solo performance | 2004

Duration  35 minutes

A performer stands behind a table and announces that he is in a house – and that it is not his house. He gives a plausible account for his presence there. Various single objects are placed on the table to represent different rooms: a kettle, an alarm clock, a rubber duck… A family live in the house and can come in and go out, move from room to room, according to certain rules. The performer slaps a beard onto his face and, pointing to the beard and the kettle, declares that he is Tony and that he is in the kitchen. He puts on a hat, glasses, a wig, etc.to introduce various characters,  who all talk in the same voice.

A dysfunctional family emerges, or an internal conflict is played out with externalised characters. The performer’s presence sometimes intrudes on the situation and the rules of the game are challenged but at other times he is lost in the fiction, particularly when playing the dog. The dog, who cannot speak, disrupts the interchange and the action is suspended as the performer, as the dog, steals and eats a biscuit.

Performed by Gary Stevens

Produced by Nicky Childs, Artsadmin.
Commissioned by and premiered at Home, London.
Photographs © Andrew Whitlock.