"Today, we’re looking at looking. Today, at me specifically. So, welcome... If you want to come in, we’ll get started."
Dana has spent a lot of time looking into reflections over the last couple years, in screens, mirrors, pools of water. She’s strangely fascinated and she can’t look away, but she’s also been having a hard time reconciling the person looking back at her as herself. So, she's gone away and hit the books, done the research and enlisted the assistance of an Ancient Greek, Narcissus, who’s already been there to help her unravel what it means to really look at the self.
But the more she looks, the further she sinks into the image, she can’t help but wanting it to disappear. Dana becomes increasingly drawn to the lovesick nymph following Narcissus, Echo, disappearing from sight and appearing in sound – a dis-appearance. Could perhaps the voice that lingers be a more complete reflection of the self?
Part performance lecture, part live streaming nightmare, Dana talks, dances and photographs her way around the self-gaze, dissecting her subjectivity for your viewing (and listening) pleasure.
Project and artist development supported by the Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship.
Tobi King Bakare and this theatre deserve a shout-out for such a young, diverse audience. There is so much talk about audiences being full of over 60s and why, why can’t theatres get the crowds in to reflect society in general? Well, I’m happy to say that on a rainy Thursday evening, the theatre was completely full.
Caiti Grove on Before I Go in CPT's Spring 2023 season London Theatre Reviews
