As I was travelling home on the train this past Friday, our train was stopped at Newark Castle for longer than usual. over the tanoid we were told that a person was hit by a train in Loughborough so the train was to terminate at Nottingham. When hearing that someone was hit everyone gasped, but there was more of a sense of “how are we going to get home.”

I was stranded in Nottingham, Jess, my girlfriend was driving to me and I waited and listened as people got annoyed as more and more trains got cancelled and the station was struggling to find alternative transport.

over the next hour the same message was being relayed, I wrote it down:

This is a passenger announcement. A passenger announcement for any passenger getting the fifteen thirty-five, train s-service to Leicester. This train has been cancelled. This is due to a person being hit by a train. On behalf of East Midlands train s-service we apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused. 

Three businessmen sat next to me on a bench in the station, making judgements of people walking past and when the message was relayed for the tenth time one of the men said this:

Did she say person? A person? Perhaps he missed the train. Puts his arms out in a stopping motion “Stop! Wait for me!”

None of his friends laughed. Too soon and just generally not funny.

It isn’t just this man’s inappropriate joke, I think we all secretly moan when we are inconvenienced, no matter the cause. This had me thinking about a disconnection we have for strangers. And the impenetrable bubbles we put ourselves in.

I have thought about making this disconnection with strangers a leading point in my show, maybe including Joyce Vincent in this section and recreating three businessmen. I could use the coffin on stage as the bench I was sat on.

I think through this I would like to include the selfish factor of this disconnection, as in, the way we connect to bad events by saying “it could have been me”.

I think this brings a whole new dimension to the performance, and will hopefully get the audience to reflect on themselves and the way they respond to a stranger’s tragedy.