WHAT IF I TOLD YOU
Theatre/dance crossover explores personal boundaries and histories, directed by multi Fringe First winner Chris Goode
Fringe first-timer Pauline Mayers is used to people making assumptions about her based on her gender, background and skin colour; it’s been happening all of her life. But she’s defied those expectations at every turn, tearing up the narrative that society tried to impose on her.
Last year Pauline hit a crisis point. Perhaps not that unusual for a woman in her mid 40s, but a pretty big deal when it happens to you. She didn't know where her life was taking her, had no sense of where she’d come from. She was at a crossroads but couldn’t see where the routes led. So she looked back thorough her life and thought about how her experiences may relate to others.
Listings informationVenue: Army@The Fringe in association with Summerhall, Venue 210
Dates: 11-26 Aug (not 14, 21)
Time: 17.00 (60 mins + 60 mins Koan: What If You Told Us)
Tickets: £12, £10 (preview 11 Aug £8, £6)
Venue Box Office: 0131 560 1581 www.summerhall.co.uk
What was the inspiration for this performance?
There wasn’t a point of inspiration. Actually, around the time
of making the show, I hit a moment of great uncertainty and apathy. Although
I’ve been involved in the arts for many years, as a dancer and choreographer
for dance and theatre companies across the UK, I felt I had nothing to show for
it. I was unemployed, hitting my forties and I literally didn’t know where my
life was going. The constant feast and famine nature of what I was doing had finally
taken its toll and I wanted out. I was also tired of the way people appeared to
judge me and what I do based seemingly on my appearance rather than my
experience or talent.
Being a highly trained professional performance maker with over
25 years of experience who happens to be a woman with black skin, I felt, more
often than not, that I was seen as someone who followed others rather than a
person more than capable of leading a team of artists to create shows for both
the public and fellow peers alike.
I initially trained as a dancer at the Rambert School in London,
taught at the Royal Ballet School, danced for several high profile dance
companies, created whole dance shows in community outreach programmes, taught
and ran my own dance and theatre residencies, danced internationally, I could
go on. Yet somehow the idea of me being a choreographer and theatre maker
wasn’t quite believed.
This has been the case throughout my entire career. In fact,
when I first expressed the thought of being a dancer at the age of thirteen, my
school teachers sought to dissuade me from doing so saying that the profession
wasn’t for me and instead sought to encourage me to be a secretary instead - which
I ignored!
Looking back over my time in the arts, I realised I was spending
a lot of my time having to explain and defend who I am and what I do and
although my work was very much in the public arena, somehow I wasn’t. I was
tired of having to seemingly justify my very existence in the performance arts
world. So, I decided to retrain as a counsellor.
I took an introduction to counselling course with the intention
of completing my training within five years. What If I Told You (WIITY) is a
way of expressing my frustrations at being judged by my appearance. I feel
judgments are being made subconsciously all the time and it’s causing nothing
but fear and anger across the UK and has done across the decades. But the
question is, where has this idea of judgement based on skin colour come from?
WIITY seeks to interrupt this antagonistic way of being by
creating time and opening up a space which enables audiences to listen and
reflect on why this keeps happening. It was also meant to be my final hurrah, a
way of saying goodbye to the arts world, and leave with some sort of legacy to
say I was here and I contributed.
However, since it’s initial conception, it’s become like my
calling card, a stated intention that I will continue to make work as the
Mayers Ensemble. It’s become a reminder that there will be high and lows and
that is just the nature of the arts. What I must do is to focus on the work I
want to make. Ultimately, the arts is literally in my DNA, I can’t help but to
continue.
Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of
ideas?
Absolutely! Until technology came along, public discussion was
exactly how human beings exchanged ideas.
The Silk Road, a main trading route from the African continent
through to China and Japan was also where ideas of art, culture, religion and
spirituality, maths and language were being exchanged through public
discussions. This way of introducing and interrogating ideas has been slowly
eroded over the centuries.
What performance can do is introduce its audience to different
ways of thinking, creating both time and a space to reflect and, if encouraged,
to discuss what people may be thinking or feeling in response to what they have
seen. Having some counselling skills and knowing that some of the content of
the show is harrowing and uncomfortable, What If I Told You has a second half
called Koan which is a Japanese word with one definition being “public thought”
and it’s exactly that. Led by the brilliant poet and
activist Khadijah Ibrahiim, it’s a space where the audience has the
opportunity to discuss some of the themes of the show in a safe space, where
what happens in the room stays in the room and won’t be expressed elsewhere.
How did you become interested in making performance?
I’m intrigued by hearing voices and seeing stories that I
wouldn’t usually see or hear. I’m interested in giving voice to those who may
not otherwise be heard. My own struggles of making myself heard has led me to
give space to others who may be experiencing similar things. A lot of my
earlier collaborations gave voice to exactly these kinds of stories.
For example, ‘Promised Land’ with Red Ladder Theatre was the
story of Leeds and its football club told through the eyes of the Jewish
community, ‘Burmantoft Stories, an outdoor, site specific show I directed for
the West Yorkshire Playhouse, asked audiences see the vibrancy and beauty of
the Burmantofts area of Leeds by shining a light on the stories of the talented
individuals who live in the community. Burmantofts had been dismissed as an
area of high crime and unemployment when in fact it was no different to any
other inner city area. Indeed Hackney, where I’m from was also seen as such and
that demonisation can have a demoralising effect on the communities that live
and work there. It’s the unveiling of different ways of expressing the human
condition that I’m curious about.
Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?
To be honest, the only approach I took was to enable audiences
to walk with me in my world, to feel a little of the everyday struggle I have
to contend with, and to finally own my story and express it in the way I want
to express it.
Does the show fit with your usual productions?
Not at all. In fact it’s a major departure from anything I’ve
done before. WIITY is conceptualised, written and performed by me. It’s the
first time I’ve written a solo show and I worked with theatre maker Chris Goode
as director, someone I both trust wholeheartedly and enjoy making work with.
I joined Chris Goode and Company as a collaborator initially and
we’ve worked together on many projects over the years. It’s also the first time
I’ve used performance to find the intersection between theatre and dance, and
how to interact with face to face with audiences.
What do you hope that the audience will experience?
I hope audiences will experience something they will never
forget. And I hope my show is a catalyst for a small shift in how people think
about skin colour prejudice and that they begin to be open to seeing skin
colour prejudice as a ideology that should remain in the past.
What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience
experience?
The only strategy I considered was to enable the audience to
feel some of what I’ve felt, to spend some time in my shoes.
What if I Told You is Pauline’s way of telling her (his)tory as a black woman, a dancer and choreographer. It’s a story of universal truths and contradictions that we can all relate to. She invites her audience to spend an hour playing together to challenge boundaries, personal histories, gender and skin colour, carefully balancing dance and theatre and dispensing with traditional barriers between performer and audiences.
Along the way the story of James Sims, cited by some as the ‘father of modern gynaecology’, weaves through Pauline’s own. Sims bought then operated on, black female slaves, without anaesthetic, believing that black bodies didn’t suffer pain in the way white bodies do. Many of Sims’ methods and discoveries are still used today.
‘A thought-provoking and powerful piece of work’ The Culture Vulture
In the second part of the show, Koan: What If You Told Us the audience is invited by poet, playwright and activist Khadijah Ibrahiim to share thoughts and ideas inspired by the show.
What If I Told You is written and performed by Pauline Mayers and directed by Chris Goode. It was developed at West Yorkshire Playhouse and is a co-production by The Mayers Ensemble and West Yorkshire Playhouse.
The show is performed at Summerhall’s newest space, The Army Reserve Centre on East Claremont Street EH7 4HU.
Pauline Mayers trained at the Rambert School and is a theatremaker, choreographer and dancer. She has performed in contemporary dance companies and taught choreographers across the UK and internationally including Janet Smith & Dancers, Diversions Dance, Phoenix Dance Company and The Ensemble Group. She has also worked with theatre companies such as Tell Tale Hearts and Red Ladder.
Chris Goode is a writer, director and performer described as ‘one of the most exciting talents working in Britain today’ (Guardian). His work includes four Fringe First award- winning shows: Neutrino (with Unlimited Theatre), Kiss of Life, Monkey Bars (Traverse) and Men in the Cities (Royal Court and Traverse).
Along the way the story of James Sims, cited by some as the ‘father of modern gynaecology’, weaves through Pauline’s own. Sims bought then operated on, black female slaves, without anaesthetic, believing that black bodies didn’t suffer pain in the way white bodies do. Many of Sims’ methods and discoveries are still used today.
‘A thought-provoking and powerful piece of work’ The Culture Vulture
In the second part of the show, Koan: What If You Told Us the audience is invited by poet, playwright and activist Khadijah Ibrahiim to share thoughts and ideas inspired by the show.
What If I Told You is written and performed by Pauline Mayers and directed by Chris Goode. It was developed at West Yorkshire Playhouse and is a co-production by The Mayers Ensemble and West Yorkshire Playhouse.
The show is performed at Summerhall’s newest space, The Army Reserve Centre on East Claremont Street EH7 4HU.
Pauline Mayers trained at the Rambert School and is a theatremaker, choreographer and dancer. She has performed in contemporary dance companies and taught choreographers across the UK and internationally including Janet Smith & Dancers, Diversions Dance, Phoenix Dance Company and The Ensemble Group. She has also worked with theatre companies such as Tell Tale Hearts and Red Ladder.
Chris Goode is a writer, director and performer described as ‘one of the most exciting talents working in Britain today’ (Guardian). His work includes four Fringe First award- winning shows: Neutrino (with Unlimited Theatre), Kiss of Life, Monkey Bars (Traverse) and Men in the Cities (Royal Court and Traverse).
Venue:
Army@The Fringe in association with Summerhall, Venue 210
Dates:
11-26 Aug (not 14, 21)
Time:
17.00 (60 mins + 60 mins Koan: What If You Told Us)
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