Ghostward

This was the third in a series of a site specific performance designs in collaboration with Ben Harrison (director), Fred Meller, and the Almeida Theatre, supported by a Year of The Artist Award.

'Ghostward' drew heavily on research into ‘popular’ hopes and aspirations undertaken for the productions, 'Into our dreams' and 'Caledonian Road'. Developing from the discoveries made about the audience in non-theatre spaces, it explored a journey - audience walking, on a bus and a canal and a grim uncared for park. As in the other works, the interface between theatre and the real environment became a major part of the subject echoed in the form of audience relationship. The process allowed the experience of one project to feed directly into the concept of the next.

'Ghostward', was performed at a disused hospital in Bow, London. The audience were driven to the space on a bus and followed a group of children through spaces populated by actors exploring the randomness of illness and death. The main focus was the behaviour of the audience in relation to the spaces and performers. Negotiation and understanding of the real space, (the hospital), by the audience, counter-pointed design interventions in the narrative. Interconnecting moments throughout the performance, created a deliberate plurality of meaning. Interventions in the space related directly to our experience of hospitals creatively transforming expectations of images and hospital equipment into the ‘ghost ward’.

• http://www.csm.arts.ac.uk/51914.htm