Felix Barrett
Appearances
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
It was called The Moonslave. And it started with an invitation being sent to come to a theatre, a town southwest of England, to come to a theatre to see a show called The Moonslave. And we invited press and Arts Council, the main funding body. So they thought it was a bog-standard show, turned up expecting a normal sit-down proscenium art show.
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
arrived after dark to this sleepy little theater no other cars in the car park walked in inside the theater addressed auditorium seats for 200 programs lights on no one there so they waited around for a while got a bit spooked thankfully all of them stayed and then a phone rings up on the stage and they
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
amongst the set they find a parcel that's addressed to them inside that parcel they unwrap it it's a phone that says your driver's waiting outside and then they leave the auditorium again get into the second car waiting with a masked chauffeur they get into the back of that car the car speeds off and drives into the countryside and there in the back of the car a narrated soundtrack symphonic soundtrack begins on the car stereo and that's the true beginning of the show
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
And then for the next hour, they're driven around, dropped off in the middle of the countryside, given a headset, so the story and the symphonic soundtrack continues. And they go through this vast walk through forests and countryside, culminating in a massive sort of pyrotechnic finale. MUSIC PLAYS
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
When it's revealed they're not actually by themselves, they're actually surrounded by 200 scarecrows. And it was, we actually ended up shooting a marine flare into the sky to reveal, to turn the sky red for 15 miles. So it's all about crescendo and expectation and intimacy.
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
I suppose when I go and see, I can think back about the sort of five pieces of theatre that blow me away. And there's that sensation you get when it's really high quality, well thought out, well crafted art. that's visceral, that connects emotionally. It's almost like that sort of weird, that nexus where everything connects and you get this one sublime moment.
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
I can feel that in my body now if I think about it. And all I want to do as a maker is to give audience members that sensation. And it's difficult to find. And so maybe I just go a different route to trying to source it. But I think I'm just the same as any other director. It's just, you know, you just want your audience to be lost in the work you create.
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
They have sex. Yep, I think every show we've done, there's been some sex. Yep.
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
I don't know what you guys are talking about.
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
And a steward came and said, Fierce, what should I do? Look, they've broken the rule because they'd become performers. I said, well, you know, they know what the contract is here. If they want to change their status, then by all means. So we let them do it. And I had a whole crowd of audience just watching.
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
The mask is utterly critical and without it, it wouldn't work or it'd be something very, very different.
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
they're faceless, they're anonymous. So there's that sort of, that normal relationship between performer and audience is completely ground down. The first time I tried it, a middle-aged lady came and apologised to me afterwards and said, I'm so sorry, I put the mask on. I found myself being very rude. I was getting too close to the performers. I even touched one at one point. I'm so sorry.
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
And you must have said, thank you. I was like, thank you, because I didn't even realise how... powerful it was but she felt compelled to do it because the mask had given her that freedom and as soon as it came off she remembered who she was and where she was the mask does seem to embolden people well i did something i wasn't supposed to do
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
It's completely safe. It just feels, we almost fictionalize, we dimmed it back, we fictionalize a state of tension that feels slightly unsettling and threatening when actually it's not.
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
When we did Boston, the first show, they said, health and safety, this is not going to work, it's too dangerous. So we had to put the lights up, and the show didn't work at all. The audience were just walking around nonchalantly, just treating it like a gallery, chatting, because there was no sense of threat. Even though you told them not to talk?
Freakonomics Radio
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
Yeah, because here we have this huge swathe of darkness. If that's not there, then there's no mystery.