Tag: theatre & performance

Too Close to the Sun

Actions from the Afterlife

“Rhiannon created an interactive piece that asked participants sat around a table to perform actions on behalf of others in the audience. It represented the commemorative rituals we do for those who have died, and argues that it is those actions that make up their afterlife. This provided a jumping off point to explore how we do things for and on behalf of others as part of our online life, of private grief vs public ritual, and, crucially, who profits from digital acts of remembrance.” – Robin Kwong, head of digital delivery at the Financial Times

Actions from the Afterlife was a work in progress performance shared as part of the Contemporary Narratives Lab: an initiative by the Financial Times, Queen Mary University and People’s Palace Projects to explore the impact of creative partnerships between artists and journalists. It was presented at Battersea Arts Centre on 29 June 2018, alongside work by They Are Here, Coney, Conrad Murray, and Paula Varjack.

 read Robin Kwong’s blog post about the project.

Anchored

a performance lecture about class, witnessing, and who gets left out of “history”

“I think you are astutely funny on stage, but what I really enjoy is how you make it ok for us to go deeply into something serious, long enough to be thoughtful and reflecting and thankful, actually.” – Dr. Simon Bowes, commissioner.

Anchored was initially made for the conference ‘Hold Everything Dear: John Berger and performance’ at the University of Greenwich in April 2018.
 
We are performance makers: we are looking ever closer at the detail of where we are now so that we may lose our bearings. 
 
“Surrounded by so many abstractions, they have to invent and share their own transient landmarks.”
 
We hope to come back, to find ourselves elsewhere.

This performance meditates on achorlessness across three threads:
  • performative writing gathered around autobiographical reflections on place and silence
  • field recordings and lullabies from Alan Lomax’s archive
  • footage of everyday materials magnified by a factor of 400

Text, song and image weave together exploring what remains when we lose our anchors of place and time.

The International Archive of Things Left Unsaid

The International Archive of Things Left Unsaid collects unspoken words of love and pain from members of the public, and arranges for them to be listened to.

“creates a different kind of approach to most confessional material emphasising empathy rather than sensationalism” – Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

The Lullaby Directory

An exploration of the history of lullabies, their beauty, and darkness: The Lullaby Directory explores the human need to be held, and how we use song to hold ourselves against the unpredictability of existence.

“Rhiannon Armstrong can sing […] the most luscious of anti-capitalist protest songs” Megan Vaughan

“mesmerisingly beautiful songs” Clare Qualmann, audience member