Some years ago, Tim Crouch had a reputation as a revolutionary theatre maker, writer, actor, director. In the bad old days, when actors daily regurgitated the same old words time after time, Tim Crouch came up with this device to achieve excitement and anticipation.  I actually did not find it that exciting then, but now it has become hackneyed and “Yes, Tim” to answer your question, “Contrived”.

The idea was to write a script and feed it to an actor on stage, unseen.  The script that is, unseen, not the actor.  The audience would then have an unique experience, as would the unsuspecting actor and indeed Tim Crouch. This idea that you can get a selection of actors with a “name” to participate on a one-off evening has been done many times since. 

Most recently there was White Rabbit, Red Rabbit  at The Park Theatre and @sohoplace, billed as “One of the most toured plays in the contemporary history of theatre!  No rehearsals. No director. No set. A different actor reads the script cold  for the first time at each performance.”  It toured from 2011 to the present. 

Before that in early 2024, there was the Park Theatre’s fundraiser,Whodunnit Unrehearsed which saw a different celebrity every night slotting into a madcap murder mystery involving, a train, diamonds, a magician and a high body count.  Interesting is it not, that this is classed as a fundraiser.  I suspect that these high profile celebrities are not being paid their usual fee but acting pro-bono. 

This theatrical contrivance has now spawned a child of its own but instead of acting celebrities we have members of the audience plucked from their seats to play in The Importance of Being Earnest or another well known play.