A work-in-progress stage-play, expanding on the themes of my short Hungry Like.
A unique performance using 360 video and live audio by Mammalian Diving Reflex at the Arnolfini in Bristol, presented by In Between Time
Join three incredible young people from Bristol – Alke, Chris and Germain – as they explore how to make a gentler and more contemplative normal.
Just at the exact moment things were really supposed to start happening, this trio were forced to pause their lives. They had no choice, leaned into it and found themselves some simple joy.
The Lockdown Resolution combines 360° video and live performance to take the audience on a virtual tour led by three young Bristolians, for whom the pandemic offered welcome respite. The Lockdown Resolution is about the quandary on so many minds: should we ever go back to the way we were before?
As dramaturg, I developed this work from its inception with Darren O’Donnell and Fi Nicholson. It began as a digital adaptation of Nightwalks with Teenagers and draws on elements of that performance (presented by In Between Time in Bristol in 2015) as well as The Last Minutes Before Mars which was the first time the company had explored the potential of VR.
The Last Minutes Before Mars is a mixed-reality immersive 360° video and live performance that dangles the audience above a vat of bubbling ethical considerations, asking them to take a position, any position:
Humanity is currently at high risk of extinction. Agree or disagree? Humanity must colonize Mars to ensure our survival. Agree or disagree? The first colonists to Mars should be a diverse group of people representing all of humanity, including the blind, the deaf and people with intellectual disabilities. Agree or disagree? The first colonists to Mars should be our brightest and our best, the healthiest and strongest people we can possibly find. Agree or disagree? The microbes living in the colonists’ intestines have the right to opt out of the mission. Agree or disagree?
The Last Minutes Before Mars premiered at Schauspielhaus Bochum on 25 September 2020. Currently running until 28 November. Tickets here.
Watch the trailer here.
I was Guest Artist for the show in Bochum, collaborating with Darren O’Donnell (remotely), Jana Eiting and the cast (in person).
Photo credit: JU Bochum
What foul deeds did you do last night? Jekyll / Hyde is an interactive mobile game that plunges you into a world where your memory can’t be trusted, and neither can those around you. You’ll have 90 minutes to search for hidden clues around the streets of Lambeth: uncover the truth about your actions decide what your future will hold... if it’s not already too late.
Part theatrical adventure and scavenger hunt, Jekyll/Hyde blends mobile game technology with narrative storytelling and real-world characters. You’ll be guided through the streets via a web app on your smartphone, whilst also encountering a cast of real-life characters as you make your way through dark and sinister surroundings.
Writer on this real-world game inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella for Fire Hazard Games, running at Vault Festival in London until 22 March.
Tickets available here
“an exhilarating night out… William Drew writes a compelling script” (Broadway World *****)
“The story is a real hoot” (Theatre Weekly ****)
Here you are.
And here we are.
There’s no show yet.
There’s no story.
But it’s okay. We’re going to make one.
We’ve got a wall, some pens and a whole lot of post-its. We’ve got the whole of human history, every story ever told. Together we’ll tell a story.
Together we’ll create a world.
And maybe destroy it.
The First Time as Tragedy is a piece of playing theatre using contributions from the audience and improvisations from the actors to build a narrative that will be entirely different every time it is performed.
It will be an attempt to examine Karl Marx declaration that “all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice (…) the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”
The First Time as Tragedy was developed in association with HighTide and Coney, with support from Arts Council England and the Peggy Ramsay Foundation.
It received two work-in-progress sharings: the first on 17 March 2019 at Camden People’s Theatre and the second on 11 Sept 2019 at HighTide Festival in Aldeburgh.
Guest directors for the development process are: Tassos Stevens, Chloe Mashiter. Jack McNamara, Natasha Nixon and Brian Logan. Performed by Bella Heesom and Tom Lyall.
Other collaborators: Angela Clerkin, Kieran Lucas and Ben Pacey.
Looking to tour the UK in 2020.
Act. Don’t Act was an immersive and co-creative experience created by Coney and C-Space. It brought consumers and brands together to discuss possibilities, worries and uncertainties based around 3 key consumer concerns. Control, Trust, Community. It did this through telling a story about a person (You) and a self-driving car.
I wrote the script for this immersive theatrical road-movie/buddy movie which wove in and out of discussion points, taking these key concerns as touch-points.
For more about the project, check out this video: https://vimeo.com/226876643
The Snooper’s Charter is law.
They are watching you online,
Join us as we enter a post privacy world…
How does it feel when your privacy is invaded? It’s London 2018 and a revised bill on state surveillance powers is about to be voted. Secret activists look to protect you and the public but risk being outed. State agents use tools to keep tabs on us via our access to the internet and smartphones. You are players in the system of surveillance.
Following the passing of the Snoopers Charter by UK parliament in November 2016, YOUR CONNECTION IS NOT PRIVATE invites you to play an immersive game of surveillance, in an attempt to expose how governments and corporations are accessing our private data, what it feels like to have our privacy invaded, and what we can do to protect ourselves.
Based on interviews with experts in the field and drawing on the latest research, you’ll leave with a tail of online tools and tactics made by Coney against encroaching surveillance by both corporations and state.
The show was developed in conversation with leading free expression organisations including Open Rights Group, Big Brother Watch, Liberty, English Pen and ARTICLE 19.
Commissioned by Free Word and Camden People’s Theatre, it was presented to an invited audience at the Free Word Centre in March 2017.
I was the writer, designer and researcher for the show, the core of which was a live Twine game played by the actors on-stage using the majority votes of the audience to guide them through a mystery.
Winner of the 2015 Oxford Samuel Beckett Award, The Machine was an interactive circus performance created as a collaboration with UK circus collective collectifandthen… and Serbian artist Karkatag.
It was presented at the Barbican Pit for two weeks in September/October 2016.
I worked as production dramaturg on the project in Belgrade, Bristol, Newbury and London.
Hello. This is public radio. You are the people. This is the radio. Any of you could be a victim. Any of you could be a killer. Pick a card. Choose your fate. Listen to the radio.
Developed at Camden People’s Theatre as part of Starting Blocks 2015 and first presented in Sprint Festival 2015.
Voice of the radio: Lucy McCormick
Sound design and live operation: Kieran Lucas.
You’ll be tailing someone who works in the heart of the financial system. You’ll need to blend into the city around you, so that you don’t draw attention. We don’t have permission to be doing this. We don’t have permission to be here. What happens next – well, that’s up to you.
We can’t tell you anymore.
Adventure 1 is an adventure by Coney, exploring our relationship to the financial system and the ongoing repercussions of the 2008 crisis. It takes place in the financial district of a city, first made for London but with an eye for new versions to be made in other cities.
Players exchange emails with an associate a few days in advance of the adventure. On the day, they use a smartphone, earphones, and their wits.
I co-write and co-designed Adventure 1 with Tassos Stevens.
Kill Your Speed: Urban Snail Racing from 1979 to the Present Day was developed at Theatre Delicatessen as part of Spaced. It was part exhibition about a fictional East End tradition of snail racing and part actual live snail race with live commentary from Lucy McCormick. Participants placed bets on the snail of their choice.
Performers were Lucy McCormick, Lucy Wray, Michelle McMahon. Sound design by Kieran Lucas.
Imagine:
…it’s 2018 and you are in the car park of Fort Knox to take a special photograph.
…it’s 2025 and you’re in the Nishitama district of Tokyo to deliver a package of unspecified contents.
…it’s 2032 and a voice in your ear is guiding you to a vantage point over a business park in Madrid.
What happens next?
Futureplay was commissioned by Nesta for Futurefest at Shoreditch Town Hall in 2013, a piece of interactive theatre exploring the future.
I co-designed and co-wrote the original Futureplay with Tassos Stevens. We then adapted the games inside it into three live games which we renamed Crowdplay.
Crowdplay was playtested at w00t Copenhagen and played at Generator Malta Festival, Poznán in 2014.
