Spread across six rooms in the Malmaison Hotel, Piccadilly, Dante or Die’s ‘I Do’ follows the final 10 minutes before a wedding from six different perspectives. The mother of the bride struggles to decide on both her hat and her relationship to her unfaithful ex-husband, while their daughter fears nothing more than becoming just like them. Her husband-to-be struggles with the mounting pressure of marriage, while his best man’s last-minute speech slowly falls to pieces. Add a messy troupe of bridesmaids and groomsmen, plus a pair of ailing grandparents, and we have a colourful cocktail of disasters waiting to happen – garnished perfectly, of course, by the trainee cleaner, moving silently from room to room.

Created by Daphna Attias and Terry O’Donovan with writing by Chloë Moss, ‘I Do’ is one of the most unique productions to grace the theatre scene. The audience is split into six groups, each marked with its own buttonhole rose, and guided from room to room as the final 10 minutes repeat and rewind. Guests watch the action unfold from whatever space they can carve out for themselves, whether that be stood in the corner, sat on the bed, or even squashed in the bath, and the line between viewer and voyeur quickly becomes blurred. Each room rings a new scenario, and with it, a new piece of the puzzle to slot into place, bringing the flurry of dramatics and excitement from a spectacle to a snapshot of a cast weighed down with their own individual anguishes and struggles.

Tying it all together is the nameless cleaner, played fantastically by Rowena Le Poer Trench. Never speaking, never judging, and never turning down the volume in her tinny earbuds, she cleans as many emotional messes as she does physical ones. Lo Poer Trench perfectly embodies the frazzled uncertainty of a trainee forced to go beyond their job description by difficult customers, with no manager to turn to whatsoever. Her time is spent tidying up scandal, sometimes hilariously – as in the bridal suite – and sometimes – as with disabled grandfather Gordon (Geoff Atwell) – with devastating tenderness.

Following the carnival of chaos and dramatics, Atwell’s scene in Room 112 comes as a sucker punch to the performance so far. In one of the most painful and human scenes of ‘I Do’, Atwell delivers a masterful performance as a lively family man who – likely as the result of a stroke or accident – can no longer move or speak independently, and is being helped to dress by his wife (Fiona Watson). Frustrated by his own struggles, and by other wedding guests’ discomfort around him, it’s all he can do to cry the second he finds himself alone. Between his expressions, gestures, and even how he finds a way to play pranks through his limitations, Atwell’s performance may be startlingly familiar to anybody with a loved one of a similar experience – and soon becomes one of the most endearing scenes of the production.

With every group starting with a different scene, the end of the round gives every audience a different send off. A clue to the true order of events can be found in the finale, where the audience gathers in the corridor to watch the actors rush from room to room in the minutes before the marriage. In whatever order you experience it in, ‘I Do’ is a surreal carousel of emotions, with a great depth belying its soap-like dramatics and plot twists. Heart wrenching, hilarious, and absolutely unmissable, ‘I Do’ is an event in and of itself.

I Do Dante or Die is at Malmaison Manchester Piccadilly from 19-22 February 2026.

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What starts as a simple, circular, white piece of fabric draped upon The Lowry’s warehouse floor, grows over time into an intimate, albeit borderline claustrophobic, viewing tent in which the audience gleefully gathers in shared anticipation. Growing in size over the hour, the surrounding fabric rises higher and higher as the artists take greater risks whilst also managing to strengthen the audiences’ intrigue and reverence.

Originally from Chicago, the Aloft Circus Arts troupe consists of seven; Shanya Swanson (Tour manager and director) and six astonishing acrobats; Rachel Nesnevich, Zoe Sheppard, Linnea Ridolfi, Hayley Larson, Heather Dart, and Sarah Tapper. Performing as far back as 2005, the group continues to sell out shows in America, and the UK, with shows consisting of juggling, ariel arts, and acrobatics; to name a few.

What was created as “an antidote to the horrors of the daily news cycle”, the 60-minute-long performance pairs audience input with mesmerising stunts. Now the artists themselves may not consider the acts to be worthy of the title ‘stunts’, but all in attendance would undoubtedly agree that the acts did at times evoke real moments of shock and awe. Certainly not your typical night out at the theatre, but for good reason.

The audience is asked to put their faith in one another as much as the performers, with attendees being invited intermittently to partake in responsibilities that would make even the Fonzies’ palms sweaty, such as holding a metal pole tightly in place whilst a performer raises themselves 8 feet in the air upon it; with no safety net or soft ground beneath them. Direct involvement is not required from all to enjoy the show but only heightens the overall experience for those lucky few who are asked.

The highlight (no pun intended) perhaps had to be ‘The duo sling’ act performed by Hayley and Linnea, which had the two artists swinging melodically and gracefully high above the audience’s heads. More so remarkable due to its unusual perspective; as we were invited to lay on our backs, and gaze up at the unravelling of fabric restraints and deadly aerobatics from an unseen angle mere meters above our heads.

The whole performance was paired perfectly with music to match its calming but occasionally unpredictable temperament. The simple yet striking set design only added to the overall aesthetics of intimacy and fantasy. Throughout, lyrics such as ‘Good girls can fly’ and ‘You are safe here’ practically floated through what little space there was between the artist high above and the spectators down below.

Unlike anything you are likely to have seen before, Brave Space manages to squeeze together aspects of contemporary dance, circus-centric acts, and audience participation, culminating in an impulsive congregation in the tiniest of tents.

Brave Space is at The Lowry, Salford from 18-20 July 2024.

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I’ve seen many a Christmas pantomime, more recently Easter pantomimes, but never before a pantomime that spanned both seasons, with no gap in between.

Mother Goose opened in Brighton early December before a Christmas run in the West End. Since then, the show has continued playing to full houses on a UK tour and is now in its penultimate week at the Lowry, before finally ending a mammoth panto run in Bristol on April 16.

On Wednesday night in Salford the cast has already performed a matinee that day. And still the performers show no signs of tiring – not least McKellen, who tap dances, sings, jokes, palms foam pies, spins innumerable costume changes, and even throws in a Shakespeare soliloquy.

His dame, Mother Goose, arrives on stage with more than a nod to the late northern comic, Les Dawson, wearing a head full of rollers and a handbag over one arm, occasionally pushing up an arm to adjust an ample bosom.

Written by Jonathan Harvey (Coronation Street and Beautiful Thing) the script embraces tradition while placing the genre very firmly in the 21st century. Here the fairytale of a goose that lays golden eggs is set in our cost-of-living crisis, where Mother Goose and her husband Vic (John Bishop) run an animal sanctuary that is under threat because of rising energy bills.

The villain here is ‘the energy company’, a term the audience is invited to shout back with venom. But aside from a reference to Cruella Braverman and a preppy, cake-loving puppet pig called Boris, this is as political as it gets. The focus here is rightly on fun and escapism.

Big-hearted Mother Goose has welcomed all creatures from bats to penguins, even finding space for Puss in Boots who’s ended up in the wrong panto. So, when an injured goose arrives on the doorstep, she puts financial worries aside and lets her in too. It is this twist of fate, orchestrated by two warring fairies (Karen avundukure and Sharon Ballard), that first leads to the couple’s fortune, but could it be their downfall too?

Anna-Jane Casey at first seems wasted as Cilla Quack the Goose, but her musical talents are given room to shine in the second act. Similarly, John Bishop is given freedom to weave in the stand-up for which he’s best known. Like the very best warm-up acts he sets the perfect jovial tone for the evening and keeps it going, leading the audience in a roof-raising rendition of Sweet Caroline and raising the roof again as he puckers up for a lip-smacker with Mrs Goose.

McKellen dazzles throughout, clearly enjoying every second on the stage. At 83-years-old he still has the spark and mischief of a child. His performance both respects the genre that first captured his imagination as a youngster and pushes its boundaries into a chaotic, cheeky and joyous show for all ages. It’s magic.

Mother Goose is at The Lowry, Salford from 5 – 9 April 2023 before continuing to the final venue on the tour Bristol Hippodrome. Be aware that children under 3-years-old will not be admitted to this production.

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Our narrator, Ellis ‘Red’ Redding, tells us that among these new arrivals is Andy Dufresne – a banker, convicted (wrongly, he will say, but don’t they all?) of the murder of his wife and her lover.

A loner and an outsider, Dufresne quickly falls prey to the “Sisters”, so-called ‘Bull queers’ – not homosexuals but ruthless, violent bullies, who use rape as a tool of domination, while the prison authorities look the other way.

Beaten and abused physically, Andy remains unbowed in spirit. Very gradually, over years, he and Red form a friendship. Imprisoned since his youth (also for the murder of his wife) Red is the man who can get you (almost) anything, for a price. Andy, with a hobby in geology, persuades Red to get him a small rock hammer (along with a large poster of fifties film idol, Rita Hayworth, for his cell wall).

Life inside becomes significantly more bearable for Andy when head guard, Hadley, and Warden Stammas learn how his financial nous can aid their corrupt misdirecting of prison funds (Stammas invites Andy to be his personal ‘chef’ – ie to “cook” the prison’s accounts).

News of the untimely death of a well-liked former inmate, serves as a reminder that parole, hard as it is to obtain, is no passport to a brighter future on the outside. Nevertheless, Andy tells Red (much to the latter’s irritation), hope must be maintained.

When a new prisoner claims to know the identity of the real murderer of Andy’s wife, it begins to seem like Andy’s optimism was well-founded. However, Warden Stammas and his chief enforcer, Hadley, are far from eager to let the goose that lays their golden eggs fly the coop.

Murder and mayhem are in the offing, but Andy Dufresne isn’t done for, yet. Neither, it would seem, is Red Redding.

There’s no denying that the principal actors have tough acts to follow. For the most part, and greatly to his credit, Ben Onwukwe pushes Morgan Freeman’s original to the backs of our minds. As much as Andy Dufresne is the protagonist whose needs drive the plot, the heart of the story beats in Red. We have to care about him in order for the drama to work. Onwukwe’s Red is cynical and sly, but there is a core of humanity in him that responds to Andy’s obstinate decency.

Joe Absolom, capable actor though he is, falls a little short of the mark in Andy Dufresne. Absolom gives us the stubbornness and the indomitable sense of what’s right, but there is never quite the sense of deep-rooted authority, of a sharp, highly educated mind constantly at work. Warden Stammas and guard Hadley know in their hearts that Dufresne – his crimes aside – is more securely a figure of the establishment than they will ever be. Notwithstanding the oppressive surface realities of prison life, all three of them sense that he is in some way their superior. Or at least, that’s how it ought to play out.

Kenneth Jay (as the ageing trustee, Brooksie) and Coulter Dittman (as Tommy Williams, the prisoner who knows the truth about Andy’s case) both deserve honourable mentions.

The main set (designed by Gary McCann) is functional – cells on two levels surrounding a communal exercise space. However, neither set design nor lighting (by Chris Davey) show the necessary flexibility to serve the drama. In the recreation of one famous scene, the audience needs a good memory and an active imagination to feel that officer Hadley really is about to drop Andy off a roof (staged at ground level), and when Andy threatens to “bite off anything that is put in my mouth” (another memorable moment in 1994’s film) the action takes place downstage left (ie peripherally) and there is no shift of lighting to draw focus to the action. Elsewhere, a shooting becomes an (offstage) hanging, and Red’s dark night of the soul is told and not shown. Missed opportunities, one and all.

The lighting on the backdrop for the finale is very eye-catching, but this is rather too little, much too late. Technical problems with sound are also to the fore tonight.

“Hope Springs Eternal” is the subtitle of Stephen King’s novella which Dave Johns and Owen O’Neill were lucky enough to get permission to adapt for the stage. This production must be hoping that every audience is as generous as tonight’s.

The Shawshank Redemption is at The Lowry, Salford from 31 October to 5 November 2022 before continuing on tour.

The post The Shawshank Redemption with Joe Absolom: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

The show premiered in Paris under social distancing conditions last summer and comes to Salford Quays and Central Manchester for a 6-week run in a production partnership between Aria Entertainment, WEF Productions and The Lowry.

C-o-n-t-a-c-t is an immersive, two-hander outdoor performance featuring a captivating 3D sound design for a unique sensory experience.

The story explores timely themes of mental health and anxiety through a moving and unexpected encounter between Sarah and a man, who she believes to be a stranger. The audience gets an insight into Sarah’s mind as she discovers the man can hear her thoughts. But who is he and how can he do this?

Audience members download the audio from a new app which synchronises the spectators and actors, allowing the show to play with theatrical concepts and a new form of dramaturgy. It is an audio experience which involves no direct speaking from the live actors.

To ensure strict social distancing between audience members, tickets are limited to 17 per show. The show runs for 50 minutes without an interval and ticket holders will receive a link to download the app and exact location details.

C-o-n-t-a-c-t Presented by Aria Entertainment and WEF Productions runs from 18 May – 29 June 2021. Visit the Lowry website for more details. The Lowry is also running a series of digital events during the lockdown including drama, comedy and heritage tours.

Tom Finkill – from quiz host to community champion

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Imitating the Dog’s new touring work – created with the current pandemic scenario in mind – is a short piece that draws on multiple genres and theatre formats, from street theatre and Victorian circus freak shows to modern crime dramas and slasher movies.

This mash-up of genres is reflected in the show’s imaginative design, which literally unfolds from the back of a parked white van – a modern twist on the travelling players. Blinking light bulb strings along the sides of the stage give a run-down carnival feel. The performers slip on and off through white vertical office blinds, which double as screens for impressive AV projections; these elaborate video designs by Simon Wainwright often feature Tarantino-esque levels of bloody violence. Cheap masks, dolls and PVC costumes give proceedings a slightly kinky, freak show vibe.

The story told by Dr Blood and his henchwomen is a vaguely political satire that sees three allegorical figures – “The Mayor” (played by a performer in a Boris Johnson mask), “The Constable” (whose red wig and accent combine – perhaps not deliberately – to resemble Labour’s Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner) and “The Headmaster” (who doesn’t resemble anyone) – plotting to get their mega-casino built on the outskirts of a mythical Northern town and bypass objecting councillors. Once it’s been made clear that these three are violent, lying, heartless crooks, we are able to witness their gruesome unravelling with no sympathy, and it is quite cathartic to see corrupt authority figures get their comeuppance.

Unfortunately, there is far too much going on for a three-hander show that lasts just 30 minutes. Exposition is packed in at the start to establish the characters, but the pacing is slowed by some odd choices; there are songs – one original, one a comedy cover of ‘Lady in Red’ – large chunks of dialogue that are overlong and even some promising moments of action that outstay their welcome, such as the opening montage, which follows one of the narrators as they tear round the town hall in pursuit of some letters.

The three cast members flit between being their narrator characters – mysterious ‘night watchers,’ enactors of justice who only identify themselves as such in the final scene – the allegorical characters of the story and puppeteers, manoeuvring dolls that frequently represent The Mayor, The Constable and The Headmaster. This puppeteering is usually done before cameras positioned at the side of the stage; their live feed appears on screens behind the performers so that characters can have conversations across the two mediums. Like much of the design of the show, it is clever and intriguing, but it’s also often disorientating for the audience.

It can’t be denied that the three performers – Laura Atherton, Keicha Greenidge and Matt Prendergast – give it their all, switching between multiple roles, dancing, singing and selling everything with old-fashioned horror melodrama. But the show itself would benefit from being simplified, perhaps with fewer characters and twists in the plot.

However, it is wonderful to see real, live theatre being done outdoors, socially distanced, in a way that works for and doesn’t compromise the chosen show. The Lowry, Leeds Playhouse and Imitating the Dog all deserve credit for showing how it can be done, and I only hope we can see more.

Dr Blood’s Old Travelling Show from Imitating the Dog was reviewed at The Lowry. The show is currently touring until 24 October 2020 with more dates to be announced. In line with current government guidelines, audiences will have a limited capacity with social distancing in place.

17 Oct – The Lowry, Salford
20-21 Oct – Lancaster Square, Lancaster Arts
23-24 Oct – Belgrade Square, Belgrade Theatre, Coventry

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I first met the Moradokmai Theatre Community from Thailand at a Nepalese theatre festival in 2008. The Community was one of the largest groups attending, and they reminded me of a travelling circus, ranging in age from 8 to 50-years-old. Many shivered in the Himalayan chill of early morning as, despite their locally bought woollen helmets, they were dressed for warmer climes.

Chang, the Director and charismatic father figure of the company, sported a thin grey beard, which reached half-way down his chest and long hair, tied back in a pigtail. His sense of humour was infectious and I was drawn to him and Pobchan, his much younger wife whose serene features exuded a Buddha-like calm. Chang, I discovered, was a celebrity in Thailand, well known for his extensive film career. A dynamic jazz musician and actor, he had studied music in America. Both he and Pobchan spoke excellent English though the rest of the company had just a few halting words. We hit it off immediately.

My company of English actors had witnessed the early rising habits of Moradokmai who took over the fourth-floor dinning room of our hotel at 5.30 am every morning where they lit candles to welcome the dawn and conducted a Buddhist ceremony accompanied by drums and a Thai xylophone, before embarking on a strenuous rehearsal which lasted til the rest of the international thespians, rather bleary-eyed from the previous late night theatre and after-show drinking, joined them for breakfast at 8am. They intrigued me. When Chang asked me to go and direct for them I took up the challenge. This was the beginning of a long and creative friendship.

Some 20 years ago Chang moved his acting company out of Bangkok to establish a home school in Klong Luang Patumthani, a rural region 47 kms north of Bangkok. Here his actors and young students could live and learn together, in a self-sufficient community, growing their own food and creating a base for the study of traditional Thai dance music and performance, while welcoming international artists to come and share their skills and experience.

International festivals at Patumthani brought artists from all over the world. The 2010 festival alone, the first years I visited them, featured performers from India, Romania, Germany, Netherlands, Indonesia, Uganda, Nepal, Russia, Estonia, and Slovenia. The 2011 festival also featured artists from France, America and Cambodia.

My first production for the company was Caucasian Chalk Circle. We rehearsed and performed in an open-air circular arena under a black scrim awning looking out over a groove of banana trees and rice fields. Pobchan translated the play into Thai and I worked from a script where both languages sat side-by-side, so we were literally always on the same page.

I introduced the script only gradually as the actors became more and more familiar with the story line, and after many scene-by-scene discussions on character motivations and the underlying theme of the play. I have now directed for the company a number of times using this technique. This January 2020 marked my fifth visit after an absence of several years.

In additional to international links, the company has a schools’ network throughout Thailand, where their actors teach dance and drama and invite the schools to perform at their home base. They also work in prisons and probation centres. In 2013, I worked for them at a probation centre in Songkhla province where we dramatised a short story that had won a South East Asia writers award. The play was then performed with two other adaptations compiled by a Spanish and Nepalese director – the trio entitled, “Thai stories through the eyes of outsiders”. Subsequently my play was performed all over Thailand.

The company travel extensively. In 2012 they came to England for the Contacting the World festival and a subsequent tour. They have extensive links in Eastern Europe where their students have gone to study in a different musical tradition.

Future tours are now dependent on the control of the pandemic – fortuitously as it turned out, I managed a month with them this January getting back well before lockdown. This latest challenge was to create a performance from a play written by a Thai playwright who had attended a playwriting course at Moradokmai. The play, Guiding Ghosts, was about a generational struggle between two brothers over ancestral traditions.

Thai does not translate easily into English and my first task was to unravel the meaning of the play. I worked extensively on the script with the playwright, who is head of the faculty of Film and TV at Rangsit University. This was a skill sharing exercise to keep the play true to its conception but utilising what I could bring from a western theatre tradition.

Working with actors who live together is fascinating. Because they know each other so well (some younger actors were born here from acting parents) their responses are instinctive. Once they have understood the nature of the play the speed at which they create their performance is exceptional. While progress is slower with some of the younger members of the cast, I never ceased to be impressed with their skills and hard work.

I have learned from working at Moradokmai to expect the unexpected, never make assumptions and be endlessly adaptable. Over the course of 27 days, I had a series of cast changes and lulls between rehearsals when the actors were performing elsewhere or assisting at a massive three day music festival, a huge Guru theatre blessing ceremony, two Thai weddings of company members and preparations for a major American tour which was to be cut short by the pandemic.

They also busk in the night markets several times a week; a surprisingly successful funding stream for the company, which I guess, is also temporarily curtailed. We travelled to Rangsit University to perform the play to film students and to Korat to perform in their open-air theatre space. (The company also has land in Loei province and Chang Rai.) I also recorded the whole play in English in their sound studio.

I take back memories of their beautiful new traditional performance space looking out over a large lake where the geese woke me with their loud honking every morning; the flotilla of little ducks clucking their way down the banana grove en-route to gain scraps from the kitchen; performing under the trees to the noise of bird song; the sound of the Thai xylophone being practised over and over again; endless performances to watch and comment on; the company’s quirky new tap dancing skills, and hearing the beat of the drums at 5 am when the community start their day.

Much has changed from the early days when Chang and his family lived in a mud hut by the side of a lake and I lived in a series of rotting cabins besieged by mosquitoes, frogs and once a poisonous black centipede, and woken daily at 3 am by a cockerel.

This year I lived in an adapted container with air con – a huge upgrade, and the company is now building a black box theatre, has new dormitories and a sound studio. “Give me a couple of years and I will build you a permanent house,” said Chang before I left. Pandemic willing I intend to take him up on the offer.

Read our interview with author Alex Wheatle

The post Drama By The Rice Fields: Working With The Moradokmai Theatre Community appeared first on Quays Life.

It is this impact that writers Laura Mooney and James Yeatman turn to in their exploration of the early 19^th century Luddite rebellion in Manchester.

At the start an actor tells us to view the piece as verbatim theatre, where the dialogue is all based on factual-information sourced from letters, handbills and newspaper articles. Where there are gaps, we’re told they’ve improvised. If only they hadn’t, because it feels the gaps are filled with little more than FFS expletives, losing the authenticity of the original voices. This is a shame, because there is a strong story in here and it is ambitious of the Royal Exchange to stage it.

The stage is bare except for a raised red slope across the centre, on which everything is an uphill struggle for the weavers and mill workers. The opening, with the use of microphone stands to transport us to a new world via sound, feels like we’re in a rehearsal workshop. However, once we’re tuned in and let our imaginations run, Naomi Kuyck-Cohen and Joshua Gadsby’s design becomes absorbing.

There is a Light demands a lot from its audience. There are no character names and yet there are identifiable people, some of whom are recorded as being hanged for their part in the Luddite movement. The mix of modern and period dress forces us to draw comparisons with the digital revolution of today. However, portraying Luddites wearing baseball caps and anoraks, while swaggering with hands down their pants, leaving go of their genitals only to smash windows, does little to express the depth of desperation these men felt at having their livelihoods taken from them with no other means to survive. Starving and destitute they wrote to a Parliament that didn’t allow them the vote. To compare that Regency period to today’s government feels unnecessarily divisive and laboured, broad-brushing the Luddites once again.

The cast take on a variety of roles, each at one point donning a heavy overcoat as the mythical Nedd Ludd. The play leaves little space for character development, but Katie West, as open and naïve mill worker, Clem encapsulates the struggle of the times, bringing genuine emotion and humanity to the stage.

It’s striking that even those, like Clem, who appear to move with the times by joining the legions of mill workers don’t benefit from the progress. Technological advances create a different job market, but it’s one that concentrates wealth into the hands of the few. The Luddites knew this in 1812 and sadly, this timely production reminds us, a fair wage for a fair day’s work is something we still need to fight for.

There is a Light that Never Goes Out: Scenes from the Luddite Rebellion is at The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester from 25 July to 10 August 2019.

Claire Gaydon explores the pros and cons of digital sharing.

The post There is a Light that Never Goes Out: Scenes from the Luddite Rebellion – Review appeared first on Quays Life.

How did you find out you were HIV positive?

I got ill while on holiday with my parents. I was 16-years-old and we just thought it was something dodgy I’d eaten. When we got back to Manchester my Mum took me to the emergency doctor who said it was probably a waterborne infection – I lost over a stone in weight.

Then I got other symptoms in the downstairs department a few weeks later and so took myself to the GUM (genitourinary medicine) clinic. They told me I was HIV positive two weeks after my 17th birthday.

I had quite a bad sero-conversion – when the body recognises it has HIV and you get symptoms – but for many people the symptoms are similar to a bad cold and they don’t recognise that it is HIV.

What was your initial reaction to the diagnosis?

Total shock and a feeling I’d let people down. I wasn’t stupid, I knew about STI’s and I’d had a conversation about safe sex with my Mum too. But I hadn’t met any other openly gay men prior to meeting this guy – when I did, it was exciting and validating. I let him take the lead as he was older.

I felt ashamed that I’d made such a stupid mistake. Plus, in 2003 I was given a life expectancy of around 37 years – so it was fairly traumatic.

How has your view changed since then?

HIV healthcare was pretty good when I was diagnosed but it has completely changed over the past 15 years. Now I take just one tablet a day and that keeps me healthy.
It took me a long time to shake-off the self-shame and stigma I felt. It was deeply connected to the shame I already felt as a gay man – internalised homophobia is really common amongst gay men – and it was very powerful.

Now I can rationalise that it is just a virus, it doesn’t care who I am or how I caught it – it’s humans who judge like that.

You said you didn’t tell many people for 14 years. What was it like to live with that secret?

I didn’t tell my family which is the thing that haunts me the most. We’re really close but that is how powerful the stigma of this disease can be. I know lots of other HIV positive people who have similar stories of staying quiet with those closest to them.
Over the years I thought I had it all boxed-off and compartmentalised, but the pain worked its way into every aspect of my life. I’d get depressed or angry for little or no reason and I’d sometimes turn to alcohol or drugs to try and self-medicate.

What changed to make you start being more open about being HIV positive?
It all came to a head with a mini-breakdown last year and I knew something had to change. I wrote a letter to my closest family members pouring my heart out and explaining everything.

When did you first have the idea to turn your experience into a play?

I’ve always dreamed of doing something like this with my story and people who knew my story always said how remarkable it was and what a great play it would make. Oddly, I never realised how dramatic it was, as it was just my life!

I work with a range of amazing theatre companies including Contact in Manchester and 20 Stories High in Liverpool and they often use real stories as a starting point for their work, so I was inspired by them, as well as theatre heroes of mine such as trans-theatre maker, Kate O’Donnell and performance artists, Stacy Makishi and Bryony Kimmings.

What was it like to write about something so personal?

I’ve always used writing and poetry to help me make sense of the world and my own experiences so it felt quite natural. But the piece took me to some difficult places and made me revisit my teens with an adult perspective which was tough.

I’ve never written a solo-show before though, so it’s been a long learning process – thankfully I have a whole host of inspiring writers, dramaturgs and theatre-makers around me to help and guide me.

What can people expect who come to see it?

A funny, frank but unapologetic look at what it means to grow up gay and HIV positive in a straight and HIV negative world.

The piece is full of humour but also tinged with moments of pain and sadness – so bring the tissues. It’s not just a monologue either, there’s ‘bad’ drag, lip-syncing, an interactive quiz and loads more that I can’t reveal – expect to go on a journey with me and the rest of the audience.

What is the one thing you would like other people to know about living with HIV?

People living with HIV are demonised as being infectious or dangerous, but this isn’t true. Most new infections come from people who don’t know they have the virus, that’s why it’s so important to get tested regularly. It’s national testing week so get to it!

In fact, people who have been on effective HIV treatment for over 6 months and have an undetectable level of virus in their blood cannot pass on the virus – so people like me are functionally cured in a sense. That’s a radical new development in HIV that people don’t really know about.

Is there anything you’d like to say about the show?

Only that I hope it inspires people to live their lives more openly and honestly and without shame.

First Time, written and performed by Nathaniel, is at Waterside Arts Centre, Sale on 25 July 2019 as part of the Refract festival before heading to the Edinburgh Fringe on July 31.

Interview with Manchester-based and acclaimed alternative singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist, Minute Taker aka Ben McGarvey.

The post Nathaniel Hall caught HIV aged 16 ‘First Time’ tells his story appeared first on Quays Life.

The one-woman show examines identity, validation and the cost of sharing in the digital age. Quays Life meets Claire ahead of her performance at Waterside Arts Centre to find out more:

What is See-Through about?

See-Through follows the journey of a 29-year-old, out of work actor who tries to become a YouTuber. She’s the archetypal millennial who was told she could do and be whatever she wanted and is now feeling like a failure. We see her experiment with making different types of videos in order to gain views and subscribers and we see the reactions she gets from her online audience. As she breaks down more and more barriers between her and her online audience, and her videos become more and more confessional, she begins to struggle in defining her own boundaries.

What inspired you to write the show?

It began in March 2017. I was actually trying to make a show about something else at the time. I devised a scene with a teenage girl (basically a teenage version of myself) recording a YouTube video. The visual set up was the same as See-Through, my back to the audience and the live footage projected on the back wall. I liked the image and the idea of an audience connecting with me through a screen instead of face-to-face.

How did you research it?

I figured the best way to research the topic was to actually make a channel and have a go (and that’s how the show began). Once I had come so far with that understanding I reached out to YouTubers and Instagrammers so I could see the platform from other perspectives.

What was the most surprising thing you found out?

Initially, it was the 2017 survey statistic that 34% of young people chose YouTuber as their top career choice. But probably the most surprising thing for me was the realisation that I also identified with that group!

We could only find 4 videos on your YouTube channel – what happened to the others?

How much of See-Through is fact and fiction is purposefully ambiguous. You’ll see in the show that I did make videos but how many or whether any at all were uploaded is unclear. Creatively, the intention behind this is to highlight our expectation of authenticity, practically it is also so I’m able to tell the story I want to tell. So, even though some of it may be autobiographical, it’s not an autobiographical show.

Why did you choose to perform with your back to the audience?

I wanted to explore empathy. Watching someone through a screen is a completely different experience to seeing someone face-to-face in the flesh. I wanted to mimic the way we interact with YouTubers online.

How has that been for you as a performer? How does it affect your response to the audience?

It was really weird at first but now I’m used to it. I still feel very connected to the audience but in a much subtler way. There’s some audience interaction in the show too, so I get to play in those moments, which is really fun.

The recurring themes in your work are new technologies, social media and sex – what fascinates you about these three areas in terms of storytelling/performance?

New technologies is a term I use for anything that’s currently being developed but has not reached significant potential yet. Things such as AI, VR, anti-ageing therapies, Cryonics etc. I can’t explain why I find these things fascinating, I guess they excite and terrify me at the same time. I find social media incredibly interesting because it’s all about fulfilling a need to be close to one another. It succeeds and fails in equal measure in my opinion. And I find that sex drives everything. To deny that in my work would feel like really missing the point.

Which social media platform could you not live without?

I could happily live without all of them (laughs).

Are there any social media platforms you’d happily see disappear and why?

I don’t mind them. I don’t think any of them are inherently ‘bad’, but they can exacerbate insecurities and suffering that is already present for sure. I think the key is just being aware of how you use them and the impact they are having on you.

See Through is at Waterside, Sale on 21 July 2019 at 7pm as part of 10-day festival, Refract.

Win two tickets to see Claire in See Through at Waterside Arts on 21 July 2019.

The post Claire Gaydon explores the pros and cons of digital sharing appeared first on Quays Life.