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Wot? No Fish!!

Danny Braverman’s solo storytelling piece Wot? No Fish!! is an exploration of how storytelling creates a sense of communitas for diverse audiences by virtue of its interactive nature. The research and development of the piece was funded by Arts Council England. Danny collaborated with Director Nick Philippou on dramaturgy by developing its iterations in different contexts. These included tellings in classrooms, as part of a walking tour of the East End, to intergenerational audiences in arts centres and in more conventional theatre contexts. The piece deals with complex philosophical notions, rendered accessible thought through in-the-moment adaptations in dialogue with audiences.

The piece is both story and metastory, as Danny excavates a shoebox of his Great-Uncle Ab Solomons’ cartoons, drawn weekly on the back of wage packets. As Danny shares this remarkable discovery (selecting 70 cartoons from 3,000 over 55 years) he weaves stories about immigration, disability, history and art. Danny then finds himself as an infant in the cartoons and finds echoes of his own hospitalisation in the institutionalisation of his disabled cousin Larry. Danny juxtaposes the work of Ab Solomons, the outsider artist, with the modern art curated by Ab’s son Jeff Solomons, a leading figure in developing the modern art market. Danny also discovers that his current address, by pure coincidence, is the same house in Dalston, East London where his Great-Uncle grew up. The piece concludes with reflections on a helix as a metaphor for history, in contradistinction to linear and circular metaphors. He also reflects on the creation of art as a simultaneously therapeutic and shared experience, in the light of Viktor Frankel’s Man’s Search for Meaning.

Danny has shared his practice-as-research findings at the International Convening on Disability Theater, Kennedy Centre, Washington DC in 2012, and at the Swedish Biennial Performing Arts Festival, May 2013.

Awarded a national award - The Brian Way Award for best play for a Young People's audience 2013.