A Manifesto

The reason I do what I do – create/devise theatre, teach devising, offer low budget performances in intimate settings, including food and time for conversations – is to share with people the lovely experience I have of living my life in a playful and creative manner.
I want to encourage people from all walks of life to embrace their inner child, to enjoy their creativity and to find creative solutions to the events and situations in their lives.

I want to offer people an experience that is not so distant from them – not a professional cast of highly trained actors in a professional theatre setting performing a play written by an expert from another country. In my little theatre events, I wish the audience to feel that the inspiration has come from people just like them, that they too can go home and put their ideas, dreams, thoughts and feelings onto paper, canvas, into their bodies, their gardens, their cooking, their 'boring' jobs and so on.

I want to inspire people who are already on a creative path by showing them that it is in fact easy to create and to share the fruits of your creation and to do it in a playful manner, with people you enjoy having around. All it takes is persistence – not a huge grant, not a huge qualification – just persistence (a bit of loyalty to your original impulse/idea) and a bit of organisation, trust, and openness.

I am also attracted to a view of life-as-carnival, to glamorous fun, to performing the most fabulous sides of ourselves and celebrating one another in all our specificity, idiosyncrasy, our fantasies and the hidden sides we wish we could share with the world. I hope that the parties and soireés connected with Laverne-Laverne will allow people to have fun and meet one another in this atmosphere of carnival, dream, play and liberation.


What is liberation, in this context? I found myself discussing the play with someone who hadn't seen it on Saturday at our (lovely) party. I told him that it was not really an experimental piece, that in fact it didn't challenge the audience, break the 4th wall, have the intention to shock or use extremely adventurous form or political content, and that I had in fact wanted the piece to be enjoyable, amusing, safe and liberating for the audience.

He asked me if political theatre always had to be scary for an audience.

And of course, it doesn't. It made me think about some of the best theatre I've seen, that has touched and inspired me deeply - this experience of liberation, which is actually a sort of transcendance, being suddenly lifted above some old pattern of belief or some old habit of behaviour, to be able to see it for what it is and let go of it; or to reach a new ability to accept some part of oneself (or another, or the world) that is flawed or that society sees as incorrect, imperfect or ugly.

If the art I make can do that, I will be very happy and excited.

So often, 'scary', challenging art, that has the intention to make the audience go home and (intellectually) review and critique their lives, beliefs or behaviours, actually has the outcome of making the audience defensive, angry, and closed-down. I want the audience to feel that they are awakening to a new understanding, and the challenge to them is really to become more aware, more playful and more accepting - the very things I wish for in my life.