KNOT by Darkfield Radio, 23 June 2021 ****

 

AUDIO THEATRE

Darkfield Radio KNOT, 'Immersive 360 Audio'

Streamed on your phone. Fri- Sun at 5pm, 6pm & 7pm (All of these times) until 31 July 2021

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: **** (4)

KNOT, another in a series of immersive, audio performances by Darkfield Radio, is an evocative and unsettling dreamscape.

 

This is a solo listening experience in three parts. The audience listens to the performance through earphones on their mobiles. We experience Part One on a park bench of our choosing, Part Two in a car alone, and Part Three back in our own home. With eyes closed, the world is populated by a parade of characters, and filled with soundscape that evoke each location.

 

KNOT relies on the audience, as active listeners, being willing to be transported to other places and times and willing to believe in this new reality. We are not merely audience, but each of us is an intrinsic character in this narrative – silent, but still present and significant.

A Celebration of Student Songs, by Lincoln Center Theater, 17 June 2021 ***1/2

MUSICAL THEATRE/ONLINE CONCERT

Produced by Lincoln Center Theater (sic) - Songwriting in the Schools

Online Lincoln Center Theater via  Broadway on Demand until 20 June 2021

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: 3.5

This review published only on this blog. KH 

Songwriting in the Schools is part of Lincoln Center Theater’s Open Stages Education program during which students from High Schools write music and lyrics for their songs, ably assisted by their teachers.

 

This hour-long performance is usually performed on stage at Lincoln Center. However, for this year’s Pandemic performance, participants recorded video introductions to their songs and the singers performed them to a camera, probably from their own homes.

 

The songs cover issues ranging from the Pandemic to racial justice, gun control, LBGQT rights, love and pets.

BATS Improv Online, 5 June 2021 ****

IMPROVISED THEATRE

Canadian Horror Story by BATS Improv Online (San Francisco) BATS Online

On Facebook and Zoom, 5 June 2021 (Sun 6 June AET)

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ****

Regina Saisi -Rafe Chase  BATS Canadian Horror Story, pic from Zoom show

Canadian Horror Story, the brainchild of Canadian improviser, Karen Brelsford, is the latest online improvised show from BATS Improv Online in San Francisco.

 

Brelsford, appearing in black and white, introduces the show in the persona of a late-night, horror movie host. From the audience suggestions – posted in the Zoom Chat – Brelsford decides that the story will be set in Doug Hollow, a small, bucolic, Canadian town that is visited by two cousins on a car trip.

 

This improvised horror show is variously hilarious, spooky, demented and gory. The story takes us, via virtual backgrounds, to a car interior, a rustic log cabin / gas station, the town bar, the interior and exterior of an isolated motel and a creepy forest at night. Joshua Raoul Brody’s music has echoes of the original Twin Peaks score.