go to the particular place where the art was done, or experiencing it online at another time completely.
‘With an app on a BlackBerry or iPhone, you can also find events that are close to you. When I first