An evening of physical theatre, experimental sound and ritual.

Élégie, a one-hour stage poem starring Cellista as a blackbird who shapeshifts into human form and back, seamlessly combines physical theatre and cinema to create a unique and immersive experience featuring the ethereal sounds of the cello. Élégie transcends traditional boundaries of performance, offering a harmonious convergence of music, movement and cinematic storytelling.

Operafication weaves together a story about the liminal spaces between life and death, beauty and destruction, idol and outcast, the empty remains of what once existed. Immersive soundscapes, captivating vocals and visceral blood elements draw the audience into her world in an offering to those who seek a place to call home.

Christian Anger presents a sacred performance that intertwines gospel stories with poetry, live performance and captivating soundscapes. Through recitations of scripture and original poetic compositions, the audience is transported to the heart of biblical narratives. Accompanied by live music, the performance evokes a deeply spiritual experience, inviting participants to immerse themselves in the timeless messages of faith, hope, and redemption.

Tim Martin-Jones and Tess Wood will also debut a new collaborative action using bodies, text, and movement.

Content warning: some performances will involve bloodletting and live piercing. If you need a break during the performance, please speak to the usher who can show you to a quiet space.

About the artist...

Cellista is a Los Angeles-based composer and aerialist specialising in static trapeze. She creates stage poems (narrative multimedia works) after those of the artist Jean Cocteau, which juxtapose seemingly disparate elements. Her stage poems are acts of resistance; investigating the ruptures of daily life. They are politically concerned, observant and revealing; breaking down the borders between audience and performer, discipline, and genre.

Operafication (Hilary Whitmore) is a Portland native, a trained opera singer, actress, and ritualist; building shows that combine operatic vocals, new compositions, live instrumentation, movement, fire, and elaborate costume. Each show is built around a specific intention or storyline, drawing the audience into a new and exciting work each time. Started in 2003, Operafication has created unique shows in countries, and cities, spanning four continents. From large performance halls to art museums to secret tunnels under a railway station, Hilary’s stunning vocals and striking visuals have entranced many.

Christian Anger is a Colombian born, New York raised, multidisciplinary artist who creates poetry composed of fabrics, sounds, words, and improvisational performance to present 3D, live versions of poems.

Tim Martin-Jones is a Wales- based performance practitioner, producer and writer. An experimental maker, he is concerned with corporeal risk, drawing from his own experiences of body-chaos, body failure, and the hauntings of collapsed beliefs. Using a research-led practice that interrogates philosophies of the body and mind, his work seeks to question how we might deepen our individual understanding of our own bodies through the affective action of spectating others, and what radical wisdoms may be found.

Tess Wood, a Cardiff-based artist and performer, is deeply involved in researching and producing collaborative live art works. Recently emerging from a year-long R&D in developing multidisciplinary aspects of their practice, Wood combines materials like plaster, seed matter, and gold leaf with audio description and body-based action. Their work is deeply inspired by those around them, drawing from the gifts and influences of deep emotional states of trust, rural Welsh villages, non-binary perspectives, and running blindly into chaos.