Live screenings: it may not be the real thing – but it has it’s advantages

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audience-auditorium-back-view-713149

It’s not a proper theatre experience!

I suppose I’ve always been a bit of a purist when it comes to live performances. From music to dance to theatre, I’ve always thought the best way to experience these things is to be there in person. That was until I was persuaded to go to our local entertainment venue recently to see Arthur Miller’s All My Sons screened live from The Old Vic. Now it’s not my intention, in this blog post, to review the play itself, although it was superb. But I wondered if my reaction to it had anything to do with the way I was watching it.

I had no idea what to expect. But one thing I was sure about was that it was not going to be as good as the real thing. So when I walked in and could hear, through the speakers, the sounds of the audience arriving at the Old Vic hundreds of miles away in London, the place that I hadn’t had to travel to in order to see the play, I was a little surprised. This is not going to be a proper theatre experience, I thought, as I spotted cream teas being served up at the kiosk, curtesy of a volunteer, and no queue. But I’d got side-tracked. My husband was already at the bar, also with no queue, ordering two gin and tonics and nuts. We made our way to our pre-booked table, from different directions, and spread our goodies out in front of us.

Staring up at the screen, we watched as people battled to get to their seats, forcing more organised, disgruntled theatre-goers, in the middle of a rows, to struggle to their feet with their belongings in their arms in order to make way for the late comers. This is definitely not a proper theatre experience, I thought, as we listened to Kirsty Wark introduce the play exclusively to those viewing through live screening, giving lots of useful background information about what we were about to see. Behind her the battle for seats continued with more urgency, as curtain-up time approached.

The lights in the Old Vic and our local venue dimmed and the play began. Now this is where things really differed from what I’ve experienced before. Depending on what seats you’ve managed to get hold of, I think it’s fair to say that you rarely get a ‘perfect’ view of the stage from any of them. In the stalls, if you’re short like me, you are vulnerable to the arrival of a tall person with big hair sitting in front of you. This results in the neck wrenching necessity to keep moving your head from side to side in order to catch a glimpse of different parts of the stage. You can say goodbye to ever seeing the whole stage at any time.

If you’re lucky enough to be in the circles, then you may well have an uninterrupted view of the stage, but it’s so far away from you that the action seems very remote. This is not a proper theatre experience, I thought, as the camera zoomed in on the set, leaving the live screeners in a prime position, as if they were on the stage with the actors. Close ups provided even more intimacy. We saw every expression, every emotion throughout the whole play. At one very dramatic part of the performance, the four main characters were all crying. We saw their tears glistening in the spotlights.

Then there was the sound. Often in a proper theatre, the actors do not always project their voices enough, they do not have the same vocal strength and some actually mumble. However, with the characters being miked up for the live screening, we had no such problems and heard every word, every sigh and every whisper throughout the entire performance.

With a play as emotional and powerful as this, the quality of both the view and the sound left us stunned at the end. As the actors took their bows, it was possible to see, in their faces, the toll that the performance had taken on them. Colin Morgan, in particular, looked fit to drop. It made me truly appreciate the art of the actor. Meanwhile, oblivious to the actors’ plight, the live audience began to fight their way out of the auditorium.

So was there anything that I missed from not being there in person watching the play? Well, yes, there was. Theatres like the Old Vic are very exciting and stimulating places to be in. I missed the wait for the play to begin, looking around at the décor and the plush surroundings. I missed the ‘specialness’ of going out for a night at the theatre, getting dressed up. I missed the buzz of anticipation from the audience all around me, just before the play begins when the lights go down.

It had its pros and cons, but I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. So next week I shall be booking a table for the next live screening which is a play based on one of my favourite novels, Small Island by Andrea Levy.

 

Photo by Monica Silvestre at Pexels

3-D printed organs: from science fiction to science fact

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adult-ambulance-care-263210

It’s closer than you think.

I’ve never really given 3D printing much thought, considering it just a manufacturing process that has been around for years used to generate plastic or metal objects. That was until I read about research going on that has plucked the idea of made-to-measure organs from the pages of science fiction novels and planted it firmly into the future of mainstream medical practice. And a not to distant future, at that. It’s called bioprinting.

My immediate reaction on discovering that bioprinting existed was to wonder what, on earth, is coming out of the computer controlled nozzles when you’re bioprinting a heart. An image of liquified flesh, muscle and cartilage came to mind and it wasn’t a pretty sight. However, it turns out that it isn’t as messy as I’d imagined. In keeping with its printing heritage, it uses ‘ink’, or bio-ink as it’s referred to, made up of hydrogels, water-based solutions containing human cells. There are multiple nozzles too, some dispensing biodegradable materials to give the organs structure and strength.

The creation of human body parts like tracheas, blood vessels and damaged sections of human organs has been around for a while, so too has the ability to reproduce complex organs like skin and bladders. However, the recent news that researchers at Tel Aviv University have successfully printed the world’s first 3D heart has taken the science onto a new level. Before we get too excited, though, I feel now is the time to mention that the heart in question is small – about the size of a rabbit’s. It will be a while before the technology can create a full size transplantable human heart – but it’s close.

I think it might be a blessing that we’re a number of years away from this breakthrough in medical research, because I am not too sure that we’re ready yet for the enormous moral and ethical implications involved. Looking on the positive side, there would potentially be a lot of advantages. Organ transplants would not rely on donors. Animal testing of products could be undertaken on 3-D printed organs and not live animals. You could extend your life by replacing worn out organs. Heart disease, for example, would cease to be the killer that it is today.

However, and this is where my dystopian leanings come into play, it could lead to a lot of social problems. If people saw their bodies as disposable items that could be replaced or repaired when they became damaged, what incentive would there be to stop consuming excessive quantities of drugs and alcohol, for instance?. Why would you bother to eat a healthy diet or exercise regularly? You’d just get yourself replacement organs when needed. Your life would become something you could gamble with.

In a capitalist society, imagine if the production and distribution of bio-printed organs was in the hands of one company and the power they would wield. We already have issues with drugs companies monopolising the production of prescription drugs – it’s set to get a lot worse if you’re dealing with replacement organs. It might lead to the technology becoming the exclusive reserve of the wealthy and powerful.

Perhaps, I’m worrying unnecessarily. It could all be fine. Anyway, for now, I’ll keep my organ donor card safely in my wallet … until further notice.

Why I Changed My Voice

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First versus Third

Who’s telling the story?

When a writer sets about creating a novel, one of the first major decisions they have to make is who will be the narrator. Who is telling the story? The choice of narrator(s) is an important one because it sets the tone, or ‘feel’, of your story. The two main types of narrator are ‘first person ‘ and ‘third person’. There are others, but they’re not so commonly used.

In the first two parts of my Happy Deathday series, I employed the first person narrative, where you use ‘I’ (or ‘We’). Set in an underground breeding colony where people are monitored day and night, I wanted to create an atmosphere of fear and claustrophobia. The reader is inside the character’s head, seeing events from their point of view and experiencing their thoughts and feelings in a very personal and intimate way. It’s most successful if the reader likes the character and forms a bond with them. However it can be limiting for the writer, as it restricts the action to one character. You can widen the reader’s experience by employing more than one first person narrative and this is what I decided to do, having my two main characters, Sarah and Jonathan, tell the story in alternate chapters. If you’re very brave you can use several first person narrators, but this is fraught with difficulty, because you have to give them all a different ‘voice’, so that the reader can tell them apart and not get confused.

In Viral City (Happy Deathday: Part 3) the story takes place in the city of Resurrection, a place undergoing dramatic and far-reaching changes. I needed the reader to be able to ‘access all areas’ and, to do that, it was essential that I changed the narrative to third person. This achieves a widening out of the action but, because events are viewed from the outside, the reader is kept at a distance. It’s often more descriptive and gives an overview of what’s happening. The downside is that it is inevitably less intimate. I really didn’t want to lose this element that I had worked hard to create in the first two parts. So what’s to be done? Well, you can create the ‘feel’ of a first person narrative by having chapters, or sections, of your book told from the point of view of a single character. You concentrate on what’s happening to that person, their thoughts and feelings. If you then do the same thing for several characters then you’ve immediately made the novel more personal. I focused on five main characters and the story is told from their points of view.

Of course, you’re overall aim as a writer is to tell a good story. If you do, then it won’t matter what narratives you’ve used or not used. In the end, the reader’s experience is the only thing that counts.

 

*Viral City Publication*

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Viral City Full v7

I’m delighted to announce the publication of Viral City (Happy Deathday: Part 3) which is now available on Amazon in both e-book and paperback formats. It can be read as a standalone novel in its own right, or as a follow on from Parts 1 & 2 – Happy Deathday and Resurrection.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=sue+yockney&i=stripbooks&crid=35DQK47SJSY3Z&sprefix=sue+yoc%2Cdigital-text%2C139&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_7

22/06/3042. The Colony is no more, reduced to ashes by an inferno. What remains of it has been filled in and returned to the Earth. However, for some, the last days within its walls are not so easily erased. Now, facing an uncertain future, they must forget the past and make their way to the city of Resurrection hoping to build a new life.

But the colonists were not the only thing that escaped that day. Struggling to come to terms with the revelation that she is pregnant Sarah, alone, knows the terrible truth. A deadly mutated flu virus has been let loose after centuries of containment and is about to threaten the survival of everyone in its path.

And its arrival will set off a devastating chain of events that will have far-reaching consequences for the destiny of the whole of humanity. It must be stopped. But …

HOW CAN YOU DEFEAT AN ENEMY YOU CAN’T SEE?

Happy Deathday series (Parts 1 & 2) reduced for one week in run up to the publication of Viral City

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happydeathdaycover          resurrectioncover-revised

Viral City, (Happy Deathday: Part 3) can be read as a stand alone novel. But for those who would like to catch up with the story so far and read the first two parts of the series, Happy Deathday and Resurrection are currently on a Kindle Countdown for one week only at a price of 99p/99c. If you’re a very fast reader you might even be able to finish them both before the publication of  Part 3! Click on link below:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_5?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=sue+yockney&sprefix=sue+y%2Cstripbooks%2C368