The last post

This will be the last post of this rehearsal period. We are finishing now for Christmas and working on the missing narrative. We need to work out where The Pilots are going and when they will get there? Why are they pretending to be pilots? What is the journey they are going on? Mole says he always imagined that as the journey of bombers to their terrorist destinations. What they pass on the way. Mole and Tim say the first time they talked about the project they were plotting a journey from where they were born to where they live now. We talk about the months and the passing of time and how that is a structural thing. At the moment we only have January and August. We've got some work to do. The Pilots meet again at the Arnolfini in Bristol in February 2008.

Watch this space

This is the transcript of the section Tim and I worked on this week. Keeping the times when we lost our place or couldn’t work out who had to say what or stand where. Finding the gaps in between the text. Now we have to find out how to fill the gaps left behind. Watch this space.

Tim: It’s just so hot. That should be you.

Mole: Mmm… well maybe I’m standing near the heater here

Tim: Yeah you stand by the heater then

Mole: goes to stand near the heater, Tim comes back to mic.

Mole: Can I do this without trousers; it’s just that I'm a bit HOT

Can I do it without socks?
Just in my underpants

Tim: YES OK WHATEVER
I don’t know what that is

Mole: YES OK WHATEVER

Tim: There’s a line missing there
You bastard you stole my line…
This is so confusing

Mole: Shall we try it again?

Tim: No keep going
I think it’s fine

Mole: Err… we

Tim: Yeah

Finishing sentences

No you’re not you’re…

Fucked up and insecure

You’re…

Fucked up and insecure

You’re finishing each other’s sentences. I do that all the time. did that all the time. I used to finish my Dad’s sentences. Now I don’t finish my own sentences. My mum does that. I keep guessing the end of her sentences. ‘Where did I put that… Mouse? Pterodactyl?’ We talk about how if Mole and Tim are filming their journeys from airports then they are living the role of pilots and coming to venues to work out who they are. When they are performing they are off duty. When they are not performing they are flying. When they are not flying they are performing. When they are performing they are not performing. The students who came to the work in progress last week said that you are very good at ‘Performing as if you’re not performing.’ Tim says in the new section: ‘Do I need to write this down? I’m going to write this down.’ As I’m reading it with him I see that line in the script and it still feels like it isn’t there. We are always performing not performing. Tim says ‘Yes I think we’ve really got into that mode with this performance.’

Narrative

Mole asks ‘What is the narrative?’ and I say it reminds me of a transcript from 9/11 where an air steward is describing what she sees out of the window. ‘I see water. I see buildings. I see the city.’ There is something about describing what you see at the end. I feel like it’s something locating them or locating us on this journey we are taking or not taking. Maybe that’s what we’re missing at the moment. The sense of (dis-)location. We talk about how maybe Mole is getting dressed in front of the heater into his Pilot outfit. Getting dressed. Getting ready for the beginning of the Story Part Two. ‘We had passed the flyover etc.’ Mole says we have to work out what that narrative is and whether it’s just a description of places we’re passing. Or whether it’s something more clever. I wonder if we walk from the nearest airport to the venue and document the journey. Taking photographs of a power station, a disused railway line, an out of town nightclub and a grand old theatre.

Good Pilot Bad Pilot

We talk about the moment where Tim says ‘I’m a good cop and you’re a bad cop’ and whether that should be a ‘good pilot and a bad pilot.’ One who wants to get you to your destination safely and one who wants to hijack you and commit an act of terror.’ I say ‘I have a knife in my pocket. In your jacket.’ because I borrowed Tim’s coat earlier for the Dr Zhivago moment. I’m holding something sharp to your throat.’ A box cutter. I think about what the terrorists used on 9/11. We talk about language and how this feels like I’m talking to the audience. Taking them hostage on an aeroplane. I am a bad pilot. We talk about how ‘Fuck’ was flippant earlier but has become a threatening word here.

I’m going to kill you, no I’m going to fucking kill you, if you don’t listen I’m going to take you all with me. I’m going to fucking kill you; I’m going to fucking kill you. If you don’t listen, I’m going to take you all with me.

Hello Tim

Tim’s mum sends him an email to say ‘Hello Tim. I’ve read the blog. Are you quite sure you know who you are?’ Mole says 'I like the way you use the microphone'. You’re always looking to the front when you speak but you’re looking at Tim in between. It’s very clean. I like the pauses. The bits in between. I like the way you’re not sure who says what or who stands where. I think we should just transcribe what you did yesterday and see if the two ends of the tunnel meet. I think you should say ‘We passed the security fence or the cameras.’ Like surveillance cameras or photographic cameras. This is where it begins to be something else. Its only little things. Just words. I like this repetition here. It’s not just repeating it’s a point of reference. Referring to something that’s already happened. A point of reference on a map. It’s doing it again but its different but it has a different setting or the situation is different.

Something else

We watch a video of Tim and I working through the untouched sections yesterday and Mole says ‘It’s starting to make sense. It’s about something else. That missing hole. Tim has this habit of repeating my first words. And for the first time I did or you did which means the roles have switched. It worked until the moment you put electrodes on Tim’s fingers. Then it became something else. Too explicit. Too in your face. I’m trying to remember when it began to make sense. And when it became about something else.’ We try the Trophy Text at the end of the day. After saying ‘It happened here, and here, and here, and over there and somewhere here’ I start dancing. It feels like a prediction. Later on Tim asks where I am and says ‘I get it, your John and your dancing?’ and I reply ‘I’m John and I’m dancing.’ I say ‘I’m in a night club and I’m vulnerable and I’m scared and I’m not sure whether this is the right dance for this song’ and it ties in with earlier when Mole says ‘I want to be vulnerable and alone’ and Tim takes his microphone away.