Paul Miskin - Director Stilts International.
"A moving and incredible performance"
Lorna McCarthy-Nurse
Forget ER, Casualty, Holby City, the Green Wing and all the other so-called 'real' hospital dramas NIL BY MOUTH (Waving not Drowning 2) is the real deal and tells it like it is. From the inside out. This is the truth of how it is to be seriously ill and in hospital. It is a unique, moving and powerful piece of dance theatre that uses drama, dance, masks, music, video, trapeze and a hospital bed on wheels to tell the story of a patient's story through serious illness and surgery. An exploration of the journey of the soul and the body within the walls of a hospital.
It's based on personal experiences of illness, surgery and near death. A celebration of life in the face of potential extinction. Extraordinary images of patients, visitors, nurses, doctors and surgeons seen through the eyes of a patient as their spirit and body travel from disease to delirium and beyond.
The piece is set against the background of an outstanding original soundtrack that mixes live and pre-recorded music to create textures, rhythms and haunting melodies for the performers to work alongside.
It explores themes of illness, loss, pain, delirium, death and the pure joy of being alive right here, right now in this body. It uses physical theatre, clowning, dance, music and video and trapeze. The project has been developed over the last 11 years and has been performed in 3 different versions and rehearsed with 4 different casts. The most recent rehearsal process occurred in July & August 2004 with a view to taking a new production of Waving not Drowning to the Edinburgh Festival. At the last minute we decided not to risk a potentially difficult situation due to major problems with the venue we were booked into and a significant funding gap.
The original production (1997/98) grew out of a series of workshops and devising sessions around the experiences of the director, Gordon Sharp, and other performers of illness, death and hospitalisation. This first production used a range of media including dance, theatre, masks, clowning, acrobatics, simple trapeze work and the participation of 3 live musicians to create a continuous live soundtrack/musical accompaniment for the performers.
The piece was then performed again in 2000/2001 with some of the original cast and some new cast members, a more ambitious use of trapeze and the introduction of video projections. The live music was also reworked and expanded for this production.
In Spring 2003 the production was fully reworked with some of the original cast members and new ones. It toured in the Northeast of England to colleges, arts centres and theatres and was performed to a wide audience that included people of all ages from young people and students, doctors and nurses to older adults and pensioners This production used more trapeze work/acrobatics, the music was reworked/re-recorded and used as a backing track for live saxophone, hand drums and percussion from a single musician. The use of video projections was fine-tuned.
Since that tour some members of the company have worked together on a community arts and theatre project with asylum seekers and refugees to create a piece of dance theatre as well as reworking and rehearsing "Waving not Drowning" in Summer 2004 (again with a some original performers and some new ones) with more video projections and a development of the dance, theatre and trapeze elements.
This new production NIL BY MOUTH (Waving not Drowning2) will be the 4th version of Waving not Drowning since it was first devised and performed in 1996-97, building on experiences of past productions as a springboard to create a completely new version of this unique piece of performance ready for a national tour in 2008. .
As part of the research and devising process we'll be working with members of the medical profession and individuals with personal experience of serious illness and hospitals to ensure that the piece reflects the range of the processes and dynamics of illness and healing in the modern world.
If we're successful in raising the funding we need to make NIL BY MOUTH ,we'll expand the use of video into all parts of the show, introduce live cameras/projections, re-choreograph the dance sequences and expand the range of characterisations to include interactions between patients, relatives and hospital staff.
We'll also increase the use of trapeze and acrobatics with a complete rebuild of the wheeled hospital bed and its trapeze frame including the incorporation of a trampoline into the frame and the possible addition of a hospital trolley.
NIL BY MOUTH will be inspired by and incorporate the director's experiences in the Freeman Hospital (April 2006 - May 2007) for further surgical procedures and major heart surgery. It will also draw on experiences of cast members including brain surgery and tropical disease.
It will be touring England, Scotland, Ireland and Scandinavia from September to November 2008. The tour is currently in the process of being booked and will be visiting arts & performance venues, community & health centres and hospitals.
Full details of the tour will be on this website in early August
So far we have funding confirmed by Newcastle City Council and are waiting for decisions from other local authorities, Arts Council England, The Northern Rock Foundation and the John Lewis Partnership.
As part of the research and devising process we've been working with members of the medical profession and people with personal experience of serious illness and hospitals to ensure that the piece reflects the range of the processes and dynamics of illness and healing in the modern world.
Dr Julian Bromley (Senior partner at the Saville Medical Practice Newcastle), Mr Stephen Clark (Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at the Freeman Hospital Newcastle) and Hillary O'Donnell (Nurse in the Brain Injuries intensive care unit at the General Hospital Newcastle) are helping us as technical/medical advisors on Nil by Mouth. Thanks to everyone for their input as it will give us a broad perspective on the issues and dynamics the piece explores.
