A living archive
Anything Can Be Said
A history and anatomy of phone theater: 108 works, cataloged and coded against an academic framework. The archive is open and incomplete, and needs your help to complete the database — above all from the people who made and answered these calls.
If you want to experience one
What phone theater is, what happens when you pick up the phone, and what it asks of you. Browse all the shows cataloged here.
Browse the archive →
Read the history →If you make this work
What eight practitioners and a hostage negotiator independently arrived at: consent that survives the participant, silence that can be held, refusal made cheap to say.
The craft findings →If you study it
Beck’s thirteen criteria applied to every work, with the source grade on every cell and the operational definitions published beside them.
The anatomy →
The archive
108 works
| Work | Maker | Year | Medium | Role | Unknowns |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per Telephone | Margaret Montgomery | 1893 | in person | precursor | 1 |
| Au Téléphone | André de Lorde and Charles Foley | 1901 | in person | precursor | 1 |
| Heard at the Telephone | André de Lorde and Charles Foley | 1902 | in person | precursor | 1 |
| Dial-A-Poem | John Giorno | 1968 | telephone | work | — |
| The Telephone Call | Janet Cardiff | 2001 | headphones | control | 1 |
| Call Cutta | Rimini Protokoll | 2005 | telephone | work | — |
| Call Cutta in a Box | Rimini Protokoll | 2008 | telephone | work | 2 |
| A Machine To See With | Blast Theory | 2010 | telephone | work | — |
| Red Phone | Boca del Lupo | 2016 | telephone | work | — |
| @lastcandlearx | Candle House | 2018 | telephone + other | work | 8 |
| Crossed Wires | Candle House | 2018 | telephone | work | 3 |
| BLACK BOX | Candle House | 2019 | telephone | work | 2 |
| GHOST LIGHT | Candle House | 2019 | telephone + other | work | 1 |
| GOOD MORNING | Candle House | 2019 | telephone | work | 2 |
| moonlight serenade | Candle House | 2019 | telephone + other | work | 2 |
| NEXT TIME | Candle House | 2019 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Rebozo | Candle House | 2019 | telephone | work | 2 |
| THE LUCKY ONES | Candle House | 2019 | telephone | work | 2 |
| A Call from the Resistance | Capital W | 2020 | telephone | work | 2 |
| albatross | Candle House | 2020 | telephone + other | work | 2 |
| CLAWS | Candle House | 2020 | telephone | work | 1 |
| each and every | Candle House | 2020 | telephone | work | 4 |
| Escape | Upintheair Theatre | 2020 | telephone | work | 6 |
| eternal | Darkfield | 2020 | headphones | control | 1 |
| Je t'aime effondrement | La TraverScène · Julien Daillère | 2020 | telephone + other | hybrid | 2 |
| La Central de Misterios Cotidianos | ANIMALIEN | 2020 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Magical Help Desk | Intramersive Media | 2020 | video call | work | 3 |
| Main Menu | Obvious Agency | 2020 | telephone | work | 3 |
| Night Before | They Played Productions | 2020 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Secrets | Living Lucid Creative | 2020 | telephone | work | 3 |
| Serveur Vocal Humain | Julien Daillère | 2020 | telephone | work | 1 |
| The Confessional | Living Lucid Creative | 2020 | telephone | work | 2 |
| The Corona Variations | Convergence Theater (Julie Tepperman) | 2020 | telephone | work | 2 |
| The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries | Outside the March | 2020 | telephone | work | 1 |
| The Telelibrary | The Telelibrary | 2020 | telephone | work | 5 |
| The Telelibrary Travel Agency | Yannick Trapman-O'Brien | 2020 | telephone | work | 1 |
| Theater on-Call | Dopolavoro Teatrale | 2020 | telephone | work | 3 |
| To My Distant Love | On Site Opera | 2020 | telephone | work | 3 |
| woolgatherings | woolgatherings | 2020 | telephone + other | hybrid | 5 |
| 754-200-3058 | Nocturnal Fandango | 2021 | telephone + other | work | 1 |
| A Thousand Ways | La Jolla Playhouse | 2021 | telephone | work | 4 |
| A Thousand Ways (Part One) Tour | 600 Highwaymen | 2021 | telephone | work | 4 |
| A Wicked Inheritance | Mirror World Creations | 2021 | telephone | work | 1 |
| Baby Jessica's Well-Made Play (2021) | WalkUpArts | 2021 | telephone | work | 3 |
| Fragile Recall | Mirror World Creations | 2021 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Gremlin! | Mirror World Creations | 2021 | telephone | work | 4 |
| HIVE 2021: Flight Paths | HIVE Performance Collective | 2021 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Hold, Please | Kate Douglas | 2021 | telephone | work | 3 |
| Human Resources | Telephonic Literary Union · Woolly Mammoth | 2021 | telephone | work | 9 |
| I Should Have Called You Earlier | Danielle Mohlman | 2021 | telephone | work | 3 |
| Leo Season | Candle House | 2021 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Lovers Anonymous | Candle House | 2021 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Metaphysical Hotline | Oil Ancestors | 2021 | telephone | work | 2 |
| MISSING | Candle House | 2021 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Not to Scale | Ant Hampton | 2021 | headphones | control | — |
| Outpost Omicron | Mirror World Creations | 2021 | telephone | work | 4 |
| Soon, Tomorrow Maybe | Marie Ayotte · Théâtre Déchainés | 2021 | telephone | work | 3 |
| The Girl On The Phone | Mirror World Creations | 2021 | telephone | work | 1 |
| The Midnight Market | Mirror World Creations | 2021 | telephone | work | 2 |
| The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries Chicago | Bramble Theatre Co. | 2021 | telephone | work | 3 |
| The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries: Power Hour | Outside the March | 2021 | telephone | work | 1 |
| The Other Side Of The Line | Mirror World Creations | 2021 | telephone | work | 2 |
| The Program | SF Neo-Futurists | 2021 | telephone | work | 3 |
| Transience | Hitcher Encounters | 2021 | telephone | work | 2 |
| We're All Strangers Here | Hitcher Encounters | 2021 | telephone | work | 3 |
| COLLECT CALL | Candle House | 2022 | telephone | work | 1 |
| i cut myself shaving and it bled so much | Candle House | 2022 | telephone | work | 2 |
| LAST CALL: A Mundane Mysteries Marathon | Outside the March | 2022 | telephone | work | 3 |
| Le Ministère des moindres mystères | Outside the March · Théâtre DesAssimilés | 2022 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Our Options Have Changed | Flux Theatre Ensemble | 2022 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Postscript | They Played Productions | 2022 | telephone | work | 2 |
| this | this | 2022 | telephone | work | 3 |
| We Should Meet In Air | They Played Productions | 2022 | telephone | work | 2 |
| AI: Perfect Partner (Phone Call Experience) | Phoenix Tears Productions | 2023 | telephone | work | 1 |
| Atomic Hotline | AJ Danna | 2023 | telephone | work | 3 |
| Baby Jessica's Well-Made Play | Pipeline Theatre Company | 2023 | telephone | work | 3 |
| Borderline Visible | Ant Hampton | 2023 | headphones | control | 1 |
| Everything Starts Like a Knock at the Door | Nothing in the Dark Productions | 2023 | telephone | work | 3 |
| One Bad Day | Nothing in the Dark Productions | 2023 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Perfect Partner | Phoenix Tears Productions | 2023 | telephone | work | 1 |
| TAC-2112 | Temporal Assistance Communicator | 2023 | telephone | work | 5 |
| The Hotline | The Honeytrap | 2023 | telephone | work | 2 |
| The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries: On Call | Outside the March | 2023 | telephone | work | 3 |
| The Ritual | Phoenix Tears Productions | 2023 | telephone | work | 2 |
| I Do Adore You | Parker Sela | 2024 | telephone | work | 2 |
| I Do Adore You (From Home Fest Edition) | Parker Sela | 2024 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Last One Standing (Orlando) | Phoenix Tears Productions | 2024 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Perfection | Perspicuum Immersive | 2024 | telephone | work | 6 |
| The Game | Phoenix Tears Productions | 2024 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Watchers | 36 inch penguin | 2024 | headphones | control | 2 |
| A Quiet Walk | Thomas Darknell · Perspicuum Immersive | 2025 | telephone + other | work | 1 |
| Dimension: Phase One | Whitney LaMora | 2025 | telephone | work | 4 |
| Lennox Mutual | Candle House | 2025 | telephone + other | hybrid | 2 |
| 6-7 — A True Story | Will M Watt · The Drey | 2026 | telephone | work | 2 |
| A slow dance | Candle House | 2026 | telephone | work | 5 |
| Co-Witching | Phoenix Tears Productions | 2026 | video call | control | 4 |
| Eavesdropping | Whitney George | 2026 | telephone | work | 1 |
| Home — Paignton by the Sea | Will M Watt · The Drey | 2026 | telephone | work | 5 |
| Hostage | But, Why? | 2026 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Lucky Shot | Olivia Behr | 2026 | telephone | work | 2 |
| Musings | Candle House | 2026 | telephone | work | 3 |
| One Missed Call | Lessthanthreegames | 2026 | in person | control | 1 |
| Remote Retrocheiromancy | Parker Sela | 2026 | telephone | work | 3 |
| The Archive | Allen Otto | 2026 | telephone | work | 1 |
| The Exchange | Douglas Goldstein | 2026 | telephone | work | 5 |
| The Mouth, part I | é boylan | 2026 | telephone | work | 3 |
| The Mouth, part II | é boylan | 2026 | telephone | work | 3 |
| Trefoil FM | Will M Watt · Olivia Behr | 2026 | telephone | work | 6 |
264 cells are unknown. Most of them are two questions no listing ever answers: did the sounds of your own room matter, and did you hold anything? If you experienced any work here, you can close one.