When Peachy last disappeared without so much as a by your leave he was found on the very outskirts of northern London, where the thinness of the housing is matched by the thinness of the green that runs between the housing making it neither this nor that, where this is the town and that is the country.
Peachy, closer to an animal than a person despite being associated with persons, despite being a text and image entertainment, had often professed an interest in burrowing creatures. Such as the rabbit, the badger and other animals like that.
You can tell if a burrow is in use by the proximity of droppings. If these are the case then you scatter sugar lumps or toffees and wait to see what happens.
I dropped these and stood with my mallet. Peachy crawled out covered in dirt. This is how we spoke to each other:
“Peachy, what’s with living in a hole?”
“A hole to you, to me a a place enabling communion with the underworld,” said the entertainment.
Evidently the entertainment was trying to obtain enfleshment via creaturehood and then on to being human.
“Peachy – you are not a creature and you will never be a person,” I cruelly countered.
“What month is it?” he wondered.
“March,” I said bluntly.
“I will spring out,” he quipped.
I malleted him. I knew that the more I indulged him the less he would be a figment the more a wraith poised for personhood. I needed mastery of him. I needed dominance of him.
In a sack I bumped him to Toynbee Studios where he will take up a role as follows:
David Gale’s Peachy Coochy Nites
The projector projects 20 images for precisely 20 seconds each. The Coocheur (or Presenter) speaks for precisely twenty seconds per image. Randomness is discouraged but narrative linearity is not automatically esteemed.
David Gale, having launched a nationwide performance must-have, continues to curate this series of Peachy Coochy events at ArtsAdmin’s stylish yet reassuring Bar. Each event features six Coocheurs, or Presenters, drawn from many walks of life. Each Coocheur will compose a verbal response to 20 images of their choice. Each presentation lasts 6 minutes and 40 seconds. There will be gaps between presentations for drinking and light conversation.
David, something of a Black Belt in these matters, will both compere and present the droppings that may not be pressed back into an originating intestine in order to reconstitute a fine meal.
Many people like the Nites. Look:
“I very much liked it when I went to it.”
(Helen, the other day.)
Peachy Coochy Nites subscribes to the the National Belief System and is therefore committed to the provision of a wide range of contributors such as the signwriter, the screenwriter, the scenesetter, the fashion plate, the object of envy, the quite the very picture, the nicely turned out, the turned out nice, the lovely day, the top of the morning, the dead of night.
The next Peachy Coochy Nite will be held, as usual, in the Bar at Toynbee Studios on Thursday November 26th at 7.30 pm. Tickets £5.00. Booking advised but walk up welcome.
more details here:
http://www.artsadmin.co.uk/projects/project.php?id=211
and a map here:
http://www.artsadmin.co.uk/contacts/
The Guardian catches some cooch:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2008/nov/17/theatre-peachy-coochy-performance-art
Some of you, pleased by the Nite, may wish to compose your own presentations. See me afterwards.
The Nites will run on the last Thursday of each month. You will be notified.
all the best
David