The Legacy

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 — the voice is unhurried and there is no competing sound to filter out.

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. This is a conversation, not a broadcast — 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 twenty minutes.

But how far you go is entirely yours. Required means you speak; it does not mean you go deep. A caller who answers in short sentences and keeps things light gets a whole, complete piece. A caller who wants to go further can, and the performer will follow. Both are the show working as intended — you set the level and the intensity, moment to moment, and you can change your mind halfway through.

What you will never be asked to do: perform, improvise a character, 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 that the performer is ready for and will move past without comment. Nothing is a test and there is no wrong answer.

If you need a moment, take it. Pauses are held, not filled anxiously — 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 have booked anything else, know anything about us, or remember anything from earlier.

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

• Holding a phone for twenty minutes is the only physical demand, and you can avoid it entirely with speakerphone, a headset, or earbuds. If gripping or lifting is painful, use one of those — it costs the piece nothing.
• 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 twenty minutes, 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 parent, a partner, or a friend — write to us with the specifics and you will get a real answer, not a policy. The research says that checking on someone else’s behalf is the single most time-consuming part of this, so we would rather absorb that work than have you spend an evening on it.

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. Twenty minutes of one person speaking only to you is more intimate than most theatre, and some people find that surprising even when nothing frightening happens. 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. You are not choosing between full immersion and nothing.

Before the call

• Have: a charged phone, a room where you can talk aloud, twenty-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: —. There are no fees added at the end and 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 and a refund if you’d rather. One performer means illness is a real risk and we would 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 deleted within 30 days. Nothing is recorded. 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 warm piece. The dominant feelings are curiosity, recognition and a little tenderness. It is not horror, it is not a thriller, and it does not try to unsettle you. Most people finish it in a better mood than they started.

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.