1337

Headphones or earbuds are fine and slightly nicer than a handset. Speakerphone works too. If you use a hearing aid with a telecoil or a phone-compatible setting, this piece is built to work on it.

On the four-point spectrum the field generally uses:

• No interaction — you only listen.
• Optional interaction — you may speak, but need not.
• Interaction encouraged — you're invited to play along.
• Interaction required — without you, there is no piece.← this one

You have to take part. The MENTOR is sizing you up, one exchange at a time — the call is built out of what you say, and it can't happen around you while you listen. If you want to sit back and be told a story, this is the wrong sixty minutes.

But how far you go is entirely yours. Required means you speak; it does not mean you go deep, or claim to know things you don't. A caller who answers in short sentences and stays cautious gets a whole, complete piece. A caller who wants to lean into the world and trust the MENTOR further can, and the performer will follow. Both are the show working as intended.

What you will never be asked to do: perform real hacking, provide real passwords, account numbers, or credit information, break any actual law, put on a voice, sing, be funny on demand, or answer anything you'd rather not. “I'd rather not say” is a real answer the performer is ready for. The illegal-in-1995 activity in the story is fiction — the MENTOR may encourage you, in-character, to talk as though you'd go along with something illegal inside the world of the game; you're never actually doing it, and nothing you say leaves the call.

The MENTOR may threaten you, in-fiction. Part of the tension of this piece is the MENTOR implying they could hack your phone, or pull your credit report, or otherwise expose you. This is invented for the story — no real system is ever accessed, nothing about your actual phone, accounts, or credit is looked at, and the performer does not have and will never ask for the real information that would make any of it possible.

If you need a moment, take it. And if you want the intensity turned down without ending the call, “lights up a little” does exactly that.

No preparation, no homework, no reading beforehand. You do not need to know anything about 1995, phone phreaking, or hacker culture. The MENTOR will meet you where you are.

You can be seated the entire time, and lying down is fine. There is no standing, walking, stair-climbing, or moving between rooms. You are never asked to go and fetch anything or to change position.

• Holding a phone for up to an hour is the only physical demand, and you can avoid it entirely with speakerphone, a headset, or earbuds.
• No writing, reading, or note-taking. Nothing needs to be written down. You will not be asked to remember a number or a password.
• Nothing is asked of your hands beyond answering the call.

If voice calling doesn't work for you

Say so in the notes when you book and we will arrange it. None of these change the piece:

• Text-message version — the same hour, conducted by SMS at your booked time.
• Relay service — give us the relay details and we will place the call through it.
• Live transcript — a written version of the call sent to you afterwards.
• Slower pacing — if processing spoken language takes you longer, we will slow down. Just ask.
• A support person on the line — an interpreter, carer, or friend may listen in or facilitate. Tell us and we will pitch the call to include them.

If you're booking on behalf of somebody else, or checking whether this would suit a partner or friend — write to us with the specifics and you'll get a real answer, not a policy.

There is no physical contact of any kind, and none is possible. Nobody comes to your door. Nobody knows where you are. This is a phone call and nothing else — we will never suggest meeting, arriving, or continuing in person.

What is worth naming instead: a voice in your ear is close. An hour of one person speaking only to you, building a conspiratorial rapport, is more intimate than most theatre. The performer will use your first name if you give it, and will not use any other personal detail about you.

You can make it less close at any point. Say “lights up a little” and the performer softens — steps back from the intimacy, keeps the story going, and the call continues. That is different from ending it.

Before the call

• Have: a charged phone, a room where you can talk aloud, sixty-five minutes of nobody needing you. A glass of water is nice.
• Turn off do-not-disturb and any unknown-caller blocking, or we can't reach you. This is the single most common reason a call doesn't connect.
• You do not need: headphones, an app, an account, a costume, a partner, or a quiet street.
• Price: —, because you're testing a work in progress with us. There's nothing to tip.

If something goes wrong

• You miss the call. We ring once more three minutes later. After that the slot is released and you can rebook free.
• The line drops. We call straight back, twice. If it won't hold, we email you to rebook — you don't lose the booking to bad signal.
• You need to move your slot. Reply to your confirmation up to two hours before. No reason needed, no charge.
• We have to cancel. You'll hear from us as early as we possibly can, with rebooking offered first. One performer means illness is a real risk and we'd rather say so than pretend otherwise.

Your details

Name, email, phone number and anything you write in the notes are held by our scheduling provider and by us, used only to make this call happen and to follow up for feedback, and deleted within 30 days. The call itself is audio-recorded for internal creative review — the recording is accessible only to the creative team, used only to develop the show, and deleted within 90 days of the playtest round ending. Nothing is sold, shared, or added to a mailing list unless you separately ask to join one.

Tier one — the general shape. This is a tense, adversarial piece as much as a conspiratorial one. The MENTOR tests you — pushing, provoking, sometimes name-calling, sometimes threatening to expose or hack you — and the dominant feelings are risk, unease, and the thrill of being let in on a secret you're not sure you should be let in on. It isn't trying to be horror, but it is trying to unsettle you a little, on purpose.

Age: —. Book for yourself, not as a surprise for someone else — a call from an unknown number is only a delight if you were expecting it.