myburntwritings

[myburntwritings]

you were the bulk of my 2023

you were the best of my 2023

#the burnt city #burnt city #punchdrunk #punchdrunk theatre #immersive theatre #immersive

[myburntwritings]

I was able to see Fania!Kampe at the very last show, it was well worth waiting for.

#Kampe #Fania Grigoriou #The Burnt City #Immersive Theatre #Peep #Punchdrunk

[myburntwritings]

Agamemnon & Artemis

Ali Goldsmith & Maya Millet in The Burnt City

#The Burnt City #Punchdrunk #Agamemnon #Artemis #Ali Goldsmith #Maya Milet #TBC #immersive theatre

[myburntwritings]

“What a difference a night makes”

#The Burnt City #Punchdrunk #Apollo #Georges Hann #Aegisthus #Andrea Carrucciu #TBC #immersive theatre

[myburntwritings]

“Nothing stays the same. Everything is always changing into something else”

#The Burnt City #Punchdrunk #Hades #Persephone #Sam Booth #Mallory Gracenin #TBC #immersive theatre

[myburntwritings]

"This horror style of music is powerful and intoxicating, drumming your footsteps headlong into doom, gradually picking up the pace as your heart begins to pound until the dead-drop of realisation of what you are here to witness: a funeral foretold." Read a Review of A Morte do Corvo, an immersive theatre show currently playing in Lisbon.

#A Morte Do Corvo #gothic horror #immersive #immersive theatre #international immersive #Edgar Allen Poe #Fernando Pessoa

[myburntwritings]

A Morte do Corvo Lisbon 2023.

#A Morte do Corvo #immersive #immersive theatre #Gothic horror #Edgar Allen Poe #Lisbon #international immersive #Fernando Pessoa

[myburntwritings]

Apollo & Cassandra

Georges Hann and Ingrid Kapteyn and rehearsal

#The Burnt City #Punchdrunk #Apollo #Cassandra #Georges Hann #Ingrid Kapteyn #TBC #immersive theatre

[myburntwritings]

The Gift Of Prophecy

Georges Hann & Ingrid Kapteyn in rehearsal

#the burnt city #Apollo #Cassandra #georges hann #ingrid kapteyn

[myburntwritings]

“And the earth, full of roads leading every which way, opened up under her”

#the burnt city #immersive theatre #Charon #The Ferryman #VIP entrance #Punchdrunk

[myburntwritings]

Ali Goldsmith - Sam Booth - Eric Jackson Bradley

Hades - The Burnt City

#The Burnt City #Hades #Ali Goldsmith #Sam Booth #Eric Jackson Bradley #Punchdrunk

[myburntwritings]

Pasiphae and Asterius, and of course, just Asterius, alone.

[myburntwritings]

Day 30: Something you would like to say to the City

You deserved more.

In the end, if there ever is an end, all we are left with are three words. You deserved more.

You deserved more visitors. For more people to take a chance on you. No, you wouldn't have been for everyone. But you deserved more people to take that chance.

You deserved more time. I wish there had been a longer run, allowing for people to adjust after Covid, for those who lived further to schedule their visits. You deserved more time to bring in new performers and have them shake up characters with new perspectives, more time for existing creatives to continually develop these stories the way they were so talented at doing.

You deserved more money. Your cast and creatives deserved to be paid for their talent. They deserved a pay that reflected the years of work and training that went into every aspect of this show, whether that was performing, or in its creation and upkeep.

You deserved more celebration. You deserved spotlights on social media and placement in marketing campaigns that would reach the right people to join this city.

You deserved more respect. You deserved a space where you didn't have to remind people to keep to the rules. You deserved a space where you didn't have to bring security in to police the behaviour of grown adults.

You deserved more love. You deserved to be told every single day, after every performance, how you have touched people's lives. Perhaps even changed their lives.

My beautiful, epic, devastating, addictive city. You deserved more.

#We deserved more Souk #the burnt city #punchdrunk #immersive theatre #greek mythology #greek myth retelling #tbc #tbc 30 day challenge

[myburntwritings]

Day 29: One thing you wish for the future

It would be easy to wish for the return of The Burnt City. It would be easy, but fundamentally flawed of me, I think. So much of what I loved about this show was its performers, and with so many of them having transitioned onto other shows, to new places and positions, I feel that if they were to resurrect the show, it would be a predominantly new cast.

A new influx of performers worked so well in January 2023. Some of my now favourite performers joined, and they breathed a staggering amount of new life and development into the show.

However, that was after months of development and rehearsal work with the existing cast. Building on the extraordinary amount of work Cast 1 had put into developing these characters and their stories.

If they were to resurrect The Burnt City in a year, five years, in a new city, I don't believe it would be the same. It could be just as amazing a show, but it wouldn't be My Burnt City, just like there are those out there who don't wish for a return of The Drowned Man, because it wouldn't be the same as this immense love they experienced ten years ago.

I'm not even sure that I would wish for the B-Side to be connected to Troy. Would I like it? Sure. Would I be booking tickets as soon as they came out? You bet. But would I wish for it? No.

My wish for the future is to find a new love. Not something to overwrite my time at the Burnt City, but to compliment it. To find something that I love so fiercely, that it reminds me with nothing but fond memories of my time spent in the Burnt City. To see echoes of performers I cherished in new faces and movements.

I wish that we can keep this fabulous community we built from within the war-battered walls of Troy. That we won't face strangers at the next Punchdrunk show with "I think I recognise you from The Burnt City" but instead be organising our trips together when we hear of shows opening.

I wish that Punchdrunk will put as much creativity and care and passion into their next project as they did with the Burnt City, and not shuffle a B-side together merely as a money-maker. Even if that means I have to wait longer to get it, when it comes it will be worth it.

I wish for the continued support of these incredible talents as were found within the show. That we can continue to go and see individual and group shows, and provide enthusiastic support of their talents.

The Burnt City was a dream far bigger and more magical than the sum of its incredible parts.

I wish that we can dream that way again some day.

#the burnt city #punchdrunk #immersive theatre #greek mythology #greek myth retelling #tbc #tbc 30 day challenge

[myburntwritings]

Instagram is the danger zone!

just idly wondering how long it will take for me to completely break down and start frantically messaging the performers on instagram to tell them how much i miss them every single day of my stupid empty life

(instagram really needs to NOT have that feature where i can see which other users i've previously engaged with are currently online)

#the burnt city #punchdrunk #immersive theatre

[myburntwritings]

Things my classics professor has said about the Greek gods:

- Let’s just say Hera was not a girls girl

- Just because you’re faced with a minor inconvenience doesn’t mean you should swallow your wife (Zeus)

- Was Athena the original pick me girl? I’ll leave that up to you

- Now I’m not saying you should all go castrate your husbands, but we don’t judge Gaia okay?

- Leave him (Hermes) alone he’s just trying to play his lyre and steal some cows

- Athena is who Ares thinks he is

- Okay maybe sending the entire world into a famine was a lot, but also consider that maybe Zeus needed to fuck around and find out (about Demeter)

- Apollo is condoning murder six ways from Sunday

- It’s not Apollo’s fault that his sister is cooler

#greek mythology

[myburntwritings]

Day 28: One thing you regret the most

I could come up with a dozen things to put here, and tomorrow I would regret writing every single one. Most of my regrets when it comes to this show, this year and a half of my life, is connected far more to me than it is to Punchdrunk and the Burnt City.

Some days, I massively regret not taking more notes from the beginning. From not doing write ups and keeping a notebook of who I followed and casting. Of not taking notes of interactions and walkouts. Of not putting all my feelings and memories into a place where I can read them back and keep them safe.

The next day, I'm glad I didn't distil the magic of this show into facts, figures, and write-ups that didn't capture the mystery I was experiencing. I have spent so much of my life writing, and it was nice to just live something as magical as falling in love.

There are days when I regret the frequency of my visits. From regretting going too much and damaging my fragile relationship with my bank account, to regretting not going enough before the closure announcement, of not taking advantage of those quieter shows.

But, I think I was where I needed to be, when I needed to be there. Like meeting a soulmate, I was hesitant at first. I didn't want to fall too quickly, too deeply, if things were not meant to be. I tried to moderate, to be sensible, until I had the moment where I was hankering to see them, to be with them. I gave into it. I revelled in the excitement and thrill of finding magic every time I saw them. And then, the turning point where I knew it wouldn't last. I fought it. I went as frequently as I could, storing memories and moments like nuts for a long, cold winter of hibernation.

I'm not sure how much I believe in fate, if at all, but sometimes I wonder if this was part of mine, and I can't regret that.

I sometimes regret what emotions others were able to influence in me. Frustration, annoyance, dislike, active avoidance. During some of those busier shows, I sometimes let these outside influences dictate my shows, such as abandoning a loop when I found someone following I did not get on with.

But, if I wasn't so open to being influenced in my emotions, would I have gotten as much as I did out of the Burnt City? Closing that door stops movement on both sides, and by disassociating from the negative, I wasn't giving a chance for the positive to come through. Would I have connected so deeply to these characters and their stories if I wasn't willing to fight through the crap to get there? One day I regret how often I followed the same people and didn't spend my time diversely. The next day I regret not accepting my joy earlier and following my favourites more often.

I guess, in the end, the one thing I consistently regret is that these wonderful performers, this incredible team of crew and design, from the initial creatives who dreamt it up to those who delivered that dream night after night, may not ever truly comprehend how deeply they affected many of us. We thanked them, we put out lovely, grateful messages, but sometimes I wonder if they saw the depths of our gratitude. If they knew they had changed us, irrevocably, from the inside out.

We'll probably never know, and I guess I regret that.

#the burnt city #punchdrunk #immersive theatre #greek mythology #greek myth retelling #tbc #greek myth #tbc 30 day challenge