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myburntwritings · 6 months

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Day 27: The most special visit to the City for you.

I had great shows. I had some truly incredible shows. But honestly, I don't believe I had a singular 'most special' show. My special moments were so split across various visits that I don't think I could choose between them.

Perhaps, if I'd had a singular special show near the beginning of my visits, I would feel differently. However, honestly, I'm almost glad I didn't. I know me, and I would have been chasing that 'special show' again, and that would have led to constant measuring against a likely unattainable goal. I'm glad my special moments were spread around, because that made them more special in my mind and not comparable to the others.

If I'm having to pick a singular show, the only reasonable answer for me is the final show, 24th September 2023. We're now over a month after the show closed, and I still haven't spoken publicly about why this show was so incredibly special to me. This is in part due to the personal nature of what made it special, but also because I didn't want to brag. I didn't want to upset anyone who perhaps didn't get the same level of cathartic gratitude that I was lucky enough to experience.

My desire not to upset others is not down to reactions from other people. I have never received anything other than excitement and joy when I have been gifted an interaction they perhaps didn't get while on the same loop. Everyone I know in the Burnt City community has been unwaveringly supportive of the spread of love when it comes to special moments. This is my own internalised fear, baseless given previous interactions with fellow fans. But, things get bigger when we internalise them, don't they?

Everyone who knows me personally, who met up with me before or after shows, who were the recipients of my 'Burnt City Story Times' (actually only one person, but she knows well enough.) knows without a doubt who my favourite performers are. Standing in the queue before the show, when someone would inevitably ask who I planned on following, there was the 'of course you are' response when I told them I planned on following Georges, Seirian, Milton, or Tim. I so enjoyed their performances that I followed them repeatedly. And if I didn't know who I was going to follow, others would invariably find me following one of these talented performers at some point during the show.

It also helped that these performers held roles of some of my favourite characters, so if I wanted to follow a favourite character, there was a good chance I was following one of these performers.

For my final show, I wanted to split my time between my favourite performers, as much as I wanted to see favourite characters. I had planned on doing Apollo, Kronos, Apollo so I could see both Seirian and Georges in the role of Apollo, and follow Milton for his final loop as Kronos.

I had a premium ticket, so got into the building reasonably early (that VIP/Premium queue was LONG) and as I was having my ticket scanned, a FOH black mask gently gripped me by the elbow and pulled me aside. She told me that she knew I'd been to the show a lot, and if I wanted to skip the museum entry, they would be letting some people in through one of the side doors in Peep. The queue was huge, I think they were trying to relieve some of the pressure of people getting in. She told me where to go in Peep and left it to my decision.

Once in Peep, I asked one of the FOH staff if I was in the right place. I didn't need to go through the museum again, and the crowd around the entrance was already getting unmanageable for me to stand in that crush for an extended period. They said yes, I was in the right place, and if I wanted to grab a few friends who also wouldn't mind skipping the museum, that was fine. A few, mind. Don't go around telling everyone.

I grabbed three friends and told them about the side entrance. They all happily joined. There were maybe a dozen of us waiting in the side area of Peep. As the first group were let into the mask room, we were ushered to the door and handed stamped masks. We were told we could keep these masks, and they opened the door Apollo and Artemis usually enter Peep by, six of us let through. The next group would be let in as the second main group entered the mask room.

The first group were still in the mask room, or maybe just being sent through to Hades. We six were the first people in the space; an incredible privilege.

I went into the Town Square, and found Louis J Rhone as Polymestor stood in the centre of the square, taking a moment to himself. He noticed my arrival, nodded, and walked away. I was practically floating that I was so lucky as to be one of the first people in the space, and I decided that I wanted a final moment alone in the Tenement Square, one of my favourite locations. So, I headed straight there.

Only, I wasn't alone. I wasn't the first into that space. Milton Lopes was already stood in the Tenement Square. He was stood next to the pillar, not doing anything. I went and stood in my favourite spot (see Day 9 answer) and Milton and I just watched each other. Gods only know what he was thinking, but we both just stood there, letting it all soak and sink in.

Tenement Square slowly filled in around us, and when he moved to start his loop, I knew I couldn't stick with my plan. I currently hate Hades for being right that words cannot describe it. The feeling that went through me at that moment. I couldn't not follow Milton into the Cyclops room. I wouldn't be able to leave his loop until he did. I knew I would regret it if I did anything else. I would never stop regretting it if I didn't go with my instinct to follow him after that moment, the two of us reflecting in the Tenement Square.

Now, it's worth noting here that I have not been the recipient of any interactions from Milton in any role for some months at this point. The one scripted interaction I received was that he threatened me with the chisel maybe a month or two before. He knows how many times I've followed. He knows I've had all of the interactions before, and Milton was always so good at choosing new people to interact with where he could.

So, by the time we get into the tenement rooms for what I call the 'forwards backwards' sequence, I am comfortable with the fact that this would be like every other show. He would give interactions to the people he didn't recognise. He takes the seat in the first room and picks up the litter-picker device. There are a lot of people behind me trying to see, so I skirt around the edge to stand behind the chair and watch the interaction.

Only, he looks over his shoulder at me and snaps the picker in my direction. I cautiously step forwards, and he takes hold of the rim of my mask with the picker, lifting it up onto my head. He throws the picker aside and approaches me. He puts my mask back in place, he holds my shoulders tightly, and leans in towards me.

"Thank you."

Another thing you should know about me at this point is that I am an emotional sap. I cry at anything. I'm crying writing this. But those two words from one of my favourite performers in a show that I have loved so fiercely, broke me into pieces. Milton moved off to the continue through the rooms, and I was frozen, tears streaming down my face as the rest of the sizeable group of people on the loop filed past me after him.

A number of people passing by me were friends, and each of them grasped me by the arm, by the hand, by the shoulder. A squeeze of understanding, perhaps of recognition that they would be exactly the same in my situation.

I stayed at the back of the group. I waited for the backwards portion, and to see the Kronos wall crawl from the far end. We went into Klub, and I watched that scene from behind Polymestor's desk so that I could see Polydorus dancing in the office while Polymestor, Kampe, and Kronos performed in Klub. My favourite position to watch that scene.

We returned downstairs, and through the rest of the loop, as expected, a variety of people were chosen for each interaction. I'd had my interaction, my gift. I was exceedingly happy with that. But I had always known I wanted to follow Milton for his final loop, so I stuck around in the tenement square over reset as he took someone for the 1:1. I watched Apollo and Cassandra dance with Seirian as Apollo, so I was thrilled I got to see that.

And onto loop 2 we went.

This time it was as we were leaving Klub. In the Elysium hotel corridor, Milton's Kronos would storm back through the crowd and then find a spirit to sniff as he tries to work out what is following him. I've had this interaction on many occasions, (I sometimes joke that I was sniffed so often, Milton could probably pick out my perfume at the Boots counter) and knowing I'd had my moment in loop 1, I was not expecting for Milton to slam his hand against the wall right next to my head. He sniffed me, and then pulled back to look me in the eye.

He nodded and set off again. And once again, I found myself frozen for a moment as my brain caught up.

In loops 2 and 3, it is directly after this interaction that Kronos goes down and selects the mid-loop 1:1. The crowd around Kronos was huge at this point. Going down the stairs, I was at least a dozen people back, and there were at least another dozen behind me as he did a backbend on the banisters and stared up the stairs at us.

I was easily in the third row of the circle of people around the 1:1 door. There were people who had been around since the beginning of the loop, and those who had started following as we left Klub. Milton shone the torch around people's shoes as he always did, and there was a lot of shuffling as he moved around the group. Then, very suddenly, he turned the torch back, thrust his hand between two other followers, and held it right in front of me.

We went into the room, and he locked the door behind us. I am on the verge of laughing with the absurdity of it, and crying with gratitude. By the time we lay on the trolley under the car, I was emotional.

"I'm going to tell you the story of your life."

I was openly sobbing again. Tears streaming into my hair as he told me of the labyrinth. A very wet laugh as he remembered an out-of-show conversation we'd had almost a year earlier and reworded it into the text.

I'd had this 1:1 twice with Milton. Both times were before the change where the performer would put the minotaur head on. As such, I never saw the Minotaur with Milton, as he would tell you to close your eyes back in the early days, and apparently I do what I'm told.

I didn't see it this time either. Instead of putting the head on, he invited me into a hug which I gratefully accepted. I never saw the Minotaur while with Milton's Kronos. This fact amuses me.

We left the 1:1 and went straight back into the Tenement Square. Milton performed a crucifix aerial move against the wall, went into room 8 and closed the door... and he was done. The next time the door opened with Louis' Polymestor carrying Polydorus into the room, it was Nick's Polymestor who emerged afterwards, and Louis Kronos.

Milton's performances were done.

Obviously, I can't speak to Milton's reasoning for choosing me, or his feelings about that final show. All I can do is be incredibly grateful that he chose to share some of these final moments with me. That his performance (and I have said that it was never about the 1:1s, it was always his performance that kept me coming back) that Sunday afternoon was so deeply emotionally impacting on me. I don't think I will ever forget it.

I left Kronos behind to go and find Apollo.

I found Apollo in Peep, and followed Georges as he went through the Troy backstreets to his reset. I was stood beside one of my best friends, the person who introduced me to Punchdrunk, and an equal Georges' Apollo fan as he laid on the ledge over the door and reached a hand out to the both of us. I nudged her forwards to take his hand.

Every performer in that final show was giving it their everything. Georges Hann was incredible as he went through Apollo's story one final time. He beamed bright as sunshine when happy, and was entirely devastating when he wasn't.

I've said before that Georges was my Apollo. One of my favourite performers in my favourite role, and finishing this incredible, emotional rollercoaster of a show with him was perfect. It was absolutely everything I could have asked for, and I can't imagine spending that final loop with a character other than Apollo. That it was Georges in the role was as devastating as it was wonderful.

After the show ended (yes, with lots of tears during the finale from me) most people were filing out. I hung back, letting the majority go through first so that I wouldn't be stuck in tight spaces. Across no man's land, I saw a friend, @my-burnt-city (thankfully dressed in a furious pink dress, so easy to spot) also saying goodbye to the space. We clocked each other, and without a word, we both practically ran into a tight, emotional hug.

As we left, we got one final drink from the crate room water cooler (best water in show) and went around the crate room toasting everything from the best water cooler to Sallie the horse to the 1:1 crate. A final little ridiculous moment shared in this fabulous space.

And that is what makes this particular show so incredible. Not only the perfect gifts of performances and interactions from personal favourites, but the inexplicable understanding that everyone is feeling such similar emotions. That we all fell so deeply in love with everything this show gave us, and as it came to the end, we were supporting each other.

I think I hugged more people in that one show than I have any other combined. I like to think the performers were grateful for our love of them and everything they gave us.

And that's something truly special.

#the burnt city #punchdrunk #immersive theatre #greek mythology #greek myth retelling #tbc #tbc 30 day challenge #final show #24th September 2023 #Holy shit that was long. I'm sorry.#Well done for sticking it out if you're still here reading the tags

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