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Actually there might be something to this so here goes: on theatre and conspiracy theories (stick with me this is going somewhere)
When I was a baby actor I did a load of immersive theatre. No stage, no audience divide, punters roaming round the set talking to the actors.
These shows are great craic. They're a great way to tell a story and people love being able to play and be kids for a couple of hours
These shows are great craic. They're a great way to tell a story and people love being able to play and be kids for a couple of hours
Every so often though, something weird would happen. Audience members would come to us with clues or something crucial they had worked out about the plot that they had just... made up.
The guy who came back with multiple notebooks full to bursting, having enlisted an actual physics professor, believing he had solved the formulas on the walls of the mad scientist's lab which our set designer had copied from a google search of 'nonsense scientific formulas'
The audience members who, when the show was delayed, went online to share proof they had that it was because a WWII bomb had been found underneath the site.
The show was delayed because our fire marshals didn't have the right safety jackets. (True story, theatre is v glamorous)
The show was delayed because our fire marshals didn't have the right safety jackets. (True story, theatre is v glamorous)
These audience members would bring you something they had picked up from set with a childlike gleam in their eye going 'I found it! I found the Significant Paperweight! Tell us, what does it all mean?!'
And here's where it got tricky: often, there was stuff to find.
And here's where it got tricky: often, there was stuff to find.
There was stuff to solve. The sets were beautifully designed and sometimes, if you found something related to the story, you were right. Most of the time, the paperweight was just a paperweight.
Try telling that to the audience member with the gleam in their eye.
Try telling that to the audience member with the gleam in their eye.
So we didn't! We scrambled, we reverse-engineered, we roped in one of the other actors to make something up and give them a satisfying conclusion to the Significant Paperweight storyline, and they walked off into the night absolutely thrilled that they had Solved The Thing.
Turns out that's a powerful feeling, when you've worked something out yourself. No one handed it to you; you followed the breadcrumbs, worked out the clues and discovered something. You are clever. You are special. You know something those other idiots don't.
Anyhow, it's something I find myself thinking coming back to. Obviously we were making up stories about paperweights and people are now being murdered, but I find myself thinking about it.
It's comforting to think someone is in charge.
It's comforting to think someone is in charge.
Better to believe that the show you just spent £25 for a ticket to is an elaborately-designed, detailed mystery than you just handed a nonsense paperweight to an actor who is now making stuff up on the spot to appease you.
Better to think the people running the show are smart and capable, even if nefarious. At least they have a plan. There's comfort in that.
I remember reading about the bomb theories having just come from the meeting about the high vis jackets and thinking, I get it. That's way more exciting. And the hard thing is that unexploded bombs sometimes (rarely, almost never) do exist. There are bad people in the world.
But take it from me: most of the time, the paperweight is just a paperweight.
