Emergency Exit

I suggest we call ourselves - wait! - absentees. Have you been - been absent for long? - Jean-Paul Sartre. No Exit

We talk about what it might be like to uncover the Emergency Exit signs. They're meant to be visible but theatres always cover them in dark gel or even mask over them to stop light bleeding onto the stage. Spoiling the blackout. They take the gel off when they've got a health and safety inspection then they put it back on again. I think about how you could light the stage with them. Green light. And how I once saw an exhibition where someone had mounted photos in them. And how the man is running towards the door but there's a massive arrow in the way. How's he supposed to get past the arrow? Mole says they did a show where people drew onto cards and they enacted the drawings. A lot of people drew the running man from Emergency Exit signs. I think about Sartre and emergencies and safety instructions and arrivals and departures and absentees and the man who wrote Dr Zhivago defecting.