On the 4th of April 2020, A production was streamed on YouTube that I have been interested in watching for about a year now. This production was Poltergeist Theatre's Lights Over Tesco Car Park written and Directed by Jack Bradfield starring Alice Boyd, Julia Pilkington, Rosa Garland and Will Spence.
This play follows the ensemble cast as they look through articles about the landings of Aliens including The Villas-Beos Incident and The Dechmont Woods Encounter as well as their own story of a man named Robert who was contacted by an alien who said was going to stay at his house.
It was a beautiful and interesting story which made us realise that aliens aren't all that different to us. Giving examples such as in the quiz, asking the audience if they are aliens by giving them instructions like ''Stay standing up if you ever felt alone on earth.'' to which nobody sat down.
The best thing about this production was the audience interaction and participation which was a major feature in many of the scenes: starting from the first audience member, Jess, being asked to jump for a flying saucer sweet, this made for a very funny commentary on how silly you can make an audience member look by giving them a reward in the end. To the heart-warming moment at the end where all the audience and cast stand together on the stage to make the lights of the UFO's with their phones. Making another commentary on how close we are to aliens: how we use technology so much that we alienate ourselves from the real world.
All these brilliant ideas act as a springboard for my own ideas to manifest and use in different productions such as my current production I am working on: 28.
Another tool that was used well was the microphones. This provided an excellent way of making a personal connection to the individual audience members because of the closeness in sound. Especially while asking such big statements as ''Imagine all the people on the planet.
All 7 billion of them?
And Counting!
which gave a beautiful and heart warming image in my mind (which also was slightly scary) There are so many people in this world!
Another fun moment included the Research Rap which made me laugh numerous of times, especially about the fact that so many Americans believe their country is ran by lizard aliens! I always wondered what Donald Trump was...
Overall I enjoyed this performance but believe I would have got more out of it by being in the real audience rather than just being there virtually. It was such an audience interactive piece that it just didn't work for me online.
However, I did enjoy it and believe it should have a later life as more people (including myself) should definitely watch this production live!
Watch this production until May by following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVayafT1rAo&list=PLTTT6hGtI0w_cZJly9uiaDuD-xh-Wz-Q_&index=2&t=596s