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Connected to the ground I fall.

Psychosis at Scenepool - November 2009

"Two sides to my self, you make me betray myself."

Putting his body at the centre of his work, Thomas uses a minimalistic structure, Butoh based based methods of movement & focus, and a respect for the symbiosis between body and space to explore the self.

Psychosis was first shown as part of ScenePool in February '09. At this point it initially began as investigation into the muted self, taking Sarah Kane's "4:48 Psychosis" as a springboard before becoming a far more personal experience through use of automatic writing and beats from the original playwork. Today the connection to 4:48 seems a long way away and has become a personal journey into self destruction and depression.

"In the company of the self - what does one have left when that starts to erode."

Continuing to use a mix of Butoh, shadow, and live art - the work now crosses between the internalised action and the external action. Therefore the sense of 'destruction' by the end of the work seems colder and lacks a sense of 'performance' in comparison to the journey to it. Now, as the body rises from the floor, the act of cutting has become disengaged and somewhat methodical. The action here is the slow bleed; the engagement (or potential disengagement) between artist & audience during this is open to investigation.

Purification

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A reason to bleed?

"There is nothing more crucial to existentialism than the belief that we can know only what we live: we know we are free because we experience our own freedom in anguish. We know that we fear the "sticky death of the For-itself in the In-itself" because we know, or are open to persuasion, that vicious things horrify and fascinate us... For Sartre... it was of no use to tell people that something was true; they had to feel that it was so, and accept it for themselves."

- Mary Warnock

Psychosis returns to Camden

The Camden People's Theatre in association with the Scenepool festival have announced that they will be premiering the new version of Psychosis on November 28th at 9pm. More details to follow soon...