PARTICIPANTS
Up to 20 participants at one time receive wireless headphones, each person is asked to wander wherever they like during the 20 minute experience within a radius of 30m from the transmitter.
The soundtrack on each headset follows a four part sequence.
Sequence one is observational, participants are asked to observe everyday objects and events in the urban environment, then becoming slowly more surreal.
Sequence two asks the participants to change places to specific directions, two slightly different instructions are given in order to divide the group in two.
Sequence three asks them to repeat words and phrases from the soundtrack, which in turn creates an interaction between the two groups.
Sequence four brings the groups together again into a group choreography, where they form geometric shapes, traverse the space and move in unison.
Click on CONTENT in the top menu see a comic strip of the four sequences, with snippets of the soundtrack narration. You can also click on LISTEN in the top menu to hear part one and part four of the soundtrack exactly as the participants would hear it in their headphones.
OBSERVERS
Simultaneously, passers-by stop to observe the event and are given a small cardboard frame in order to encourage interaction with the performance (see PHOTOS in top menu). There is also a small PA near the booth that that the headphone wearers cannot hear, this soundtrack describes their actions in a different way and highlights ways of observing their action.
As sequence four comes to a close, the participants return their headsets to the booth. It is commonplace for observers to want to become participants or vice versa for the second session.
WHAT'S THE IDEA
Beckett Says invites fresh ways of seeing and being in public space. It acknowledges the shifts in reality we experience every day, being in an urban environment. To observe and to be observed is part of human nature and in the city we are constantly adjusting our behaviour to this notion subconsciously.
Beckett Says also encourages a sense of intimacy in the city. Like an intimate inner voice, the soundtrack speaks quietly and calmly to you, creating a comforting environment where participants feels freer to be their private selves within this public space. Often in public we feel our behaviour is monitored as the public self. In this way Beckett Says is a way of being private and public at the same time.
Lastly, Beckett Says is a game. Like the child's game 'Simon Says', there is fun in abandoning your own volition to the voice of Simon, or in this case an old man who calls himself Beckett - derived from the 20th century absurdist playwright Samuel Beckett. Do as Beckett asks you to do, even when you're not sure why he asked you to do it. He will look after you, he will make the game fun.
The game usually ends in laughter and interaction between participants who did or did not know each other earlier, and between participants and observers.
SUITABILITY
Beckett Says is suitable for everyone over the age of 7, and can be enjoyed by all levels of mobility. Headsets for 20 participants at any one time and limitless observers. A crew of three arrive onsite 60 minutes before the performance to set up. Headphones are given out in exchange for a piece of ID which is collected at the end. A sandwich-board announces 'FREE sound experience 20 minutes duration', participants in public spaces during a lunch time are usually easy to find.
A suitable space is 8m x 8m minimum with a steady flow of foot traffic and safe from traffic. A town square, mall, small park, empty car park or pedestrian street are all suitable. Indoor spaces are also effective; galleries, foyers, atriums, covered walkways.
The more opportunity for passers by to sit or stand, the better. The equipment arrives and leaves on a trolley to different location every day.
For enquiries and availability click on the LINK page at the top menu.
Beckett Says is brought to you by FUTURE HOTEL, an international arts collective linked through the Futurenet.
Beckett Says
was first commissioned by
Performance History
December 2010
Random Acts Festival of Street Performance
Auckland, New Zealand
(Produced by The EDGE)
Sept 2012
AWESOME Festival for Bright Young Things
Perth, Western Australia
Sept 2012
AWESOME Festival for Bright Young Things
Perth, Western Australia
Beckett Says
was first commissioned by
