Shortly…

A short performance contrasting the physical activity of skipping girl playground chants with a more solemn monologue delivered in the dark light of a laptop. The chants of the skip were used to parody bully politics and the monologue highlighted the slippery line between a normal day, an average person and a cosmopolitan city under siege. The importance of the monologue lay in the fact it was a personally edited version of a blog posted in the mid 2000’s chronicling the quick decline of living circumstances during a month long incursion. The author highlights the decline of daily life, routines and physical/psychological health, over the ensuing month. Through personal responses – fear, smell, the decline of access to utilities and the battle to stay positive – a nightmare picture unfolds.

By carefully editing names and place out of the text and concentrating on the body and mind, my intention was to place this stark unfamiliar reality a little bit closer to my own, through identifying familiar feelings, bodily functions and psychological responses. This was an experiment in how I could relate more readily to a situation I am shocked by and have no direct experience of, in an effort to bear witness. In addition the text is intended to have a timelessness – easily transferrable.

“Today has been difficult getting online, electricity is less and less. We are down to about 2 hours a day. Because there is a fuel and diesel shortage it has been difficult to keep the generators going”

“Everyone lives in apartment buildings… with the electricity shortage, it has become hard for the elderly to move in and out of their homes”

“I noticed today that none of us here at home can speak properly anymore. We are so tired and drained that it has affected our communication. I am slurring words. I have to repeat my sentence a few times to get it right.”

Shortly… is forever dedicated to the artist in that city and the resilience of their words.