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Taking place as part of the Waygood International Art Fayre, a meeting place for worldwide revolutionaries, The Reactor Party had arrived in the Newcastle locale in order to drum up local support. Installing themselves in the basement, representatives of the Party set about activating their stations, whilst up on the top floor potential comrades perused the information on the Reactor Party stall, and sat enthralled in front of the Partly Political Broadcast.

At 18:50, with military precision, the Party anthem began, small children sang the words and all gathered to watch as 4 leading members of the Party entered wearing matching pink ‘GHAOS Starts Here’ T-shirts, red neckerchiefs and grasping their ‘little red book’ tightly in their left hand.

Philstoy – Party Secretary
Nikita – Head of Propaganda
Danin – Director of the Peasant Bureau
Elski – Secretary of the Bureau for Youth

As Elski cleared a space on the Party stall, Nikita and Danin gave Philstoy a hand up in order to address the masses:

“Welcome comrades welcome, we believe that the Reactor Party is not only for those already within the fold, but in fact is for every one of you. Hopefully you have already familiarised yourself with the Party’s manifesto of ‘New Art Rules’ by watching the ‘Partly Political Broadcast’. In order to join the Party you will need to follow the ‘Party Line’, and to determine who is using their I.C.S we are going to play musical chairs.”

The now perplexed onlookers became aware that the plastic seats within the Fayre were painted red, blue or yellow and that the choice of colour is of the utmost importance. Danin played the first song and the audience were encouraged to focus their I.C.S. and conceptualise what the Party is telling them into the form of a coloured chair. When the music stopped, eager comrades rushed to take up what they thought to be the correct chair, and when all were seated Philstoy continued:

“Those of you who have chosen to sit on the yellow chairs are displaying a weak sense of I.C.S – you have failed in your task”

As those sat at Yellow chairs realised their error they also received firm whacks to the back of their chairs issued by the other Party leaders wielding long canes.

“On the other hand those of you who have sat on the Red chairs who have triumphed – you will join us on the quest”

Those that had followed the Party line and selected the correct chair – became new Reactor Party members and as such were provided with Party badges and a sticker corresponding to their quest. Philstoy, still atop the Party stall, soon explained the significance of the stickers:

“The person with the most stickers at the end wins a prize, which is this ‘Golden Thumbs Up Award, supplied by our sponsor Burgundy Leisure”

As the privileges that could be acquired once within the Party became clear, the first Quest led by Danin headed for the basement – further Quests left from the top floor every 10 minutes and would prepare activities for other Quests, crossover and work together over the next 3 hours to achieve the Party objectives.

Quest 1 reached the Triangular staircase just in time to see a rocket, set off from 4 floors below, travel up the void of the staircase and burst through paper stretched across the levels – having enjoyed this display the group were faced with their first task to re-set the paper and rockets for future Quests. As they entered the main basement space at the far end they could now see Quest 2 already lined up in formation, Danin marched down the space for firm handshake with Nikita before getting his own Quest into formation in order for both to perform a Unison Walking activity. On the signal of the whistle the 2 Quests paced down the length of the space crossing each other before reaching the other end.

Nikita took his weary Quest to the bottom of the Triangular staircase in order to brief them on correct rocket launch procedures – some of the older members of the Quest felt unable to take on this task, but there were enough willing comrades to put on an impressive display for Quest 3 led by Elski who were now at the top of the staircase. The 2 Quests passed on the stairs with further handshakes along with many ‘Welcome Comrades’, Nikita led the building of the cardboard box wall whilst Elski led her troops onto the military area in order to paint the soldiers, this activity was accompanied by rousing Party anthems in order to keep everyone working despite the hardship.

Philstoy and Quest 4 arrive in the basement and perform a series of Unison Talking experiments – to entertain the workers still painting soldiers – before they also join in the painting work, and are met by a rousing cheer as ‘more hands make light work’.

Danin meanwhile is commencing the ‘walk the line documentation’, involving all members of the Quest holding cameras as they walk a full circuit of the 4 floors of the building they are stopped at 24 timed intervals to take a photo, before arriving back at the Party desk and replacing the films in the cameras.

As Quest 7 reaches the box wall on the staircase that has slowly been moved further up by each passing Quest, Nikita explains that they need to get the boxes out off the way in order to pass – one youthful comrade jumps ahead a kicks the boxes flying in all directions. From the look on Nikita’s face he quickly realises that youthful enthusiasm is no excuse for crossing the Party line and runs downstairs to collect them and pile them neatly to one side. ‘Good Work Comrade’. As they reach the basement Nikita instructs the group that they must decide on the formation that the soldiers should take within the ‘Red Square’ by the use of red stickers to create a formation diagram which they take back up to the top floor. On their way they set series of gradated levels of barrier tape stretched across the width of the basement space that will serve as obstacles for forthcoming Quests. As they make their way up the Triangular staircase Quest 8a are coming the other way down the Rectangular staircase, when they reach the top they place the diagram on the easel and explain to Quest 8b that they must now communicate to Quest 8a via the CCTV how to place the soldiers within the square.

Quest 9 have been sent to ‘overcome’ all barriers, a difficult proposition considering the height and number of barriers put in place by Quest 7 previously, but through dogged determination they reach the opposite side of the space just in time to retrieve the scissors and cut the barrier tape in order to clear the way for Quest 10 who are on another ‘walk the line documentation’ Quest. But they have not yet completed their work, they are also entrusted with the responsibility of moving the many egg boxes housed within the basement up to the top floor, being careful not to smash any, a task that will require many trips in order to use these egg boxes to fill up the door.

As Quest 11 are in the basement performing further Unison Talking activities, an almighty crash is heard as Ellski leads her Quest in dropping the cardboard boxes down the void of the stairwell.

Quest 12 then begin their rocket prep around the perimeter of the Red Square, and all is in place as the military generals on Quest 13a arrive at the balcony to watch the rocket display before a heavy stoning of the soldiers ensue with numerous comrades joining the melee, grabbing rocks to throw at the helpless Red Army. Job done the comrades make their way back up to the top floor for the award ceremony.

The award for ‘Best Comradeship’ was tight one, with a youngster barely old enough to remember the revolution highly decorated and for showing the spirit of a true LYNX is offered her pick of the Reactor cutout bears on display, but the final award went to a comrade by the name of Susie, who was handed the ‘Golden Thumbs Up’*.

*It later came to light that Burgundy Leisure were not in fact proud sponsors of the Reactor Party, but that the award that had been emancipated by Reactor Party revolutionaries at a Burgundy Leisure event was now wanted back, leading to counter-revolutionaries stealing the award from Comrade Susie’s house. The Reactor Party views such REXist activity as a sign of the continued power of the Dark Arts, but only hardens all Party members resolve to overcome this oppressive regime and locate Total GHAOS.