Child Djs, lonely ghosts and whale bones.

Shows

Slippery by Esther Dougherty

Like: What a delight to see something so completely stylised, camp and brazenly silly: grotesque latex ghost fingers, angry bananas and evil pistachios. This show did so many things that only theatre can do, but people rarely embrace! Self-aware choreography, high poetry, silly jokes, and even some delightful corpsing (by a corpse).

Learning: Cucumber vape juice is poison. Also how important it is to PLAY and have fun making theatre. I have spent a lot of time making or being part of sad and serious theatre, and I really want to lean into more joyful work, or joyful ways of exploring big topics.

Pinky Pie Party

Like: Truly hilarious (for the adults in the audience) to watch a 7 year old Dj change songs whenever she felt like it, without transitions, sometimes 15 times a minute. It was pretty glorious to watch a kid cut through and disrupt (or remix?) adult understandings of how a party, playlist or even song should go.

Learning: This was an extreme example of listening to what young people want in a show. Often grown ups think they know best, but really we are just being disrespectful of the ideas, imaginations and realities of kids. Lean into it more and create more joy for audiences of all ages!

Baleen Moonjan

Like: The spectacle. I was overcome with the beauty of stomping through white, soft sand down to the immense whale bone installation, and watching the sunset paint the sky with dramatic spine-like clouds, orange, pink and blue. Even the pre-show experience was once in a lifetime, and then the performers lit a series of fires and a hush descended on the audience.

Learning: There is something so incredible about watching the care and expertise that goes into the performance of ritual. It made me think about ritual in theatre, and how all groups and subcultures have rituals of some sort, and how I can respect those rituals in making theatre with people.