description

“I’ve shot up this stuff that makes time run fast-forwards and now it’s starting to take effect. The cops are after me and they’ve shot up the same stuff, only the stuff they’ve shot up is stronger than the stuff I shot up so they’ll end up further into the future, waiting to catch me...”

In Club of No Regrets, the central figure, Helen X, gives orders to a pair of performers to enact a series of scenes inside a crude and tiny box set, located centre stage. A second pair of performers — who function as brutal and incompetent stagehands or captors — either facilitate or hinder these enactments. Having bound the first two to chairs and threatened them with toy guns, these cruel assistants proceed to bring them the texts and props the performance might need.

The scenes enacted in this manner — fragments of made-for-TV movies, love stories, cop shows — are replayed many times as though Helen is unsure about their true order or correct arrangement. The scenes, which become increasingly violent and chaotic (with talcum powder, fake blood, water and leaves hurled around the stage), are framed by a further text, a confused narration of Helen’s fairy story/history which she calls Club of No Regrets.

© Forced Entertainment 1993. Theatre performance.

Credits

Conceived and devised by the company
Performers: Robin Arthur, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden, Terry O'Connor
Direction: Tim Etchells
Text: Tim Etchells
Assistant Director: Ju Row Farr
Design: Richard Lowdon
Lighting Design: Nigel Edwards
Soundtrack: John Avery