Stock image of Rio de Janeiro (but I swear I really went)

Loads has happened since my last blog post, and I don’t really know where to start. I went to Brazil! (See attached stock image.) That was ace. Spent a week with some amazing artists from Rio, courtesy of People's Palace Projects, and ate a surprising amount of vegan food (coz of this guy). I did the show! I cooked curry during it, and by accident all the timings worked out so that the food was ready by the time I finished the show.

I went to Camden People’s Theatre straight after Rio, and did the show for a few nights at Hopscotch Asian Women’s Centre just next door. And those 2 experiences so close to each other made me see how different contexts can affect the show. I sometimes forget that my audiences are ‘willing participants’, by the very fact that they’ve turned up. I don’t need to do anything extra – different people will naturally connect to different parts of it. (I think. I hope. I don’t really know!)

I wrote previously that my relationship to the content of the show has changed, and it will probably continue to. I think what I mean though, is that my relationship with my dad has changed since I started doing the show – and I didn’t really expect this.

At the risk of offending some people (it’s my blog, I’m just gonna say it) (and it’s a matter of taste, no criticism!), I don’t like ‘therapy theatre’. If there is an expectation that I, audience member, should feel sad, I just don’t feel sad. (Unless it’s really flipping sad, or has resonated with me in an unexpected way.) I find that this type of show doesn’t leave much room for me to connect with it, if all of the emotional experience is happening in the performer. (Ha, check me out, pretending I know about stuff.)

Basically, I don't want this show to be that.

But. What if ‘therapy’ is a by-product of theatre? (I don’t know who I’m asking, probably myself.) (What is therapy? What is theatre??) (Cripes, I don’t know where this is going, somewhere not good.)

Anyway! The show is going to be out and about again starting in March. I’ll write where and when at some point. I recently had a really good chat with this guy about what I’m thinking about doing next, and about life in general.