image shared on flickr via a creative commons license on by SarahMcGowen
Act One.
Over the past week and for 5 in total, several people in the Twittersphere will be playing a part in one of the greatest love stories in the English language. Such Tweet Sorrow is Romeo and Juliet told in 140 character installments. The piece is 24/7, and includes audioboos, yfrog pics, youtube videos and an awful, awful lot of tweeting.
There are several really interesting aspects to this bold experiment, which is a collaboration between the RSC and a multi-media company called Mudlark. The project is 4ip funded, the basic story line (transposed into a modern setting) is plotted and then the plotted occurrences are handed over to the actors daily, who then improvise their reported actions.
People who follow the characters on Twitter can see the conversations happening in real time, and are often asked to contribute, aid decisions, lend reactions. This interaction is producing some intriguing results, some people playing along, and others determined to break what’s left of the ‘4th wall’. The project even has its own ‘fanboy’ playing with the story, to which the official @such_tweet account have been alerting people to (and blocked, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish). The idea of a piece of performance infiltrating your daily feeds is a fascinating one, and the interactive aspect also invites its audience to be performers. When you interact with the characters you are interacting with them as a character yourself – a version of your self, one who pretends that these characters are real.
However despite the interesting questions the work is raising, truth is I’m feeling incredibly let down by the #suchtweet experiment. It is entirely right that it exists, and that people should explore these new forms, but aspects of the characterisation, logistical errors, as well continual formal misconceptions are really beginning to grate. The question is, how and when is it appropriate to raise these criticisms. During? Or after the event has finished?
I disagree with this idea – a film is a finished product, performances grow. A traditional theatrical experience is usually a closed down one, this ongoing project is describe as interactive. Surely this should go for the criticism as well?
Another pertinent question, certainly, is how to deliver criticism. Due to the amount of interaction invited, do you talk directly to the performers, in character? Suggest that the way they’re delivering their information is heavy handed (TMI!) or their characterization offensive (#uploadthatload case in point.). As it is a project largely delivered through Twitter that was my first reaction. I’m not sure it was the right one. It’s hard to phrase ‘I think your characterisation represents unfair assumptions about teenage boys’. Best I managed was “have some respect.” My next reaction was to tweet about my dissatisfaction publicly, engage with (what is ostensibly) other audience members. Some suggested waiting to see how it worked out, though most of my followers that responded (by no means a bunch necessarily representative of the rest of Twitter) shared my concerns. Mixed sample:
However, after a character RT’d some of my ‘in character’ criticisms (attracting attention outside of the context I had given) I feel like I should set out exactly what I think. So here I am, outside of Twitter, long form. Let’s dance.
Act Two.
I want to make myself clear, I certainly don’t think that this performance experiment is in any way sullying the name of Shakespeare, or that it is in any trivial way attempting to engage dramatically with the tech or (as it’s often misrepresented) ‘youth’ community. I think it’s an excellent concept. The problem is all in the execution.
Gender.
The level of gender stereotyping that has been occurring in #suchtweet has been painful to behold. The boys tweet pictures of girls breasts, make fun of the ‘ginger mingers’ they pull by accident, and generally fight and swear. The female characters moan, cry, and go shopping to relieve their tension. I was pointed by the official @such_tweet feed to consider Shakespeare’s own gender characterization. I have two answers to that 1) when you transpose a story to a modern setting, it makes sense that characterisation should follow 2) Shakespeare’s characters were much more interesting and nuanced than are currently being played out. I also think it’s entirely possible to be nuanced individual in a reduced, 140 character format – everyone else on twitter manages it.
Age.
This is a small one, but important, I think, and plays a part in the previous problem. I came across this quote from the actress playing Juliet which sums up the problem:
“I’m nearly 20 so I would normally type in quite a sophisticated way, but a 15-year-old today will use a lot of text speak.” (Source)
So she’s 19. 4 years seems more the younger you are. I’m 25. But I have a brother and sister at 13 and 11. I also remember being 15, me and most of the people I knew made a concerted effort to avoid text speak, we felt like it was an adult stereotype of our lives (though perhaps didn’t articulate it like that), these days texts can be as long as you like, much more used are internet acronyms and emoticons. Also, young people do not feel more simply, they just sometimes don’t have the tools with which to articulate it – that’s why I find the broad brushstrokes of Mercutio and Romeo’s carousing so insulting. I know some teen boys do it, I know some that don’t, but they sure as hell wouldn’t tweet about so much of it. They’re not that foolish.
Story
This is a minor qualm, but really? A car crash? That was the best modern analogue for warring families that you could find? At one of my friend’s schools the Muslim and Hindu kids had a horrible ongoing vendetta which ended in a stabbing. My brother’s girlfriend had to keep him a secret for a long while because he wasn’t Chinese. And while I’m pretty sure that though my mum wouldn’t disown me if I fell in love with a Tory, it’d be pretty hard for her to fathom. Perhaps ignore that last one, but the previous feel much more relevant, and there’s so much less EXPLAINING to do.
Form.
This is the big one, despite the new form, the fundamental point is the old playwright’s adage: show don’t tell. These characters should not be offering us the dialogue as it happens, but snapshots of a much bigger picture – the interactive part is piecing it together. What the performances so far represent is a fundamental misunderstanding of the potential of the form. A recent example of this is that last night (Saturday) Tybalt and Romeo had a fight. 3 characters told us this.
How to make this performance and not reported literature? Show, don’t tell. Plenty of kids record fights and put them on Youtube, heck they probably livestream them now. A twitvid taken by Mercutio of Romeo and Tybalt fighting amongst chaos in a pub would have been thrilling. Also, dramatic.
Another example: the way the characters actually use the tweets. This is the advice I give to all of the theatre companies I work with on social media in practice or process: make it interesting. Saying “I am so angry” isn’t interesting or interactive; linking to angry music you’re playing, is. Saying “my eyes are so red from crying” is not interesting, but asking people if cucumbers on the eyes bring down puffiness because you don’t want your dad to know, is. Don’t tell me your brother was just arrested on the telly, show me a fuzzy twitpic of it.
Characters are tweeting things that it is unrealistic to tweet just to get the information out there. Twitter is a public space, would you announce your problems to everyone in a pub? No. But your sadness or anger might seep through, become apparent.
Perhaps not everyone on twitter is interesting, but this is not real life, this is art embedded in real life, it should still be artful.*
*Never talk to me about Live Art.
Finally,
Language
If you can’t fit it into a tweet without taking out all of the spaces and using c’s and u’s find another way of saying it. Or blog it, live journal, audioboo, twitpic, video. The skill of Twitter is learning how to make pertinent points in short bursts. We can’t always succeed at that, but that’s the fullest expression of it.
I think that #suchtweet is a bold experiment, but all involved seem to be working on the misconception that a smaller form requires broader brushstrokes, that they have to squeeze everything in, that there’s no room for nuance. Is this because of the 140 character form? Would you consider a haiku fundamentally less expressive than a longer poem? What about iambic pentameter? Shakespeare’s nuance was in his language, #suchtweet needs to find it in its form. The actors are working hard in unexplored territory, I completely respect that, but I consider that a greater reason to offer criticism, not a lesser. I also acknowledge that perhaps this experiment is not aimed at me, theatre academic, playwright, blogger. Maybe it’s aimed at people who don’t use these forms, but are growing up living them. And that (of course) the piece could get much better.
Do you think I’m being too harsh? Do you think that I should have waited until the end to critique? Do you think I should review each week? I’d be interested to know what you think.
Epilogue.
How would I have done this? Much more mean-ly. I would have cast the piece from existing and well established Twitter and socmed users, secretly, and then let the story play out without announcing it, to have people we previously thought of as ‘real’, fight, fall in love, die… Imagine finding their blog suspended? A tweet from family announcing that they had died? Playing with the boundaries of the real is dangerous, but an investigation of these online spaces – how they pretend to liveness and truth – and of how we all reconstruct ourselves, play a part, an analogue of our self on them each day? Now that’s interesting.
For my week two post on Such Tweet Sorrow, click here.
Fascinating observations, making me think not just about this dramatisation but the whole Twitter experience. Thanks for not waiting, you’re now part of the play.
Very interesting stuff, and there’s lots more to unpack there, from all sorts of angles. I’m still not convinced that this is performance, exactly. It’s a new genre, which I’m calling a twittery.
Your (our, because there are many of us) commentary then becomes metatwittery, and it’s that that fascinates me about this project, so I’m particularly glad ythat ou discuss your interaction with one of the characters along these lines.
Although modern audiences sit respectfully silent at the theatre, the actors of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men would have endured critique from the groundlings, much less polite than what’s been tweeted to this company. When Romeo and Juliet was first performed, the audience would have shouted advice to the characters, critiqued the characterization, mannerisms, even appearance and personal habits of the actors. I doubt the actors failed to respond. In this way, maybe all this metatwittery is bringing back to audiences, in a virtual and roaming form what they once, locally and in proximity, took for granted.
Good stuff, Hannah. I’d not even heard of the project til I read this. May check it out. May not…
I *did* however, write my NANOWRIMO novel with 2 of the characters on twitter and 3 of them blogging. The conversations they had on twitter (mostly with people who knew it was fiction, some with people who didn’t) are in the book, are expanded on in the book.
The twitter accounts are only really understood in the context of the book (the people who were talking to them were, for the most part, reading the rough uploads of the book every few days)…
BUT, the big difference was, I had no need of a specific outcome. I could allow entire sections of plot to be driven by twitter reactions, I could write in new characters based on tweets etc. So had none of the crisis of consistency vs evolving narrative that trying to do Shakespeare in this way has.
However, I did have the trouble of trying to tweet in different ‘voices’ – knowing that most twitter-users have a syntactic fingerprint, I strove to not give mine to my characters, but also not to make them tweeting clichés. I guess I’ve got the advantage of 2+ years and 40-odd thousand tweets to help me judge that one :)
It’s a tough call – I’m really glad they’re experimenting with it, sad that the gender-stereotypes appear to have been so crassly ham-fisted, but glad that you’re wrestling with it. If it’s irked you enough to inspire you to write this, you must’ve felt it was worth engaging with. Which is some rare success, given the range of theatre things and geek things you *could* write about on any given day. :)
Just keep asking the awkward questions, you’re very good at it x
Glad you waited and calmed down to write this. I rarely do so i purely hatefully rant about subjects such as this and other twattery.
I as a part time actor part time filth monger (just in what i write on the internet and some of my performances) I am with you on this. (As you know but no one else does bwahaha)
I kind of feel like I am being told the story as a synopsis, not as i believe it should be told, as a piece of drama which unfolds naturally.
I am fully for the using real people approach of storytelling. As brief forays into zombie apocolypse have proven, real people are infitiley more thrilling when thrown into drama beyond their usual realm of contibution.
As you say show don’t tell is pretty high up on rules of theatre, but i am wondering how much of this story is being generated by actors who may be trained in how to give a good performance, but not necessarily in writing or improvisation. As people they probably have incredibly interesting tweets, very real very human. But when you become a character and are basing your interaction from a crib sheet I think some of the contribution may fall short.
But this is where the review process is needed almost daily. Aaaah this is turning into a wall of text…err wrap it up now. I like the concept but the execution falls short.
on my own comment TLDR
Also love the fact that your website pulls my avatar in.
I was following the Nurse and Juliet at one point but it makes no sense. The Nurse is no relation to Juliet other than she would have been like a surrogate Mum, hence the bit about lammastide and stuff like that when Lady Capulet tells her she’s getting married to Paris – and again – Lady Capulet is apparently dead in Such Tweet Sorrow – which confused me a bit too
Maybe I just dont get it lol.
Five weeks? Thanks – I was a bit surprised when it got to five days. I followed it closely for the first few, but over the weekend I’ve lost track – I use twitter more for what’s happening now, rather than reading every tweet in my feed. I might catch up on the website.
One thing on the story – I was also confused about the car-crash death, to the point where I’ve actually got the play out of the library to compare (or – see if this bears any relation to R&J other than character names). If it encourages more people to do that, it could be considered some sort of success.
Han, In this version, the Nurse is Juiet’s older sister, forced to take care of her siblings when their mother dies in a car accident, 10 years earlier. Their father has remarried so Lady Capulet, if she appears, is going to be a stepmother.
My complaint is largely with how much they tweet! I have a good idea of what these characters are like now. Time to move the action forward a little faster.
And yes, the gender stereotypes are very grating.
@Peter – thanks very much!
@aliki – completely agree, there’s so much here, it’s the kind of thing which could be a whole PhD chapter, I particularly like your reminding us of how modern audiences are a bit of an anomaly. Interesting stuff.
@Steve – thanks for commenting. I’d suggest that #suchtweet is worth checking out, if only briefly. There is certainly added difficulty when trying to impose certain outcomes on what is trying to become interactive. You have to be careful that the interactivity isn’t peicemeal, as well as having to contend with the fact people know *roughly* what is going to happen. No reason it can’t be done well, but it all needs thinking about.
@wbbigdave ‘calmed down’ makes me sound like I was fuming! Frustrated perhaps more accurate :) I think your performer point is interesting. If I was casting the experiment, I’d say that an experience in improv, writing or devising would be pretty important. Also: Gravatar is what does the avatars, it wins.
@Han I think I get what your saying, though I’d say you need to remember that the plot has changed quite a lot – the ‘Nurse’ is now Juliet’s older sister. Though that decision definitely has later implications as she is now not only loyal to Juliet, but the whole Capulet family. Will be interesting to see how they deal with it. In fact the whole secret love thing is going to be very very hard to do logistically, now they all know the rival family’s twitter handles, and that @’s are publicly viewable…
@Phil a success in some regards, but I shouldn’t consider my adaptation skills successful if they made someone check them against the original, instead of inspiring them to read it ;)
@Lioness thanks for that – I don’t have so much of a problem with the amount they tweet (though I do follow quite a few people) as much as how lacking in interest the tweets are – if each added value to the story or characters (as each line of dialogue in a well written play does) then I don’t think they’d feel so bloated.
Hannah well done for taking the time to get your thoughts down – look forward to seeing more if you stay with it. As the ‘fanboy’ who @such_tweet had repeated goes at over the weekend without having the decency to even ask me to stop I have been pondering exactly what sort of ‘filtered’ interaction they want or expected.
Some witty putdowns would have had a much better effect than the recent tweets. It seems to me that the line I crossed (for them) was to use an account that appeared to be from the story – which I felt was a better supportive form for the interaction. In the first few hours when I used another old account, cast characters actually responded. Seems to me there’s a bit of control freakery in play?
I cant help feeling that the groundlings would have contributed this way and would have been responded to by the onstage cast rather than the PR Dept as has happened here.
I’m unsure if I’ll stay with it at the moment but I look forward to watching from off prompt wings.
Ben
Impressed with your assessment. I just don’t enjoy the play without the walk-on characters. Should I be completely honest? I wonder if the writers fear the walk-ons will steal the show, because they’re more adept at the Twitter art form. I feel mean saying that, but I’m being honest. The writers shouldn’t fear; the walk-ons don’t have nearly as many followers . . . but they deserve more.
Very impressive first thoughts! I agree with most of what you said. I’ve tweeted to the characters on several occasions. At one point, Benvolio tweeted a Shakespeare quote. I then tweeted to him, “I didn’t know you knew Shakespeare.” No response.
My comment to Benvolio was not supposed to be as harsh as it may sound. I was just making a joke. But thinking back on it, I’m pretty sure I meant the undertone: What the hell are you guys doing to R&J?
I definitely love the experiment. And I’m hooked on it. The time difference is a little annoying being that they are tweeting in London. But that is unavoidable. In the mornings, I go back and read a whole lot of stupid tweets. I so wish they were speaking in Shakespearean language. It would be all the more realistic then. For me, anyway.
But all in all, it’s a new form of entertainment and I applaud them for it. Maybe if they do Hamlet next they will learn from these few mistakes that you have eloquently put forth.
Hi Hannah. Great post. I’d agree with some, (but not all), of what you’ve written here and – more importantly – it’s great to see this level of discussion springing up around Such Tweet Sorrow.
In answer to your question as to whether or not you should have waited until the end to critique, that very much depends on your approach. If you were to pass judgement on the entire project one week into its five week run then, yes, that would be short-sighted. But I really didn’t get that from your post, which reads much more like you see it for the experiment that it is and are open-minded – and intrigued – enough to see how it all pans out rather than completely dismiss it. I get the sense you’ll be posting further thoughts on this as it progresses, and – personally – I very much look forward to reading those too. So your feedback at this point is great.
As with any online project, it’s always difficult – if not foolish – to try and predict how audiences or users will react and respond until the project is live. But when it is, audience response and feedback is crucial. I suspect we may well see some iterative development and fine tuning of how this is playing out in response to that feedback, although I would also allow for the fact that there was a lot of establishing characters and plot exposition that had to take place during that first week, some of which may have come across as a little clunky. (Hm. Still not sure whether five weeks is too long for this experiment or not long enough. We shall see). I think you alluded to this yourself in a recent tweet about the difference between ‘live’ commenting on this versus critiquing a film in the middle of a cinema. And you’re right.
At this point I should put my cards on the table and say that while I am one of the co-investors in the project through Screen WM, (we’re 50/50 in this with 4iP), I don’t interfere creatively or editorially, so can’t speak for Mudlark or the RSC. But, knowing both organisations extremely well, I trust that they know what they’re doing, both in terms of what they can do with this medium and what they can do dramatically. So I’m looking forward to the next four weeks.
Personally, I’m just interested in seeing how the medium itself plays out – and whether this means we will see more of this kind of content on twitter – than the intricacies of this particular production. (More on this in my own collected week one thoughts and observations here http://bit.ly/9MMkCf ). In this respect, I’m intrigued by your response to @mercuteio who – for my money – is the one player who is most using twitter and online tools in the manner you suggest the players should in your post. Yet – perhaps ironically – I’d hazard a guess that he’s the one who has most rubbed you up the wrong way in terms of those gender stereotypes and some of his behaviour.
This begs an interesting question of whether or not we respond to characters in a twitter drama differently than how we would in other dramatic forms. In film and TV, for example, there is an implicit understanding that we are watching an actor playing a role and we may or may not like or approve of that character. But – at the end of the day – it’s just a character. We get that. Here, things are a little different. The lines between fiction and reality are more blurred, (which is a good thing, in my opinion), – and, again, especially by @mercuteio. We have also chosen to follow these people, and – in the usual ‘rules’ of twitter – that suggests some kind of affinity with them. They may not be friends, exactly, but when we follow someone it’s usually because we like what they say or what they do or we feel aligned with them somehow. So perhaps this is why @mercuteio’s somewhat boorish behaviour as a character in this play is felt all the more sharply? I wrote in my own post about the emotional attachment to characters being different here than in other forms, so perhaps this is another example of it … only in this case the emotion is one of disappointment in the way a character behaves. And the nature of the medium dictates, perhaps, that you also feel that disappointment more so than you might feel if you were watching this on TV or on the stage.
I just love the idea of organising a story secretly and watching it play out. That feels really exciting as people wonder what will happen next. We all know the story of R&J, but every time I see it I find myself hoping that it will turn out differently! Not really feeling that yet with the twitter based version. Am going to stick with it though.
I am an internet stalker (so to speak). I love digging into the not so obviously expressed lives of my friends and acquaintances using social media. It’s like I can pretend to be a detective to figure out that this guy had an affair on that girl, through photos and cryptic tweets. I would like to see such tweet sorrow play a little more into that because I think it would build anticipation and keep viewers wanting more. Or perhaps this isn’t such a good idea since we all know how it will end.
It’s at least got people talking about shakespeare I guess.. Wish they’d cast decent writers though, most of the cast are weak at it.
Hi Jason, first off let me thank you very much for engaging with me: the blogosphere, you’re doing it right ;)
I think you make a really important point about audience/user reaction, it has certainly been intriguing to see how people not aware of the sanctioned ways an audience is usually ‘allowed’ to interact, and the internet version of the same (i.e. no holds barred). The ‘fanboy’ culture is a powerful one – and it’s to the project’s credit that it’s cultivated one. I was sad to see people joining in in the more participatory ways being blocked, but also understand that with the boundaries already blurred they could confuse things – particularly when it’s being supported by such big names.
The 5 weeks timescale is an interesting one, I think I would have created a history/back story and run it for a while before announcing them, letting people explore the backstory through their blogs and past videos/boos etc. – interaction doesn’t have to be direct – it can be like putting together a jigsaw piece. By allowing for people to ask questions, allowing characters to reply with links to previous stuff, you don’t have to worry too much about heavy handed exposition – then you could shorten it to run for about 3 weeks, where these characters suddenly come into contact and it all kicks off. But again that relies on the audience reaction – less press coverage may have made it slower burn in terms of take up.
However I think I might briefly take issue with the idea of conceiving it first and foremost as a ‘Twitter drama’. I know that it’s big right now, in the public and press – and is a really good angle publicity wise – but I think it’s best used as the live stream, a port of contact for all of social media as a stage.
I completely concede your point about @Mercuteio’s use of the form – he is definitely making the best use of it, and despite how much I loathe the content, he tweets the most creatively, and interestingly. The gender/age complaints were aimed more at him, and the latter the others. However I have seen @Romeo_Mo getting a little more emo – which is good, though because of our intro to him it feels out of character now. I’m still waiting on that one.
I think my distaste of @Mercuteio perhaps leads us into the final point you made – how personal this is. I construct my own feed to be full of interesting, funny and informative people – the kind of people I’d want to be friends with – that’s why it’s social. Fact is I loathe @mercutio’s content, and just can’t stand the flabby tweeting of the rest. This is perhaps where it comes down to personal preference – I wouldn’t follow any of them, which makes it very hard for me to participate, I really feel their intrusion in what I have constructed as a safe and cerebral space. Every time I see them come up in my feed my fingers itch to unfollow. This in itself is a really interesting reaction, and I think it right that theatre invade new spaces with uncomfortable experiences that question them. However, I think I stand by the importance of ‘show don’t tell’ – as well as the idea that it should still be *artful* even if distasteful. I do feel that at least if I could like some of the characters – I could follow the rest for completeness.
I’m definitely looking forward to how some of the big events are dealt with – especially with some of the logistical barriers they’ve set up for themselves in plotting and execution. And I hope some of the points being raised across the blogosphere and in the hashtag are being taken into account. Thanks again for taking the time to comment.
@paul4july yes, I definitely think it’s worth sticking with, perhaps the biggest struggle is character and plot exposition, and from hereonin it will get easier.
@Jes Cady The internet casts us all as stalker types now. Anyone on Facebook understands that. I think there would definitely be something gratifying about constructing your own version of the story though, rather than interacting with an already formed one – I think that would have made me much more invested in the characters
@ulla is your avatar a fish? Agree on actors/writers, or even actors with improv or devising experience
Thanks for reply, Hannah. Trying to be a little less wordy here, so – briefly …
– Need to be careful about saying anyone has been ‘blocked’. To the best of my knowledge, not sure if that’s true, necessarily, (or, indeed, possible?). From what I saw, the producers merely made it clear that @benvolio wasn’t a part of the official production, which I think is important, (for reasons I’d happily explain, if required), but this is a very different thing from blocking someone.
– Whole concept of using twitter for backstory is an interesting one, and very much ties in with a lot of thoughts I’ve been having lately about where you could go with this. I’m thinking of the 221b Baker Street game, for example, that dealt with all of the backstory to the opening scene of the Sherlock Holmes film. ( http://www.221b.sh), giving users a much richer experience and deeper understanding of it.
– Glad you picked up on the @romeo_mo becoming a little more emo and totally agree on this. I’m also torn between thinking this is good character development and asking if it’s not just jarring and out of character. Limitations of the medium perhaps? It’s exposing the spaces and that we don’t see between the tweets. As you say, let’s give it time.
– Itchy unfollow finger – really interesting! In TV production, the challenge is all about combatting a viewer’s urge to change channels when it’s so easy to reach for the remote – so producers have gotten pretty smart about the exact science of making sure viewers stay tuned to their programmes. But this takes that all down to a personal level – not necessarily switching off the drama, but switching off an individual character within it. Each character, then, has to fight for their own place in your feed. Jeez, it’s an existential nightmare, isn’t it? Perhaps the next play they do should be Sartre? (In fact, there’s something a bit Huis Clos about your own twitter feed being full of characters you don’t like. Hmmm!).
– I like your point about theatre “invading new spaces with uncomfortable experiences that question them”. And, actually, this does throw up the question of how healthy it is to fill your twitter feed – or Facebook friends or whatever – only with people you like or agree with. I know we all do it. But should we? So maybe now more than ever there’s a need for theatre to step into this space and present us with more challenging or diverse personalities …. even if they aren’t actually real.
– I agree re show-don’t-tell, by the way. Although I have less of an issue with, say, the way the fight was reported, (which still felt authentic, at least), and more with some of the tweets that read more like SMS or DM’s. I guess there will always have to be a bit of artistic licence, but there are definitely ways of moving the story along and expressing tension or discussion between two characters and yet still feel like the kind of tweet that you might broadcast to all rather than DM. WIll be interesting to see how they resolve this issue as things get more personal and complex .. but their reply today to @jabberwockJess’s point about things needing to be “more implied, less overt”, suggests they are not unaware of this issue (http://twitter.com/Such_Tweet/status/12472996833).
Hm. Well, that wasn’t so short after all. (Sorry!).
As I said via Twitter I have enjoyed your post and admire the way you have put across your points – it was a relief to read something so open and constructively critical.
I’ve had similar feelings to you and have not felt it the right time to air them. The fact that you speak of this as an issue in itself was reassuring and I guess now, after reading such a clear and detailed response this is absolutely the right time.
I was following BenVolio for a while and did not question for a minute that he wasn’t part of the cast. In hindsight I quite admire this because he was interesting to follow if not always accurate.
The profile picture through made me dig a little. Peace keeper with a gun – not so sure….not on cast list..but then neither was Romeo for a while…hmm…dig further using search on twitter…ah, someone else has asked RSC and, at that point, they said he’s not part of the cast and just said ‘good luck to him’ I found out I’d been fooled, but it was kind of fun… Good stuff on the one hand because well, why not…it does seem in the spirit of explorative theatre and performance and the fluidity between audience/performer and real and unreal.
On the other i realised I let my guard down – happy to tweet back to someone I knew nothing about. Should know better.
I wanted to raise this issue with RSC – but how…direct tweet ( my only option) didn’t seem right. I wish there had been a more private ‘drop box’ for comments.
The ethical/moral implications of this are really interesting, and what’s odd, it that it seems like it’s taken an ‘outsider’ to make this more visible.
Maybe this would have be discussed afterwards anyway…
I’ve been involved with research in the virtual world of SL and the real and unreal, character vs non-character is a factor there too. Narrative and story I have experience in my research has been a more collaborative process between established characters and those that ‘visit.’
Those that wish to observe can and do, but those that want to ‘unbecome’ themselves ( although this is more complex an area granted) can as well. Rules of ‘play’ can be pre-set and offensive behaviour can result in blocking.
Some comments I’ve heard have been negative but I guess the twitter format is not for everyone, The RSC and Mudlark have never claimed this piece of work to be a replacement for theatre – it seems to me to be an interesting and relevant performance that together with text and physical based exploration could help develop understanding of a text: a kind of virtual dramaturgy.
So maybe I just really really like it so far cos I totally get the characters? I’ve had the whole forbidden love thing. I’ve been through the grief and pain that strikes a community when people feel betrayed (through an extra-marital affair)… So I understand Jess’s reaction to that. I understand Laurence’s pain at having to be the person to tell the truth, not being able to hold that secret any more. I remember being a 16 year old girl, and adoring various things the way Juliet adores Edward Cullen. And being just as pathetic about it all. And I have 5 brothers, and the only guys I know who wouldn’t appreciate “Upload that Load” are the kind who don’t like boobs so much. And actually, some of them would probably laugh too. And I laugh at it, as a result of spending years in the Scouting movement and hanging out with teenage boys. I’m still getting to know Romeo, but then I have many friends who are gamers, so I kinda get him too (the boyish boy, but secretly has that soft heart and yearning for love). And I’ve been loving almost every link that Laurence Friar has posted. I am also reading Anna Karenina at the moment (pure coincidence) and have been listening to an online french radio station that he linked to for quite some time.
So maybe I just like it cos apart from Tybalt and maybe Jess, I probably would follow either these people or people just like them anyway. Just something to consider.
Also, like I tweeted you, I post exactly the same way they post, only slightly worse. I tell you just what’s happening for me. I’ll say if I’m sad or pissed off or angry or happy, and I probably won’t link to a song unless it’s stuck in my head. So am I just bad at twitter? Or am I just someone you wouldn’t follow? I have 38 followers, so apparently some people like what I say and how I say it. But then again, you did mention that you’re harsher on them cos you know they’re faking it. I guess I’d just rather go with the flow and enjoy it (which is kinda how I take life) even when it’s not what I want or expect.
But then where would the world be without different opinions!
@Jason “be careful about saying anyone has been ‘blocked’” – fair point – I was using the language that was used by the ‘fanboy’ in question- I assumed he meant that he’d been blocked by @such_tweet or the characters individual accounts, so he couldn’t interact, but of course I don’t have confirmation of that.
– RE emo Romeo, it feels as though he’s been adjusting for feedback a little – this is good, of course – though I think though starting him off as emo (as reported by Mercuteio) and getting him out and angry later on (just, in fact, as in the original R+J) would have been the smarter option.
– the 221b Baker Street game was excellent – and also very definitely *written* (by the brilliant @boogly_sticks in fact) That’s what I feel this piece is perhaps missing – actors with greater improv or writerly experience, as well as bigger pre-entry character development.
– Huis Clos would be IMMENSE on Twitter. Though it would probably (as you say) consist of me following a really sexist man, and a girl who plays up to female stereotypes, which would effectively make me Inès. No one wants to be Inès.
-RE opening your feed up to new experiences – I don’t wholly agree that it should be always open. I consider Twitter to be more like a circle of friends in a pub, I can look at/participate in other feeds/conversations, but I follow people I like. I also follow people I disagree with, people of different political persuasions, and ideas, but no one who puts things repellently. It’s like the difference between having Tory friends and hanging out with Nazis (apologies if metaphor isn’t to your political tastes!) Twitter is so intimately delivered into my life, the rest of the internet I access in challenging ways but I feel that Twitter is more of a safe, owned, space. Though, like you say, being reminded that may be enough.
– The SMS/DM thing I agree with wholeheartedly. And I am glad @such_tweet are responding to criticism.
Don’t apologise for lengthy thoughts, there’s so much new territory here, it’s brilliant to air even a little bit of it.
@Htess, thanks very much for your comment, interesting paralells. I investigated Benvolio when I saw his picture, worked out he wasn’t employed as an actor, but still followed. Really interesting to see how some people want to interact with the piece. And I enjoyed the detective work!
@adventuresofamy thanks for commenting, as I said before, I do think some of it is down to personal preference – and the art/entertainment divide. Neither is worth less, but both, I feel, should be artful, and understand the form they’re using. I’d never suggest that anyone was using Twitter ‘wrong’, but these actors need to be held to slightly different standards if they are part of a 5 week story, as opposed to an ongoing life. Characters can be disliked – and often are on stage – but if they want to tell a story they need to give those that dislike them just as much motivation to stick with it as those who do like them- and that’s what you get from being *interesting*. Though, again, it is preference here. Perhaps the form as it’s being used now is much closer to that of a soap, not a drama. Nowt wrong with that, and connects well to the ‘addictive’ qualities reported by many. There’s often comfort in knowing what will happen, and in recognisable character tropes, it becomes all about the ‘how’.
Thank you so much for this! I have been following Such Tweet Sorrow, and although I’ve found it interesting because I have not seen anything in this style before, it felt a bit off, and you’ve addressed all the issues that I’ve had with it but haven’t put a name to.
I find my tweets are much more expressive and interesting because I am forced to change my language to fit the 140 character limit, and I think that the characters should be doing something similar, rather than just using text speak to fit it all in.
I really think they could be doing so much more with this than they currently are. However, it is still an experiment and I am mostly enjoying seeing how it plays out.
You seem remarkably kind about the concept, Hannah. One that I thought was terribly flawed when I first heard about it. However, I was interested in the execution. Coming into ones Twitter stream it doesnt seem to work. I’ve not had the time to go deeply into the backstory – I was hoping that the story itself would be strong enough to come through from the tweets – but as you’ve pointed out, those tweets aren’t the strong point. Many of your points are really valid – but they all stop it being a Twitter version, and being a multimedia social media story – as I said, the concept, totally flawed. I can’t agree that its a valid way to tell Shakespeare as Shakespeare without the language is just appropriating the “name” to get publicity; the worst kind of old media in other words.
I think a twitter drama may work, but this is the wrong subject – a version of War of the Worlds a while back was quite effective, as was the Manchester based “November in Manchester” – and, more importantly over 5 weeks – utterly the wrong timescale for it. I think if I’d been asked to tune in for half an hour or an hour each day it would have been okay – by having it over such a long period and assuming it will be part of the tweet stream it insists on having to compete with everyone elses tweets – yet as you’ve rightly pointed out doesn’t seem to engage in the same way. I was hoping it would prove me wrong, but at the moment its just unengaging spam.
BTW very useful comments on “when to critique” – and I think you’re right to have jumped in at a point when you, and other people, are engaged. The nature of the piece surely requires some ongoing dialogue.
Brava; wonderful observations. Especially agree with your comments regarding form. It seems sometimes the actors are treading a fine line. They obviously need to “show,” but sometimes efforts to forward the story seem to fall into self-conscious, leaden exposition. And yes; some things the characters would say to one another would not necessarily be shared with everyone. Since this is an experiment, I think that may be one of the most valuable lessons. I’m very glad you’re bringing this up now, and that the producers are reading your comments.
Must say I’m baffled by Jago. A Nick Carraway character? Do we need one? Besides, I find him extremely creepy. Curious about your thoughts.
Thanks for this post – it’s definitely interesting to get the opinion of someone who doesn’t love this whole-heartedly. I completely agree with a lot of the points that you make (including the fact that now IS the right time to criticise), but others like gender stereotyping I’m not so sure about. Unfortunately at 19 I knew a few guys who would’ve played unload that load.
My main issue with what you say though is about Juliet – I’m 24 and when I was 15 textin was more or less brand new. Possibly being from the Isle of Man we were slightly behind the times, but text speak was just developing and everyone I knew used it. It wasn’t until I started hangin out with an older crowd later on that I dropped it, and I know some people who still use it all the time.
I guess what I’m saying is, in my experience it’s normal for a 15 year old to use text speak all the time – and she doesn’t. I apologise if I slightly missed the point you were makin, cos havin re-read your comment you only brush past it, but I felt the need to defend her.
Are you just concerned that she’s creating a stereotypical mid-teen (which may be a fair point) rather than trying to really figure out how Juliet, if she were a real living breathing person experiencing these events, would express herself?
@Nyckeija thanks for your comment.
@Adrian the reason I haven’t been so hard on the concept is that the characters have been using other platforms – I got the impression that the ‘Twitter play’ emphasis was marketing spiel – Twitter being something the media are still finding new and exciting it garnered them a lot of coverage. Cynical, yes, necessary, perhaps. Though admittedly they’re not making as good use of other tools as they could.
@KatWomanNYC The Jago is an interesting one, basically the neighbourhood troll – no connection to the story, unless you consider him a bit like a Prince Escalus figure, instead of mutually partisan, he’s mutually trollish. I spose it’s a good way for people to catch up on the story. I dislike how hate filled everyone is though.
@Katie hi there, thanks for your comment. I agree that of course some kids do pander to gender stereotypes, that’s how they work, but my point is not all – the characters in Shakespeare are more varied, as they are in life, and so should they be here. Sure have @Mercuteio carousing, but Romeo moped for the most of the first act in the original. Likewise Juliet was smart and manipulative, the nurse playful, and aligned only with Juliet, not the rest of the family. I think that it is suffering for those ‘broad brushstrokes’ that I mention in the body of the post. Regarding text speak – my point with that RE age is that it was representative of bigger misunderstandings of the character of younger people (Juliet, as you rightly point out, doesn’t use it too much at all). The worst text speak offender is actually a lot older – @Jess_Nurse is horrific for it – she should be working out how to use Twitter as it is, not trying to squeeze too much in. That’s when you get flabby exposition.
Re being ‘blocked’, of course it might be Twitter playing up (for a number of days) but at least one of the characters (not @such_tweet) HAS blocked Ben which is of course their prerogative. And yes you can block an account on Twitter such that they can’t follow another account. Of course a user can have many accounts so it doesn’t achieve much!
Re being part of the ‘official production’ isn’t the term j’assist? I dont think I ever ‘claimed’ to be part of the production, as I’ve said in DMs to a number of followers who haved asked. If anyone feels that they ‘let their guard down’ then I’m sorry.
Is there even a need for the distinction about ‘official production’, isn’t it a case of caveat emptor – surely it’s part of the exploratory journey of discovery that Hannah talks of – there are red hairrings in other forms
Ben
Thank you Hannah for taking you time to analyse the performance so far. If find a lot of what you’re saying echos my thoughts on the ‘performance’ so far. At a number of times over the weekend I wished there was a ‘feedback facility’.
I wholeheartedly agree with your comments on the ‘car-crash’ backstory. It doesn’t work for me. What would have been more plausible (assuming we stay with that scenario), in light of Tybalt’s and Jess’ behaviour, would have been if that as a result of the fight following the car-crash, Capulet had been sent to prison for GBH, whilst Montague got off scott-free. Then Tybalt would have had a stronger case for being so agressive and mal-adjusted. Likewise, Jess would have been more embedded in her role as ‘substitute-mum’ for the two younger ones.
I get the impression that for a number of the performers, and maybe writers, Twitter is a brand new medium and they therefore haven’t got the hang of the ‘show/tell’ concept. I’m a noob on Twitter, but I can figure that it works as an ‘information glue’ linking together various interesting bits of internet content and well as a means of self-expression and communication. This should have been taken into consideration in the preparation of the project. In real life, the performer’s characters would have at least a Facebook/myspace/LiveJournal/Blog account or equivalent. This could have been used to build some background as well as act as a canvas on which the characters can develop their thoughts outside Twitter. Just imagine Romeo moping about Rosaline and his life on a blog. Suddenly, Twitter becomes the interface between characters with a separate ‘expression space’.
The gender stereotyping is also quite crass. Plenty of 15 year old girls of my aquaintance (courtesy of my god-daughter) are perfectly capable of telling their older brothers to ‘take a hike’ if they get to irritating or insulting and can arrange ‘security’ for their parties, if they fear gate-crashers. As for Jess, if Tybalt is not happy with her cooking, then she should tell him to do it himself. Sorry, that’s just bad characterisation.
In short, I will stick with the experiment and see where it takes me, but I hope the producers will provide an opportunity for feedback on the experience. After all, they wanted it to be an interactive experience.
Elizabeth
Thanks for clarifying, have to say in that respect I do agree with you.
It’ll be interesting to see if following on from your comments things change. In a 5 week theatre run things would change from night to night depending on the audience response and with a new medium like this there’s chance to tune up as they go along…
Good points, all.
However, there’s another side to this audience. All of the commenters here seem fairly educated. There’s the flip side of pure social media kids who don’t really know as much about what’s going on. I think the production is trying to balance its execution in a way that has broader appeal.
That seems to be it’s biggest mistake, at least in our eyes.
Oh, and finding a machete? honestly?
@shakabry Hey man!
@thejives, certainly, I say as much in the post :)
I like repeating stuff.
Innovation and the creative process : “create. destroy. salvage. create”
http://twitter.com/jasonhall/status/12540033734
*well* worth a watch. The fact that Mudlark’s Toby Barnes first showed this to me also speaks volumes.
[…] forum, a place where discussion about the project can happen – look at the engagement with my previous blog post for example – if you involve people in the experiment so deeply, I think it’s right to involve […]
[…] the form of Mudlurk and The RSC with their joint project Such Tweet Sorrows. There has already been numerous articles criticising the project and whilst I have taken these criticism lightly I can’t help […]
[…] the RSC’s twitter adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, has been as well received as a proverbial lead balloon. Or a Montague at a Capulet cabinet meeting if you want a more story-appropriate […]
[…] from stuffy fuddy-duddies, and bright-eyed lauding from trendy new arts types. There have been a few insightful (and mainly critical) reviews from various arts sites and bloggers, but no widespread critical […]
[…] from stuffy fuddy-duddies, and bright-eyed lauding from trendy new arts types. There have been a few insightful (and mainly critical) reviews from various arts sites and bloggers, but no widespread critical […]
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[…] in terms of attracting new audiences, and in experimenting with a new form of drama. However, commentators also identified a number of […]
[…] wondering why the big cultural organisations don’t already own this sort of activity. (cf Hannah Nicklin’s critique of Such Tweet Sorrow showing the RSC is playing catchup in a major way.) And I’m not interested in the Hitler […]
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