'A Convict's Hope' relies on the focus and participation of its audience as an interactive theatre piece about Australia's convict history.
Folly Games has been presenting the show at Museum Of Brisbane and will continue to do so until October. Here, one of the characters, The Archivist, pens a log entry (open letter) giving an insight into the show.
The Archivist’s Log
Log Number X3149
“From the moment I joined the Federation of Knowledge I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy job; cataloguing and examining and archiving everything in our known universe and even beyond. Of course, I wasn't going to doing it alone. Every Archivist is assigned an Assistant, to assist in any tasks that need, well... Assisting.
To begin with, work was easy; all of our assigned artefacts were right where they said they would be. It was just a matter of bringing in the artefacts and letting our Archive do its job. We tag the artefacts and the Archive scans them, pulling important information and history from that artefact’s timeline. It is automatically catalogued and given a Timeline ID, so we can know exactly where each item fits in the history of all. And as I said, it began easy. Then the harder jobs came; the fire at the Fire Fighter’s Museum, the exploding whale (that, I assure you, was going to explode anyway), and we really didn’t mean to sink Atlantis. Failure after failure we have faced, with no artefacts achieved and a lower and lower Job Satisfaction Score; things are looking grim.
Which brings me to the now. The Assistant and I have arrived at the Museum of Brisbane as our Intel indicates a very important item has found its resting place here. The item represents hope, a hope that had a huge impact on history. It is our job as representatives of the Federation of Knowledge to find this item and archive its relevance to history. I fear, however, that this may be our last chance to make up for lost timelines, and if we fail we may have to go work for the far inferior Knowing Stuff Inc. I shudder at the thought of it. Their uniforms aren’t even stylish. Just so... Beige.
So we have begun our work here in Brisbane. There are many items to tag and scan in our Archive and we haven’t much time to do so. I think if we are lucky we will come across the Item of Hope sooner rather than later, but I do fear that in the end we may not make it in time, at least not without a little help.”
End Log
– The Archivist
Log Number X3149
“From the moment I joined the Federation of Knowledge I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy job; cataloguing and examining and archiving everything in our known universe and even beyond. Of course, I wasn't going to doing it alone. Every Archivist is assigned an Assistant, to assist in any tasks that need, well... Assisting.
To begin with, work was easy; all of our assigned artefacts were right where they said they would be. It was just a matter of bringing in the artefacts and letting our Archive do its job. We tag the artefacts and the Archive scans them, pulling important information and history from that artefact’s timeline. It is automatically catalogued and given a Timeline ID, so we can know exactly where each item fits in the history of all. And as I said, it began easy. Then the harder jobs came; the fire at the Fire Fighter’s Museum, the exploding whale (that, I assure you, was going to explode anyway), and we really didn’t mean to sink Atlantis. Failure after failure we have faced, with no artefacts achieved and a lower and lower Job Satisfaction Score; things are looking grim.
Which brings me to the now. The Assistant and I have arrived at the Museum of Brisbane as our Intel indicates a very important item has found its resting place here. The item represents hope, a hope that had a huge impact on history. It is our job as representatives of the Federation of Knowledge to find this item and archive its relevance to history. I fear, however, that this may be our last chance to make up for lost timelines, and if we fail we may have to go work for the far inferior Knowing Stuff Inc. I shudder at the thought of it. Their uniforms aren’t even stylish. Just so... Beige.
So we have begun our work here in Brisbane. There are many items to tag and scan in our Archive and we haven’t much time to do so. I think if we are lucky we will come across the Item of Hope sooner rather than later, but I do fear that in the end we may not make it in time, at least not without a little help.”
End Log
– The Archivist
