“A daringly simple, deeply moving audio experience in the lobby of the Camden People’s Theatre about grief, music, and memory.”
There were a lot of things I was expecting to do this past Saturday night: get dinner with a friend, do the laundry, call my mother. I did not expect to break down sobbing after fifteen brilliant minutes of audio drama in the lobby of the Camden People’s Theatre.
The Best Of is a daringly simple piece of audio theatre about grief, music, and memory by Ellie Higgins, a multimedia artist who originally created this one-to-one experience for libraries. The first iteration of the piece took place in the Manchester Poetry Library. Since then, Higgins has moved the piece down to London, specifically the Camden People’s Theatre lobby. If her piece needed a reminder that it isn’t a conventional piece of theatre, situating it in a theatre lobby (while another show was in session) was the perfect choice.
In her interview with A Youngish Perspective, Higgins discusses the development of the project after the sudden death of her father, whose love for music and large collection of CDs lies at the centre of the piece. Taking inspiration from one-to-one performance artist Adrian Howells, Higgins creates an environment rooted in deep kindness for her audience-listeners. From the moment I sat down (and was asked if I had any dietary restrictions), I knew I would be taken care of in some way, shape, or form.
Upon sitting down at the window and testing the volume with a bit of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”, Higgins opened a CD case and instructed me to insert the CD into the player when I was ready. Then she left, and my journey began.
I sat at the window with the CD player and a box (no spoilers) for my only company and was guided quietly to take in my surroundings. Instead of attempting to forcibly transport the listener elsewhere, into the ethereal, intangible world of sound, memory, and emotion, this piece refreshingly and explicitly asks its listener to root themselves in their particular location. In this case, it was the lobby of the Camden People’s Theatre, beside the large bay window overlooking the busy street outside. I watched the people and the cars going by – some peering through the window and probably wondering why this woman was listening to music with a giant CD player in the lobby of the Camden People’s Theatre – and took quiet delight in the fact that I wouldn’t have to push my imagination to fully appreciate this piece. My physical presence was just as much a part of the experience as the sound element.
With interconnected “tracks” ranging from personal stories about her father and his music collection and brilliantly executed binaural explorations of the neuroscience of music and memory, The Best Of effectively and fully embraces its form as a one-to-one immersion in audio. It was clear why this story had to take this form and why I had to sit in that theatre lobby alone to fully enjoy it.
I did feel unprofessional for crying afterwards. Both Ellie and I knew I would be sitting down to write a review about it shortly afterward. But the awkward emotional bit was also my favorite part of the whole experience. It filled me with questions: When do we ever have experiences like this with a stranger? What could happen in the world if we were this brave, honest, and kind to each other? And how well do you have to know a person to feel more connected to them, to the whole world of people outside the window?
Higgins has created an incredibly moving, perspective-shifting experience and a gift for any audience member lucky enough to snag a 15-minute slot. It is my deepest hope that more of those slots become available so that more people might be inspired to see the strangers on the other side of the glass a little differently. And maybe even take the headphones off and join them.