The Pilots

This isn’t the first time this has happened. We’ve done this before. Many times. We’re professionals. I know what I’m doing and he knows what he’s doing. And what we’re supposed to be doing isn’t this and what we promised you in the publicity or in the brochures or whatever isn’t what we’re doing now...

Two men are pretending. Two men are pretending to be pilots. Two men are pretending to be George Michael and Andrew Ridgely in the Club Tropicana video pretending to be pilots. Two men are pretending to know what they’re doing. The Pilots follows a flight path from arrival to departure on a journey into uncharted territory. Reckless Sleepers mark 20 years of cutting edge contemporary performance by going back to the beginning. A theatre. An audience. Two men pretending.

The performance is part of a series of works investigating acts of terror and is supported by Arnolfini, Bristol, Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham and Leeds Met Gallery and Studio Theatre.

The Photoshoot

Images: Julian Hughes

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.