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An Infinite Line:Brighton

Fevered Sleep&Fuel

This project involved the creation of an experimental performance event and dramaturgy based on a response to Brighton’s natural light.

Supported by a commission from the Brighton Festival and The University of Winchester the creative team came together for an extended R&D and final 3 week rehearsal period to explore 1) how to stage and translate the director’s writing on Brighton’s natural light and 2) ways of sourcing light in a performance space. As dramaturg on the project, I worked closely with the director to develop a concept for the performance, and through attending all rehearsals I assisted with shaping the project’s overall dramaturgy.

My three main questions when developing the dramaturgy were;

• How might we develop a performance event that embodies - as opposed to represents - the natural light of Brighton, and is it possible to develop a layered performance dramaturgy that embodies the light whilst referencing the paradoxical nature of our endeavour to explore nature in a performance space?

• How may we be able to apply ideas from weather and ecological system research to develop a dramaturgical and compositional logic and language that support our exploration of human beings’ emotional relationship to natural phenomena?

• Can the radical act of introducing real nature (an animal) into the theatre space help “explode” the representational frame of theatre?

Embracing the fundamental paradox of attempting to capture and frame the natural light in a theatre space, the dramaturgy played on the tension between theatricality and perceived authenticity. It referenced the representational nature of the performance whilst looking for radical ways to explode this, thus the dramaturgy staged the creative team’s own processes and struggle. The compositional principles were derived from research into weather systems with the aim to facilitate a non-linear approach to narrative and story-telling