Yes? No!

Sometimes the simplest-seeming tasks can be the most impossible.

Have you ever played the yes-no game? We did it all the time in my school.

There used to be a gameshow on TV called Take Your Pick, hosted by Des O’Connor. In order to get through to the next round, contestants had to pass the yes-no game, in which they were asked a series of questions to which they were NOT allowed to answer with “yes” or “no”. It seems pretty simple, right? Our performers certainly thought so…I had a few confused looks from them when I suggested it as the very first exercise in our process.

It is actually incredibly tough - as they all found out - simply because it involves suppressing an action which, although small, is extremely instinctual. “Yes” and “no” are the sorts of words that can roll off the tongue without you even knowing you’ve said them, so often are they used in everyday life. The game is about the elimination of habitual and almost natural-seeming actions – replacing a normal response (“yes”) with one which, in the context of the question, seems completely unnatural (“I DO have Turkey at Christmas!”).

It’s an ideal game for the Failure Project…in the film below, we see our performers struggle as they fight off impending failure, and react as they, inevitably, fail. Notice their body language – often tense, on edge – and their emotional responses – laughter, anger, frustration, and often, disbelief.