Soft Openings

New Work at The Royal Court and The Yard

In the Fall of 2019, when Covid-19 was but a twinkle in her mother’s eye, I decided that I needed to take a break from performance; “A year or so should do it,” I said to myself, picturing a full twelve-months without a single press release or 11pm lighting tech, and sighing softly.

I thought that with a little bit of distance I might be able to better understand the motivations behind this decade-long insistence on chasing my tail around the globe, following almost every opportunity, blindly wherever it led. To ArtBasel in Hong Kong, to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rio, Schaubühne and the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, to Tokyo, Paris, Lisbon, Rome, Warsaw, Tel Aviv, and Cologne. I had hot-footed it from one stage to the next, from one continent to the next, without really ever asking why for so long, that I wasn’t sure I even knew how to live any other way. I realized that I was in some way addicted; the adrenaline, the booze, and the admirers make a heady cocktail, a necessary tonic to help neutralise the anxiety, physical exhaustion, and roving paranoia which are the longstanding souvenirs of a life onstage.

Yes, some time away from all of *that* was, I had decided, what I needed, when KABAM! along came the pandemic, as if to cosmically ensure that I didn’t so much as reach for the Snazaroo clown white, ushering in a full two years off-stage, as if the Universe had chuckled and said “I’ll see your bet and raise ya double,” (although the Universe probably said nothing of the sort as I’m sure she was far to busy). And now, having had a 24 months without troubling the boards, what have I learned? For starters, the power of saying “No” (which I really am getting *very* good at now) and also the necessity of having a lolsome process. I have of late put into place a new rule for performance, “I’ll do it if it’ll be a laugh.” (Evidence of this new methodology can soon be heard in an upcoming radio play, a job I took explicitly because it gave me the rare opportunity to say “P*ss off you tw*t” on Radio 4).

Well, you might be thinking, that’s all very interesting I’m sure, but this isn’t a web therapy session - what’s in this for me??? I’ll tell you… Are you ready for it? Well, I’M BACK!!!! Sort, of. I have two extremely embryonic pieces of work showing over the next two weeks and I’d like to invite you to see them.

Next week (Oct 28th) at The Yard in London I will be presenting a short scratch piece called MEDUSA RECLUSA, which is an experiment in writing with AI and performing with CGI models. NB This is absolutely not a finished piece but very much a try-out for new techniques.

MEDUSA RECLUSA is live streaming at 4pm (GMT) on Thurs Oct 28th and you can sign up to watch it for free here

(There are also some irl in the theatre seats available on a first come first served basis so be in touch if you want one)

And THEN!

The following week (Nov 4) at the Royal Court I’m showing a 20-minute extract from a new full-length play called THE WEIGHT OF THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. This is the product of a writer’s group I was invited to join this summer, and there will be two other pieces showing too so it’s sure to be worth yr six quid. This is not streaming, it’s live only and selling well, remaining tickets are available here

P.S. There are a further two nights of new work by other writers from the group on Nov 5/6, if you fancy a triple bill

Now then, wasn’t that worth the wait?