Review: David Pledger's talk on Project Eavesdrop

Project Eavesdrop is one weird show I wish I could have experienced in person. 10 characters, interconnected by stories and doomed to repeat a certain 9 mins of their lives in a perpetual loop. All delivered in surround screen & sound as an immersive interactive multimedia drama presented in a custom-made cinematic space. There's unrequited love, song & dance, suicide, a high body count plus a certain inflatable doll. Very drama-one. Download a clip of the show here.


David Pledger from Not Yet It's Difficult (NYID) talked about the vision and shared some secrets behind this interactive installation by himself and Jeffrey Shaw in 2004, and I was mesmerised. The creativity of the script and high production values. The cool star-trekie rotating platform user interface with zoom & pan navigation to hide/reveal layers of narrative in each character's "interior landscape". And his enthusiastic fascination with TV soap operas both as message & medium.



When asked what he would do different if he could do the project over but with no technological limits, David wished that every member of the audience could be tracked within the constructed space and would hear different pieces of the inner thoughts relevant to their proximity to the actors on screen.

I wonder what exciting projects the 5-day workshop participants will conjure up for the Malaysian masses. Can't wait.
This talk was organised by the Instant Cafe Theatre Company.