The Five AM Theatre Show – A Touring Site Specific Performance

What were you doing at 5am yesterday? The day before? The week before? Chances are not much. Chances are that just are there are many places that you have heard about but have never been to, that that there are also hours that are rarely visited. Like 5am.

What does happen at 5am? In the town or city where you live?

If someone gave you a ticket for a theatre show that began at 5am would you stay up for it or would you set your alarm? And if you had to travel into the heart of where you live at that hour what would you expect to find?

The 5am Theatre Show is a ludicrous and yet brilliant idea. It’s a play about what happens in this strange hour that so few people ever visit. It’s a play that is different every time that it is performed. It’s a play that brings people out into the places where they live and allows them to see it in a new light. It’s a play about the routines and rituals that happen at this unexplored hour and a play about what happens in the gap between sleeping and waking. It’s the kind of show that will attract interest if programmed as part of a Festival; and it’s a show that will continue to grow and develop. We hope to be able to create something that has a fluid cast and a set of rules, so that in the end it can be performed by anyone.

Right now we’re beginning to look for some assistance across the U.K as we begin to play with the idea. We’re looking for at least three organisations in all. This is how we think this initial stage of the project will play out:

Stage One – What do you do at 5am?

Over a two month period, using social media and other networks, Excavate will gather stories and thoughts connected to people’s experiences of 5am. As part of this they will run a series of 5am related activities in Nottingham which will be open to all and which they will film and document.

Stage Two – We even have a magician

Excavate will recruit a team of four performers – a writer/performer, a choreographer/performer, a musician/performer and a magician/performer. These will spend one week in Nottingham developing ideas on how to devise and structure a show and how to engage with the communities that they will go on to work with. The material from Stage One will feed into this.

Stage Three – Three cities, or three towns, or a mixture of the two

The 5am team will work in three different cities (towns) across the UK, in partnership with theatre and arts production companies. These companies will assist with hosting the team. The team will ideally be supplemented at each location by one other artist from that town or city, where possible using an artist connected to the theatre or arts production company that they are partnered with.

Before visiting the town or city a similar activity to that run in Stage One will have been undertaken by the partner organisation, although they also have the right to stage their own event that may be far more inventive than anything done so far.

During this week the company will collect stories from those who inhabit the city/town at 5am and use this material, along with the material from stage one and two, to create a performance which will be performed at 5am at the end of the week long residency.

This will be repeated in two more cities/towns.

Stage Four – So does it add up to a hill of beans?

All of those involved in the process will share their thoughts on how to make the project work, how to make it even better and how they would like to be a part of what will become a global phenomenon – the 5am Theatre Show.

Once this has been done we will look at gaining some funding to hone the show, produce some publicity and put it out there for the world to enjoy.