Artists are rising to the demands of our current locked down way of life in a number of surprising ways. Theatre companies all over the world are releasing filmed versions of their programmes and livesteaming. Here in Wellington BATS is taking the lead by offering local artists the opportunity to continue to make work and provide entertainment for audiences in their personal bubbles everywhere.

Doom and Bloom are among of local artists taking advantage of this initiative to not only bring us some much needed entertainment but just as importantly to provide themselves with a chance to keep themselves and their skills active.

This review is not really so much about the show or the performers as it is about some of the issues surrounding the new and largely untested world of live streaming theatre. The most glaringly and obvious omission from live streaming is the very thing that gives theatre its power – the live audience. Some theatre companies (with huge resources at their command) such as the National Theatre have been releasing filmed versions of their live productions on youtube. They are well worth a look but keep in mind that these are professional, well resourced companies that previously filmed performances that took place in front an audience. 

What is more interesting are the smaller companies and individual artists who are turning to live streaming etc in order to immediately respond to our current condition. Doom and Gloom’s offering presents among other things the dilemma of having a live audience to experience the work as it is performed. Improvisation, perhaps more than other theatre and live performance forms, depends so much on the presence of the audience. They provide the checks and balances necessary to keep the performance relevant and engaging.

Whilst Doom and Gloom are obviously very talented improvisers, without an audience to help them shape and validate their work they occasionally fall into some common improvisational traps. They talk over each other every now and then, block each other’s offers, let offers drop and die without extending them and in the performance I watch one of them actually tells their scene partner to stop talking so they can continue their own slightly indulgent train of thought. 

As a result some of their scenes are overlong and drift into messy, overly intellectual interactions. Without our input all they have to guide their work is their own assessment of their work, which is further hampered by their not being in the same room, thus taking away the myriad live cues that improvisers are alive to in the shared moment. 

Generally speaking the performers need to embrace the limitations of live streaming rather than pretend they don’t exist (at one point one of the performers tries interacting with the other through the screen, which does not work on any level). However these new ways of working are new to all of us and I look forward to seeing how Doom and Gloom’s work evolves to allow new unexpected ways to let their brilliance shine through.

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Review of Doom and Bloom PROFIT

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