Dead Dove: Do Not Eat - live on stage!
I went to a play last night called 'Dead Dove: Do Not Eat', put on by students of a local theatre school. As you can imagine, the title had piqued my interest immediately when I was looking for upcoming shows. Here's the blurb:
'Somewhere on the internet, four fans scribble in the dark. Desperately alone, they conjure unofficial worlds of unofficial literature. Embarrassing, heartfelt and dangerous, they weave fictions to create connection, reframe the narrative and transform reality itself. Sitting precariously between fantasy, reality, and copyright infringement, ‘Dead Dove: Do Not Eat’ exposes the stories we write for ourselves, and the worlds we redesign in our image.'
It's not actually a particularly accurate description; I had thought it would be about the people writing the fic, but it was essentially a staged version of a Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire fanfic from Cedric Diggory's perspective. It was a very sweet celebration of fanfic, written by people who have clearly spent time in the community. It poked fun at that 'my first fanfic' style of writing in a very affectionate way: the juvenile writing; the clumsy and unsubtle exposition; side characters getting name-checked once then never showing up again. There was even the odd Americanism, in the pronunciation of Nike as 'Nik-EE', despite this being in the UK.
It was a reasonably full house, and although I don't know how many people were there because they like fanfic rather than because they know someone in the cast, there were a lot of laughs. The guy next to me laughed so hard he spilt his beer all over his girlfriend, so he was clearly having a great time.
It's on for one more night, so if you like fanfic and live in Bristol check it out! If you take your girlfriend, do try not to spill your drink on her.