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