Work
754-200-3058
Maker Nocturnal Fandango · Work date 2021 · Medium telephone + other · Role work
Description
A durational eleven-day piece conducted entirely through text messages and unscheduled phone calls. An unnamed texter fantasises about murdering characters from the company's earlier in-person shows; those characters then phone the participant pleading for help. The texts deploy personal details harvested from the participant's pre-pandemic visits to the company's work. It resolves in a final call from a victim.
Source. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.12781862.19
Documented in Sean Bartley, Enveloping Worlds (2025), who reproduces his own text exchanges verbatim.
Anatomy
Thirteen criteria after Lauren R. Beck. Each carries a source grade: M maker-confirmed, P published, F first-hand, I inferred by the compiler, ? not yet established. Definitions are on the anatomy page.
- Participants listen through headphonesnoI
Calls and texts to the participant's own phone.
- Participants move through space as part of the worknoI
No relocation is directed.
- Audio technology is necessaryyesP
Calls and texts are the entire delivery.
- Site-, situation- or language-specificnoI
Placeless.
- Engages with the history of a sitenoI
No real place's history.
- Created for an urban environmentnoI
No urban dependence.
- Created as an artwork other than theaternoI
Presented as immersive performance by a theater company.
- Intended to be understood as theateryesI
Bartley treats it as immersive performance throughout.
- Accidental real-world sights and sounds are importantunknown?
Not addressed.
Did you experience this? Tell us - Spectator must participateyesP
The participant texts back; the piece proceeds on their replies.
- Has live performers other than the participantsyesI
Characters phone the participant; Bartley's account implies live delivery but does not state it.
- Involves game playnoI
No rules, objective or resolution state beyond the narrative.
- Uses props other than the listening devicenoI
Nothing physical is handled.
1 of thirteen are still unknown for this work. If you experienced it, you can settle them in a minute.