work.txt (Modern Plays)

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Writer Nathan Ellis seems well aware of the potential criticisms of the show. That’s sort of the problem really: The script is so self-aware that self-awareness is basically the protagonist, and the actual point is lost amongst knowing, wry quips. The script has predicted a variety of niggling reactions, at one point assigning a ‘cynical audience member’ a rant about how this isn’t real theatre, that they’d seen Mamma Mia The Musical just last week and “ that was proper theatre”. But self-awareness does not “proper theatre” make. I do carry a notepad around. I think that’s a writer’s prerogative! But really all my best inspiration happens when I’m walking around and reading. I also find a lot of inspiration in seeing other people’s work – it’s incredibly helpful to spend time thinking about what I like and don’t like in other people’s art to try to hone my own craft. I find it particularly helpful to see theatre I don’t like very much; I’ve had some of my most exciting ideas while incredibly bored in an audience. Hopefully some writers will come and hate my play and write something brilliant as a result! Writer Nathan Ellis is a member of the BBC Drama Room and has several television projects in development. On stage he is known for his debut No One Is Coming to Save You as well as the critically acclaimed work.txt – a play without actors. Now under the direction of Blanche McIntyre, Soho Theatre will present the world premiere of Super High Resolution. The play, which focuses on the NHS, was shortlisted for the prestigious Verity Bargate Award, the judging panel of which included Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Ellis took time out to speak with us about his latest theatrical offering.

Alongside its fast cars, dizzying theatrical devices and pounding beats, Common Wealth's Peaceophobia counters prejudice with stories of humour, passion, and belief. Read our full review here. Photo: Ian Hodgson Dykegeist @ Summerhall (★★★★) Work.txt is a show about work in which the audience do all (well… most of) the work. Only they tread the boards as there are no actors; following instructions projected on the wall, communicated over headphones or printed out onto a script. They build the set, read lines and act out what needs acting out together (if they are okay with that), alone (if they volunteer) or just as witnesses (if they prefer) to the others, the interplay between audience and screen, and to the light show and music, aided by an atmospheric haze machine. Are you the type of writer who carries a pen and pad around waiting for inspiration to strike, or do you actively go looking for stories? Temping is a jewel-like show, elegantly paced with a constant flow of ‘work’, and, of course, slowly dawning revelations about office life, unexpected relationships, petty squabbles. But behind the mundane trivia of work lurk real lives and hopes – too easily snuffed out by your own complicity, and even by murkier activities that are only hinted at. There’s a limit to how far Dutch Kills can go before shattering the illusion they’ve so carefully created, so in many ways Temping is full of ideas that could be far more fully developed in an alternative format. Nonetheless, it’s a quietly moving, slightly unsettling, miniature masterpiece of a show.

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Nathan Ellis said, "I wrote the show as a sort of satire of the always-on, never-stopping work culture, and then the whole world stopped because of COVID. As the pandemic recedes, it's fascinating and depressing to see how the energy of just-getting-going-again is mirrored by the play. I hope work.txt asks big questions about why we're all working so hard, and if we can't imagine a different sort of relationship to work. The show is about community and working together and play - it literally doesn't happen without the audience, so I'm thrilled it's happening in-person again at the Soho Theatre. I'm excited to get to work." Finally, if you had to sell Super High Resolution to us in just a sentence or two, what would you say? Chloe and Natasha's And Then The Rodeo Burned Down is a delightfully queer, sexy and foolish mix of clowning, physical theatre and dance. Read our full review here. Photo: Chloe and Natasha work.txt @ Summerhall (★★★★★) At a few moments in the play, you will wonder where all of this will lead, and what the whole point of it is. And then you might realise that the play can’t really lead anywhere because there is no point to our work culture. There isn’t a point to spending most of our days in an office – maybe one should just lie down. So far I have only worked with brilliant directors, and that helps. I made a decision with SHR to just trust the director entirely, and it has, fortunately, paid off. I spent the first week making small tweaks to the text to fit the brilliant actors, and answering questions when they came up and I could be helpful, but my creative interventions in rehearsal are very limited. I’m amazed by what the other creatives have come up with, I don’t have better answers than them.

A question I often find myself asking is ‘why am I working so much?’ I think this is a pretty familiar question to 20-something year olds, fumbling for career ladders that have been melted down into crumpled heaps, anxiously aware of each other’s side hustles and striving to become a poorly defined ‘enough’. There are so many budding writers but it’s an incredibly competitive field and one that’s notoriously hard to break into. What advice would you give to someone hoping to write a script and get it out there? With creative yet simple staging, and a cyclical structure, Some Kind of Theatre's The Grandmothers Grimm makes for a bold and moving tribute to the overlooked and marginalised women present in the story of the Brothers Grimm. Read our full review here. Photo: Grant Jamieson A kids’ show with the thematic depth to appeal to child-free adults too, The Girl and the Dragon is a joyous adventure in storytelling performed by Niall Moorjani and Minnie Wilkinson. Read the full review here. Photo: Harry Elletson

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It’s not quite as radical as all that, but it’s certainly an original format. The audience is instructed, via a semi-automated PowerPoint, what to say and do, with no cast to guide them but themselves. The show nearly gets to some interesting points about zero hour contracts, but never really arrives at the point of saying something truly impactful. Perhaps if an Uber or Deliveroo driver was in the audience, and allowed to relate their experiences, there could be some more interesting results. But ultimately, the script is Big Brother, and we have to follow our instructions.

Alok Vaid-Menon blends vulnerability with humour in an unapologetic and defiant hour of performance. Read our full review here. Photo: Lottie Amor Since the start of the pandemic people have been feeling more disconnected, unsure of what to do, how to behave, and how to do small talk, so it is a relief to form a group with strangers without the pressure of actually having to invent anything. Unlike awkward audience participation where one has to improvise, here you can hide behind the lines that are already written for you.But this is the wrong question. Or at least, it’s a question that is easily answered: ‘because I do not know which work I should be doing.’ This leads to a better question: ‘what is the nature of the work that I am doing?’. Asking this helps us begin to answer the current beneath all these work-questions, ‘what is the work that I want to do?’. Unsettling yet brutally honest, Sung Im Her's Nutcrusher invites us to contemplate the sexual objectification of women, and question how we view our own bodies. Read our full review here. Photo: Ok Sang Hoon