Binge Cul­ture take a phys­i­cal fit­ness test and makes a show out of it. Upstairs at This­tle Hall there are inspi­ra­tional mes­sages sticky-taped to the wall. GIVE IT A GO. TRIUMPH. We are wel­comed into the room by Simon and Izzy – the run­ners. Some of us are coerced into stick­ing up fur­ther mes­sages. U ARE CAPABLE. Oth­ers start a warm-up stretch­ing rou­tine. Two women are invit­ed to make sand­wich­es. The agen­da for the evening is pro­ject­ed onto the wall. A man in a dis­pos­able white boil­er­suit points to one of the words– “Wel­come.”

After a brief and bum­bling pep talk, a sur­pris­ing­ly large group of peo­ple vol­un­teer to do the beep test. Simon says “I can’t do this alone. We can do this togeth­er.” Ini­tial­ly the group is gig­gly. As the inter­vals get short­er, the run­ners are more focused. We are a qui­et audi­ence, con­cen­trat­ing on the peo­ple run­ning. As each one drops out we applaud loud­ly then drop back into our silent head turn­ing. To the door. To the win­dow. To the door. To the win­dow. One guy whips his shirt off. We cheer. To the door. To the win­dow. Even­tu­al­ly only Simon and audi­ence mem­ber Michael are left. Simon says “A full beep test can last for half an hour.” Michael says “That’s okay.”

They don’t take the full test.

Your expe­ri­ence of the show will be dif­fer­ent. Binge Cul­ture work with audi­ence par­tic­i­pa­tion so while the struc­ture remains the same, the expe­ri­ence will dif­fer depend­ing on who is in the room. Some of the sec­tions in the agen­da weren’t as suc­cess­ful as oth­ers. The con­tent made it feel as though they were only there to pro­vide one con­nec­tion point for the next item with­out any ideas lay­ered under­neath. How­ev­er, I was ful­ly invest­ed in the task the per­form­ers had set them­selves at the begin­ning and the end of the show. It’s a fas­ci­nat­ing look at what peo­ple will do — how they’ll help, how often they’ll help, what they’re will­ing to do, what they won’t do, what they think they’re allowed to do and when they think they’re allowed to do it. (Kudos to three young men in the audi­ence the night I was there. They were all over the place — run­ning, writ­ing, eat­ing…)

  • Beep Test by Binge Cul­ture, on at This­tle Hall, 8,9 March 2013