Separating mind from body and character from performer, Station House Opera’s latest performance work, ›Mind Out‹, explores the impossible question of what it is like to be mindless. Each of the five performers is split into two. Each acts as the mind of another, giving simple instructions for action, formulating speech and expressing otherwise silent thoughts, while their own body responds to controls given by someone else.

With constantly shifting relationships, minds and bodies shared between two, three or even all of the performers, it becomes increasingly difficult to discern who is in control. Laced with a cruel humour as the actions of one bend to the whim of another, Mind Out moves from a fragile harmony where performers come together to co-operate on a shared task, to resistance, contradiction and anarchy as minds and bodies resist the control imposed upon them. Mind Out builds on Station House Opera’s fascination with shifting and complex ideas of identity in performance, explored in previous works including Roadmetal, Sweetbread and Mare’s Nest.

(Photo: David Brown)

»One of the most important performance groups anywhere. Station House Opera possess that rarest of all things, a unique vision articulated through a genuinely theatrical language.« Performance Magazine

www.stationhouseopera.com

Premiere: 08.10.2008, Nuffield Theatre (Lancaster)

Director: Julian Maynard Smith

Performers: Zena Birch, Tom Bowtell, Susannah Hart, Julian Maynard Smith, Helen Morse Palmer

Producer: Artsadmin: Judith Knight and Janet Waugh

An Artsadmin project developed at BAC.

Supported by Arts Council England

IMPACT08 is sponsored by Kunststiftung NRW

Performed in English