Scratch Night Audience Feedback - In the Red

Hey all. Here's a rough breakdown of all of the feedback we managed to get from our scratch night performance last week;

• Everyone enjoyed the phone sequence. They think that more phones would have been effective, approx. 5-10, and a prolonged amount of time on the scene would help with the clarity of the effect. It would have to be choreographed to enable snippets of conversations to be heard throughout the audience, as well as to avoid pulling focus in the earlier stages of fewer phones being present. One suggestion was to somehow collect the audience's mobile phone numbers and call them, rather than have a planted actor with all of the phones.
• Once again, everyone enjoyed the auction scene. The achieve greater shock and maximum effect from auctioning George and his items, have genuine, lesser, items up for auction prior to him. Perhaps include a pamphlet on entry of the items up for sale. The rules of bidding must be set out at the beginning and strictly followed, i.e. ludicrous amounts of money and too much heckling not permitted. The auctioneer would have to maintain a sense of control, not be afraid to wield force and command in the scene. The embarrassment can be more drawn out to greater effect and genuine embarrassment on both the audience member's and George's part.
• The insults and threats from the Thwaites, both in person and down the phone, were scary and brought some audience members on the verge of tears. The juxtaposition of how the threats were made and their content worked well and could be made stronger, however the content requires work; many people didn't believe the threats or consider them at all genuine. Insults may be something else to use, though being clever with them (Clever use of insults rather than clever insults). Some members of the audience felt victimised as a result of being picked on repeatedly due to their seating position.
• The whispering bribes; the comic, unrealistic and absurd bribes didn't have the same effect as those sounding more serious and realistic. The conflicting styles and content didn't appeal to most of those people we got feedback from.
• The overall themes that people got from the performance were; consumerism, being consumed, naivety, objectification, consequences, things turning on themselves.
• Because of the actor placement within the audience, people felt paranoid about not knowing who's a performer and who is a genuine member of the audience. It worked with the con artist concept that they also understood from the piece, making them question their surroundings and afraid to leave.
• The Cash Converters scene at the end made people think of con artists, as it appeared that George was conning Paige out of her items. It also showed desperation and last resort for money and finances, though on whose part was unclear. They questioned where the items would go when handing into such a place in real life. One suggestion was using the audience's items, gathered throughout the course of the production.

That just about covers all of the main areas. One last note was that they all though it was hilarious, including the moments not attributed to us.

Again, Well done all!