Oranger things have happened.
“No events take place here. Nothing has changed.”
The Fire Side
A voice echoes along the stalls of Shepherd’s Bush Market: “No events take place here. Nothing has changed.” But something is changing… Orange talking objects have started appearing in the market, claiming to come from another dimension called The Fire Side — an alternate reality where the spirit of fireside storytelling transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. Come find out what these magical objects have to say, then add your voice at a community gathering in the Old Laundry Yard. You might just find yourself on The Fire Side.
The Fire Side is a showcase in transmedia storytelling and verbatim theatre in collaboration with the Hammersmith & Fulham ArtsFest in West London, 2019.
My Roles — Story collecting, community outreaching, asset scripting, audio recording, voice acting
We worked in a group of 12. Some of us went down to the market and collected voices through informal interviews:
“It got quiet”
“Every day is just like the other day”
“No events take place here. Nothing has changed.”
“This is a market, that's all.”
“We are in a market, it’s different near a market.”
“Stories please” “Can we have stories?”
“Everything you can find in the market, from A to Z.”
“I always come here to this shop.”
“It was so inviting. It feels very homey”
“It’s kinda like you go and talk with your grandma, for example.”
“One day is not enough. I could talk to you for days.”
.
“You have to come there, it’s a better life there.”
So I help out Mum and Dad every Saturday at the stall.
“I’ve been here for more than 25 years. In the same shop. I’ve got a lot of friends in the market, the same trade and other trades as well.”
“Basically everyone knows each other, so that’s why you feel comfortable. You feel like you going there like because all of those people is like your friend, your neighbour.”
“I used to see it all in black and white and now I see it in colour.”
.
“It’s all about family, all about community. All of the support of each other. All of the support of the public.”
Once we decided on the crux of our experience as a group, I went about scripting various assets based on what we collected.
I also wrote a radio script- voiced it and recorded it. Jingle, Ivan and I as usual had a silly singing session that somehow made it onto the radio.
“Hello from the Fire Sideeeeeeeee”
Jingle and I then assisted Jake in making the edit.
The radio then played from within the various orange objects that populated the market.
We caused enough disruption to be called out on the market announcement system for “vandalism”. Twice. Exciting, I suppose…
The project culminated in a verbatim improv perfomance by our actor — Saccadius Cartwright amidst our orange setting.
It was a very challenging experience for me, having never worked in such a big group before. However we pulled through- in the end it was an orange day indeed.
