MAIL PIECES

Imagine a performance that fits into an envelope... where the act of opening the envelope stands in for the curtain parting or raising; where the mise-en-scène is entirely made up of stationary; where the dramaturgical structure of acts/scenes can take place over days, across different locations,  and is expressed in envelopes within envelopes...

Where the stage is located somewhere between the paper, the audience member's mind and the world at large; where the script is porous rather than fixed or finished, made up of gaps and spaces waiting to be filled...

Where the performance takes place somewhere between the physical interaction with the envelopes, reading the text(s), and the act of interpreting/enacting them...
Where the audience member completes the work as co-creator, becoming a performer whose actions may not necessarily be private, potentially reaching further, accidental and unsuspecting audiences.
I've been curious about the possibility of creating 'mail pieces' of this kind for quite some time. To date I've made two such pieces as private experiments. These prototypes were addressed to friends, and have a particularly home-made aesthetic. If you're interested in this performance format, and would like to receive your own 'mail piece', please contact me here.

A DUBLIN DIVERTIMENTO
for Phoebe Marsh (7th Sept. 2014)


Ahead of a four day visit to Dublin by herself, I created this first 'mail piece' for Phoebe Marsh. It was both an invitation to document her trip and to engage with the city in a performative way. The invitation was  dual, sending some things back home and leaving other things behind. Firstly, Phoebe wrote down some thoughts each day, and privately mailed them to herself using four red envelopes. Secondly, she wrote  four private messages to Dublin each day, and surreptitiously left them behind in brown envelopes around the city (to be potentially found by other people): in a church, in somebody's bike basket, in an old ledger at Marsh's library, next to Francis Bacon's studio, on James Joyce's bookcase...

"My journey became two-fold; whilst performing the role of the tourist (walking, watching, listening, queuing and repeat), I had a hidden more active purpose. The city became a living character I had to try and communicate with. I found myself seeing things differently, while actively searching for in-between spaces where I could leave a little piece of myself. 
     What struck me the most was the sense of intimacy I found between myself and this city. I delved into spaces I wasn't supposed to, and shared personal thoughts I would never have uttered aloud."
Phoebe Marsh
Images courtesy of Phoebe Marsh.

NORFOLK NOTES, 7 nights 7 morns,
for Daisy Orton (9th April 2015)


This second 'mail piece' was created specifically to coincide with Daisy Orton's family holiday in Norfolk, covering a period of seven nights and seven mornings. It framed the times spent by herself, just before bedtime and first thing after waking, by providing separate envelopes containing coloured pieces of paper (one each night, one each morn).
     In doing so, the piece aimed to open up (or rather highlight) a private space to reflect/muse/dream/document/plan... It was a deliberately empty structure, inviting her to give the blank pages whatever purpose(s) she wanted.
     A further envelope (labelled "Invitations") contained a series of prompts suggesting what kind of notes to make: using your left hand, draw your day; write down what you'd like to dream about tonight; draw a map that charts your movements today (accuracy is not a necessary goal)... There were no specific instructions as to what to do with the notes.