A show that let's us Imagine If

This is a piece I wrote on the invitation of Project Brand New & Dublin Theatre Festival in 2011:

“In a world of budgets, deadlines, and designs, the spark of imagination can falter. Project Brand New wants to delve into the dreams of our theatre makers and find out where it all starts…

From a tiny stage, with a single chair, let them tell you their fantasy: If they could make a performance anywhere, with anyone, or anything, and a guarantee of success, what would it be?

We put this question to some of the most talented and exciting practitioners we know, and over one inspiring day they will present you with their answers.”

Imagine that
I look different.

So if I could make anything I wanted.
Anything at all, and money or time was not a concern, but more than that, more than I’m interested in working for years on a show or putting fountains or elephants on stage (which I am interested in believe me)…

I would like to make a show that changes the world.

Because more than I want anything- I want change.

I would like to imagine a show that can change the world around our world, the bigger, the broader a show that changes how we all live.

so theatre has the capacity for change we know this too don’t we?

In the theatre we change our world, our small world within worlds, all the time.
We can all name theatre pieces that changed the theatre.
We find new forms, we find new words, we invent new worlds.
We change ourselves. Theatre changes Theatre all the time.

So we know this. We know that theatre has the ability to provoke change.
We believe in this, don’t we?

So how can we take this capacity and use to this effect real change in the world around us?===
What have we learnt about change. What can history teach us about change? It doesn’t happen overnight.

We also know that theatre that tries to change the world it doesn’t make for very good theatre.

What do we know about change. We know that we are daunted by it. We know that it feels too big. We know that we don’t have a right to it.

Change is not easy.
Change is not fast.
Change starts with vision
and we develop vision with imagination.
Change needs community.
Change needs collaboration
We can’t affect change alone-


My magic if, doesn’t need much magic, alot of what it needs is there already.
Alot of it we already have.

My change is not big, or daunting, its small and subtle and incremental/
my change is the beginning of a change.
My show is the start of change.

You go in and you sit there with a large group of people.
Some of them are like you and some of them aren’t
Everyone is coming from different places
Everyone knew it was on,
could afford to go there
and felt like they could.
We all meet here, and we look at ourselves.

But in my magic if that doesn’t mean we just see ourselves or our experience on stage.
We’re not being shown a slightly more artificial version of what happens in real life.
We know what happens in real life.
We know all too well.
It doesn’t tell us what we did, or how we felt about it
It doesn’t just tell us what happened, or what needs to happen next.
It does something else.
It is something different.

We can look at it in a way we haven’t seen it before.
We’re using a new language, a language that doesn’t have to move us with words, but with more than that- a language that uses what it needs to to be a way of seeing ourselves in an entirely different way. We’ve thought really long and hard about how to talk about this. We’re not taking anything lightly. We’re not pushing. We’re not adapting- We’re translating- We’re hearing the beats in a different rhytm.

Nothing else, just different.
Different doesn’t have to be radical
Different doesn’t have to mean different
Different is just not the same

Because we can’t change anything if we all talk the same can we?

And where the show really happens, is inside of us.
The show doesn’t tell us what that change is.
It doesn’t need to say anything about what that change is.
It lets us imagine that for ourselves
The change happens in what we can imagine for ourselves. Whether thats what we want to look like, or what world we want to wake up too.
What we see, helps us to see something new. It doesn’t show us, it just helps us to see.

And we sit there, in the dark, and change happens.
And the change ripples, from one of us to the other, and something stirs in all of us.
Because what we’re saying is about us
Makes sense for us
Today, in that hour.

We’ve thought really long and hard about how to talk about this. We’re not taking anything lightly. We’re not pushing. We’re not adapting- We’re translating- We’re hearing the beats in a different rhytm.

What would you like to change?
Remember that change doesn’t have to be huge. It doesn’t need weight.
What would you like to change?
Its a good place to start.

In my magic if, it can happen in an hour.  But it doesn’t happen overnight. Its not easy, its complex. Its chemical.

We sit here and change happens.
And all the time outside the walls small things are being altered, are changing are becoming something else
maybe something better
maybe something different

And when we leave, the streets change colour
and the weather is different
its a different time of day
we talk in a different way
we feel something different about who we see on the street
the sky falls
the sky opens
and the space expands
and its different.

But no-one else see’s this.
Just you.
No two people see the same shifts in the world around them.
Because this hasn’t really happened, or it hasn’t happened in a way that could be photographed.
Its not actual, its not physical
It happens inside of us
But its how we see it
Because we’ve changed
But despite that,it is happening, It has happened.

In my show we can create a world that we’ve imagined
But It doesn’t just live in our imaginations
Because we are different
Because we have changed
Our world changes
One by one
Ripple by ripple
into something new

And this is the beginning of change.
Because change begins with imagination.
Change is about vision.

And when we’ve had time to think about it.
When we’ve found words to articulate it,
we can talk about what happened to us in that hour,
and this is the next part,
conversation is the next part of the change.

We talk about what we have imagined.
We talk about what we think, and if thats different to what we used to think
And we decide on what we want.

And we believe in what we want,
and then it exists.
It lives with us in the world.
In some form,
not in the physical,
not in the actual,
not yet.

But it exists, in the same way as my fancy shoes exist.
And because we believe in it,
we can tell other people about it
and then they might believe in it too
and then it can happen.

And after a while,
not overnight-
Because we’re different,
Because something
anything
has changed within us
things change around us

And we do this in a theatre,
because this is where we can imagine
this is where we know how move mountains
this is where it can be real before it is real
this is where we made up what we wanted to be
long before we had anything else

we spent hours and hours
looking at each other
just looking
before we wanted to tell each other
or teach each other
or prove something to each other

we sat
and we were quiet
and we looked
we took ourselves out a given reality
and we looked
and we imagined
and we talked about what could happen
and it did.

We do this in a theatre-
because this is where it needs to happen-
and it does need to happen doesn’t it?
we’re running out of ideas-
Its not looking good out there.
But we don’t need to re-create that in here, do we?

Lets do something else.
Change is not easy.
Change is not fast.
Change starts with vision
and we develop vision with imagination.
Change needs community.
Change needs collaboration
We can’t affect change alone-

But we have the theatre
The theatre is a place where we can all sit together
and be together feel alone
and feel alone together
and be alone together
And this is why its a good place to start.

We have the theatre
And in the theatre we can move mountains with our eyes
the theatre is a good place to start
look what we can convince ourselves of
look what we can invent
look what we can create
the theatre is the place that we can really talk about what we need too

My magic if is small.
My magic if is a show can be a spark
its just a show that can light a fuse
its just a pebble in a pond.

My magic if its a show that lets us imagine if.