#TheCoolidgeEffect audio play and the #TCEafterparty is tonight!

Here's a brief history of the show.

We started talking about #TheCoolidgeEffect in 2014 whilst studying @RCStweets when we asked:

"What are the mental health implications of longterm internet and pornography usage on young people?"

We didn't know!

And we stumbled upon this Ted Talk.

We set out to ask our question to as many people as we could. We started with friends and family and we then used the very tool we were trying to interrogate, the internet, to reach out to experts across the world.

We spoke to a porn star named Ben Dover, a Californian digital love doctor, a feminist porn director, Cindy Gallop the CEO of Make Love Not Porn, a sexual behavioural therapist in Quebec, the founder of @NoFap and even Gary Wilson. And many more.

Here's what we looked like then.

In addition, we spoke directly to those affected by pornography and the people close to them. These conversations, along with our research, are at the heart of #TheCoolidgeEffect http://www.wonderfools.org/blog-/2015/12/13/nofap

The interviews we conducted with both experts and real people spanned the globe, including people in: Quebec, California, Sweden, New York, Indonesia, Pittsburgh, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and London.

The original process for ‘The Coolidge Effect’ saw us embark on a process disseminating the scientific theories around the mental health implications of pornography.

Here's @robbiedgordon pretending to be sciencey in a lab.

Our aim in 2015 was to create a performance that sparked an open and honest dialogue about sex and the internet.

The first performance was at @IntoTheNewFest and to be honest, we didn't like what we'd made.

Even though @robbiedgordon looks like he's having a great time here.

We felt it was a bit dry and convoluted. The show was probably more "tell" than show. So we gave up on it for about 6 months but it gnawed away at us. So we went back, involving the amazing @4gan who helped us take the show to the next level. We ripped it up and started again!

We did a work-in-progress at the @gluefac3 in the freezing cold dead of winter and invited people we thought could help us take the show forward.

We loved this version.

It later travelled to @PulseIpswich receiving a Special Commendation in the Suitcase Prize and @CamdenPT.

6 months later we heard from @traversetheatre we had been programmed as part of their Autumn 2017 Season through the Open Submission Process and the amazing @MichaelOSpiel programmed us at the @TronTheatre. It was a dream come true.

Amongst this, we had applied to the @newdiorama Emerging Companies Programme, which I would urge everyone to apply for! It is an amazing scheme, which offers a relationship with the theatre, mentorship, workshops and guidance and culminates a showcase, which we took TCE to.

In 2018, we headed back to the @newdiorama and @HOME_mcr as part of @IncomingFest. We also performed the show in a shipping container at @BigBurnsSupper, at the @Macrobert and I believe we were the last show in the circle studio at the @citizenstheatre.

This show has been anything but a straight line and making it has been totally precarious at the best of times. And it was really last year where we really felt the show found one of its best audiences to date in Dumfries and Galloway.

We set up a tour of schools and youth centres and we loved it. It took us a circle from being two young people with an urgent unanswerable enquiry to being theatre-makers taking that question back to the people who need to ponder upon it the most.

We hope this new audio version will get the show out to any groups who want to hear it. It has also been improved massively through yet another re-development of the script, by the inclusion of our amazing producer @stephconnell292 and through a new score by @vanivesvanives.

This show probably taught us more about theatre than we learnt in school or uni because of the perseverance we needed to get the show on and the mistakes we made along the way.

Join us for tonight at 7:30pm.

Booking and more info: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-coolidge-effect-audio-play-and-after-party-tickets-114135562540