On Wednesday 30^th October, the Performance and Community REG hosted a rehearsed reading of Box, by Gill Kirk www.gillkirk.com. Gill was accompanied by a fantastically experienced team consisting of Director Hannah Drake (www.hannahdrakedirector.com) and actors Matt Lloyd Davies (www.matthewlloyddavies.com) and Mary Chater (www.shakespeareinitaly.eu). Here’s a little about the play itself:

“In BOX, Allie and Mike’s parallel lives collide and ricochet to give us a 360-degree sense of not just who they are, but who they could be, given the right (and wrong) circumstances. Tales of love, ambition, disappointment and elephants hang like socks on the washing line of Allie’s brilliant, upsetting, weird and wistful TED talk, as she stumbles around the questions of quantum physics, who we are and who we could be.”

Like work such as Carl Djerassi’s Calculus or Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, Box is an example of ‘Science-in-Theatre’, a work equally committed to exploring the intricates and methodologies of science and its epistemological foundations, as well as seeing scientific theories as having a poetic and symbolic analogue in human lives. In Box, ideas of quantum entanglement and the familiar ‘dead-and-not-dead’ cat of Schrodinger are used to discuss the how ‘entanglement’ and uncertainty exist on the macro and the micro levels and how the particular so often speaks to the general.

 

After the performance, we had an illuminating Q&A with Gill and Hannah. We discussed the interface between science and art, as well as the narrative dynamics of non-linear storytelling. This was particularly interesting in the case of Box as rather than being simply non-linear, it was multiply non-linear, exploring as it did the multiple possible lives of the two main characters, Allie and Mike.

 

Dr Craig Jordan-Baker

Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing

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On the 10^th October in our Explore Studio, the Performance and Community REG were pleased to host independent scholar and practitioner Maria Carnesky for a practice-as-research performance making workshop. This workshop explored themes of menstruation, cyclicity and ritual action which drew on devising techniques which have evolved through Marisa’s artistic practice.

Building on the themes of the critically acclaimed performance work Dr Carnesky’s Incredible Bleeding Woman, her new show, Menstronauts A Go Go! reinvents menstrual rituals for a new era, drawing on the hidden power of a forgotten matriarchal past. Her workshops encourage a structured and supportive environment influenced by autoethnographic and activist practices.

In the workshop, Dr Carnesky outlined her approach to devising and distinguished between two aspects of her method. One aspect concerned how she worked with her performance ensemble called the ‘Menstrants’. Menstrants would work on performances which expressed an individual idea around menstruation and the cycle, something often grounded in personal trauma.

Here is a link to a recording of Maria’s talk and workshop

As well as a methodology which attempts to fashion a performative language to express ideas, the other aspect of Carnesky’s method involves collaborate work with the public. Supported by Mentrants, members of the public are encouraged to create interventions or actions which explore and challenge conceptions of menstruation. These actions take place in civic, urban and public spaces and are characterised by their disruptive, fun and spontaneous character.  Participants engaged in this are called ‘Menstronauts’.

In both approaches, Maria’s method emphasises the use of archetypes and strong visual imagery as a basis for the work or action to grow from. One powerful image is the snake, both as a representation of the taboo, but also of continuation or eternity. During our workshop, groups developed different ideas about actions they might perform. For example, one group began with an image of water flowing and related hidden rivers with menstruation, while another considered the image of eggs, as both a symbol of fertility and as something related to the menstrual cycle.

For more information about Maria’s work, visit: http://carnesky.com/

Dr Craig Jordan-Baker

 

The Performance and Community REG are excited to announce their upcoming schedule of events for the 18/19 year. This will be a mix of performances, lectures, talks and workshops designed to stimulate, inspire, challenge and create dialogue. Please see below:

PERFORMANCE AND COMMUNITY RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE GROUP   EVENTS  – SEMESTER 1 M126 Wednesday 3-5pm (unless otherwise noted)
DATE	Activity/ Title
3.10.18	Inaugural welcome event for RLF Fellow Hannah Vincent
10 10.18	Marisa Carnesky on Carnesky’s Incredible Bleeding Woman (touring) EXPLORE STUDIO (D132)
7.11.18	JW Productions: Rehearsed reading of HOUDINI
14.11.18	PA Skantze  (author of Itinerant Spectator/Itinerant Spectacle; Roehampton University) EXPLORE STUDIO (D132) 2-4
21.11.18	Morgan Lloyd – writer of Emilia (at Globe, August 2018)
5.12.18	Andy Kesson and Emma Frankland (Roehampton) Re-working Gallathea
12.12.18	Hannah Vincent – RSL Fellow at Brighton University – playwright and jointstock method – Christmas celebration

Each week, we will update you on our activities and some photos of our session.

 

Dr Craig Jordan-Baker

Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing

c.jordan-baker@brighton.ac.uk

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