Alphabetti Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne is set to host Person Spec, a participatory performance piece created by Forest Sounds Theatre. Disguised as a corporate recruitment event, Person Spec invites audience members to be an active part of a job interview. Structured around a series of interview tasks, the audience will facilitate and rate the performance of the interviewee, Marion, a young woman in her twenties seeking a job. However, as the interview progresses, it becomes clear that there is something more sinister behind the tasks. The success of the interview rests in the hands of the audience.
Person Spec was born out of writer and founder of Forest Sounds, Andy Owen Cook’s experience of being made redundant twice in one year during a global recession. The show explores the feeling of redundancy and the struggle to fight against it, as well as the troubling implications of audience participation. The production was curated by a team of creatives from the UK, Spain, Portugal, and China, with input from non-professional participants with experience of precarious labour.
Person Spec will run at Alphabetti Theatre from February 28th to March 18th with both 1:00pm and 7:30pm showtimes. The performance is 75 minutes long and has an age restriction of 16+. The tickets are Pay What You Feel from February 28th to March 4th and range from £3-£15 from March 7th to March 18th. The show will have captioned and audio-described performances on March 8th and March 15th respectively. More information can be found here
