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A Reported Outbreak of a Rare and, as yet Unidentified, Contagious Disease!

A Reported Outbreak of a Rare and, as yet Unidentified, Contagious Disease!

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.


Comments

Marilyn

Amazing!!! I clearly didn’t “get it” with the whole Vescovo thing and this is blowing my mind— LOVE LOVE LOVE that about Jack; he just transports me over and over again.

athinkingcat

I second Detroit for something on the in between day but not during nick caves show please. :) Something at the Jack White Theater perhaps?

MrJack37

Absolutely love TMR and jack white for this kind of movement in music. Instantly a legend. Please do something to this degree in Toronto at the end of this month!!!

Scott_Pheby

…This is genius!

thirdmanfan3

do something like this in the US!

Meencolleen

Amazing!!!

Avrate

I feel sick. I think I Vescovo & Co will have to contain me soon.

BeulahC

I was wondering why Jack had given up the B shows this time around. I shouldn’t have worried.

bluerowan

Very clever! Although I was too healthy for this event I appplaud TMR and Jack for such an undertaking.

EnemaWatson

That must have been an interesting show.

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