Rachel’s Task #1
‘Find 3-5 performances or artworks that are important to you as an artist.’
I found it really hard to say what is important to me as an artists and find a tangible thing to show for that. I’ve included here some things i’ve experienced and still think about a lot.
1. We Used to Wait by Massive Owl
It was hard to find pictures or video of this. I don’t think they’ve performed it since 2014. I saw it at the HUB just before i graduated and i was making my first big interactive performance. It was just four people, in a small, cold room. The audience were sat in a square around the edges of the room. We danced, we held hands, we ran, we swapped places, we met people. it was all sort of false but all very real. That sounds really lame but i don’t know how to explain it better.
Here is a link to how Slung Low advertised it: http://www.slunglow.org/event/used-wait-massive-owl/
2. Schrodinger by Reckless Sleepers
I saw this a very long time ago and i have not stopped thinking about it. I love things that visually build up or change or get destroyed over the course of the performance and this had all of that. It was really incomprehensible in a way but i felt like i was getting a glimpse into another world where these people go through these motions repeatedly. I didn’t need any more than that, i just wanted to watch it. The imagery was really amazing. I’m also a sucker for water in performances, pouring it over myself, on the floor, standing in it, asking the audience to stand in it... I don’t know.
Some pictures from their website: http://www.reckless-sleepers.eu/sch-images
3. Beyond Caring by Alexander Zeldin and Company
I saw this at Deli in Sheffield. I don’t normally like ‘plays’, i get a bit bored and i find it hard to invest in the characters and the narrative and i don’t think a lot of end on, traditional plays are visually impactful enough or conceptually driven or whatever. BUT i was in tears during Beyond Caring. I just couldn’t believe the accuracy of the portrayal of how we treat people. I was really blown away that someone had thought it was important to reflect modern, working class life without relying on ‘grim up north’, 80s coal-miner narratives or just the general glamorising and reinforcing of hegemony and upper-middle-class lifestyles. Political rant over. As someone with a long term illness, and in a world of horrible zero hours contracts and no union strength, this was a really bleak look into what my future might hold and it scared me. It really scared the shit out of me.
I think i saw Rachel in the audience that night, but here is a link to what HOME had to say about the show: https://homemcr.org/production/beyond-caring/
4. We Want You to Watch by Rash Dash
What isn’t to like about a show where they make visceral, inner-organ, sex noises into a microphone and then shoot a child in the head to protect him from the world? I don’t have anything else to say about that. Rash Dash are strong and fearless.
‘We know exactly what we’re doing. We’re not stupid.’
Rash Dash’s website, with video and pictures of the show: http://www.rashdash.co.uk/shows/past-shows/we-want-you-to-watch/
5. Nothing by Lulu Rackza and Barrel Organ
I saw this a few years ago at NSDF. At the time i had been writing things but not really thinking about myself as a writer and was VERY self conscious about my writing practice as just something that needed to be done and there was no one else to do it so i would. Just some people in a room talking and that was it. After that i have written more and more and i like it, i like being matter-of-fact, i like just speaking, i like not acting very much when doing the speaking. These people and Chris Thorpe made me want to develop my writing into something i can confidently show to people and draw on for my work.
Company website: http://www.barrelorgantheatre.co.uk/work
