A human being is in the pages of this blog.
About two months ago I was programmed by The Yard Theatre in London to create End of Species: a monologue about Charles Darwin, climate change and a long journey overland. This happened at the end of a 20-hour journey from Berlin, when I arrived at my pitching appointment two hours late and at the end of my fuse, having been significantly delayed by a deceptively slow channel ferry. For whatever reason - perhaps blind luck - I was forgiven for this.
Since then, to be honest, it has been a process of tearing more than the usual amounts of my hair out.
I will post some of this residue over the coming weeks in the lead up to the first performance on March 11. Meanwhile, the posts below are a kind of travelogue, marking points of my journey from Australia to Germany 'overland', the development and performance of the political mime work People Spoke, my investigations into theatre and oppression, and my various rationalisations for taking the journey in the first place.
I choose to present information in an ad-hoc way because I don't want an audience who is mesmerised by knowledge, design or narrative to the point where they feel that their own thought is no longer a requirement. I want an audience who understands me for who I am, appreciates imperfections, and acknowledges the simple fact that no-one should have to spend all day editing blogs in what feels increasingly like a self-promotional black hole of my own making.
I want you to criticise. In fact, I, with brow furrowed, inform you that you probably must.
Many of these posts are taken from theatre4every1.blogspot.com, the blog I kept while on this journey and continue to update occasionally with my work outside the theatre. However, some I have added to give the damn thing a sense of continuity (and, to be honest, add some juice - I am conscious that not everyone wants to read theatre theory all day. Though on the other hand, why is that?)
If anything arises: rpettifer@gmail.com is how to get at me.
Feel free to begin lengthy comment threads - they are the future.