"The problem – framed in art and Festival - that can’t be resolved. The problem that knots and tangles the room, that stays with people, tangles after them, flowing, wrapping, warping and haunting and cajoling them on the street.. A Festival of ghosts and Tangles in fact. A Festival of Knots. A festival of fools dreaming tangles and questions. A festival of the anguished."

festival directors, read it. 

interns, read it. 

artists, read it. 

donors thanked and listed in the back of the programme, read it. 

thanks again Tim

nobody applies the boot

to the bum

quite so graciously or effectively

Colorado Springs - behind the hotel I would drive to every night in a car hired for me by the festival organisers - February 2010

Day 1 in the amazing workshops of the National Theatre in Mannheim on a new thing I'm working on for 2012, provisionally titled Cue China. It is, I hope, going to be a way to 'meet' people who are otherwise too far away, politically, economically and in body / voice. For now though it's all about creating the machine - a kind of double 'autocue' device. An Autocue is a clever trick used by politicians and the like who want to eyeball their audiences without having to learn their lines or glance down at their pages. In this doubled version, two people will be able to look at each other and see text hovering over each other's eyeballs. As in previous experiments, it will also allow an uncanny merging of present and absent faces... 

During this first stage in Mannheim I'm very lucky to be helped by stage engineer Thomas Busse, via the kind support of Thomas Kraus / PAZZ Festival. The piece is commissioned by Stefan Kaegi for his programme Idiom 'Asian Investments', part of Malta Festival, Poznan, and will premiere there in July.