PULP

PULP is an eclectic composition of improvised eulogies for the end of the world, dictated by an algorithm.

Three actors perform the same monologue over and over. Inspired by the canovaccio, a scenario used by Commedia Dell'Arte players, the monologue consists only of a list of events and scenes. The details are left to the improvisation of the actors.

Meanwhile, the algorithm feeds the performers a series of rules and styles to the actors. The result is an infinite number of characters playing out the same eulogy on the last day on earth as we know it.

Inspired by exercises in style b Raymond Queneau, we asked ourselves:

How many ways are there to tell the same story? What similarities and differences can we draw between people of different social class, ethnicity and gender facing the planet's collapse?

The show was devised with Tom Ozieli, Phoebe Lerner and Oli King with the supervision of Andy Smith.

The Algorithm was created and operated by physicist Jaime Leon. The canovaccio was written by Rory Greig.

PULP was first presented at the John Thaw Theatre for Andy Smith's Contemporary Theatre Making Course at the University of Manchester (2022). It was later selected by the University of Manchester for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2022).