• Every Mayfest boasts one or two stand-out, off-the-wall delights – shows boasting Herculean staging demands (like last year’s ‘Electric Hotel’) or promising to subtly alter the emotional co-ordinates of all who see it (see last year, again, and the emotional, intimate ‘Internal’). This year’s eye-catcher is ‘Save Me’, a semaphore soap opera performed, using giant flags, by Bristol performance duo Search Party. Performers Pete Phillips and Jodie Hawkes will converse over 11 days using the flag semaphore system, building up a narrative over time: audiences, bystanders, commuters and city strollers are invited to get involved and steer the story. “Often the audience try to manipulate the piece into a love story, offering advice on how we should make up or hold out for an apology,” says Pete, reflecting on past performances, including a session on London’s South Bank. “The mood is always very hopeful – the audience are willing the connection to succeed.” SP will spend Mayfest on the Floating Harbour – Pete at Cascade Steps, Jodie on Pero’s Bridge – and will invite audiences and passers-by to decode messages and send their own. “You can engage with the performance in various ways – visually it’s quite arresting, which makes a nice contrast with the often day-to-day nature of the conversation.” Pete recommends returning to the piece often over its 11-day run, to engage with its distinctive rolling narrative. Audiences are also invited to leave their own stories of when they have been apart from someone. “We provide tags and pens for people to leave their own stories as a memorial to the people they miss, which we’ll weave into the dialogue.”
