Last night at midnight in Central London, Jack White played a secret show in the basement of a disused office block, to fans clad entirely in powder blue medical gowns.
The event was a collaboration between Jack and the Punchdrunk Theatre Group who had temporarily transformed the space into the Vescovo & Co Clinic for contagious diseases, and had staffed this fake medical facility with dozens of their actors playing the roles of doctors, nurses and orderlies at the time of a disease outbreak.
Drawing on the themes of Jack White's current album, 'Lazaretto', a term used to describe a quarantine island, the experience began with an elaborate online treasure hunt. A spoof medical infomercial from 1949 appeared in the archives of online medical resource The Wellcome Trust, which contained various obtuse clues that led Jack's superfans to a website belonging to the fake medical company, Vescovo & Company. Thousands of fans submitted their details to this website as part of an online screening for a contagious disease. A lucky few progressed through the screening process that lead to them receiving a telephone call from Punchdrunk actors inviting them to an out-of-hours appointment at the Vescovo Clinic. The clinic had been created for this one occasion by Punchdrunk Theatre across multiple floors of a disused building owned by The Vinyl Factory.
On arrival, fans were asked to change in to blue medical gowns before being subjected to a variety of treatments testing in a maze of medical rooms staffed by Punchdrunk actors. Chaos descended as an outbreak alarm was raised and terrified fans were herded into a smoke filled quarantine chamber. Finally a screen was dropped to reveal Jack and band in full medical uniform who proceeded to belt out a thirty minute set before Jack himself succumbed to the mysterious disease. The rock star fell to the ground in a fit of convulsions before being strapped to a stretcher and wheeled off to a waiting ambulance.
Hope this ends up on a forthcoming blu-ray. Looks like a blast.
I was there, front row and centre! It was amazing – the level of detail, even down to the signs on the notice boards, was awesome. The “medicine” we were given tasted suspiciously like Jack Daniels, and my prescription from Dr Jack told me to “go for a swim”!
I hope they filmed everyone in the rooms “alone.” What a great opportunity to get footage of what people would do in such an extreme out of reality experience; from front door to exit. :)
:) … speechless … :)
Carl Van Dera ~ I will simple say Ditto as you expressed how I feel so well. And Sugar, you hit the nail on the head, too. We are truly the lucky ones.
UNREAL! Just letting you know now, that Toronto is a sick….sick……SICK place.
That is absolutely mental. I so appreciate the effort that goes into things like this. What an amazing experience for all involved. :)
This is amazing ! Congratulations to those that got to go !!! Good Stuff !
This is amazing ! Congratulations to those that got to go !!! Good Stuff !
You guys have way too much fun to call this work, but THANK YOU for doing your job!