When a Thing is a Thing Said by Some Other Thing

Conceived and Directed by John Kurzynowski

After Gertrude Stein, Dario Argento & Daria Nicolodi, Betty Comden & Adolph Green

Presented 14 May 2021 at the Antonin Artaud Performance Centre (London)

Responding to the use of face masks in the rehearsal studio and the ways in which they complicate our relationship to language and communication, I devised a piece of experimental theatre with the BA Theatre students at Brunel University London based on the idiosyncratic writings of Gertrude Stein – in particular, her 1938 libretto to Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights – and the process of dubbing as observed in Dario Argento’s 1977 Italian horror film Suspiria and the classic 1952 Hollywood musical Singin’ in the Rain. When a Thing is a Thing Said by Some Other Thing interrogates the ownership of language and the ways in which plays are created, reinterpreted and miscommunicated.

Created and Performed by the BA Theatre students at Brunel University London

Performers: Grace Amui, Valentin Burwell, Jacob Diddams, Rhiannon Ellerby, Delight Lawal, Kathleen Matusiak, Aleks Milwicz, Tom Newland, Aaliyah O’Sullivan, Judith Walker, Jasmine Zuvela Valenti

Assistant Directors: Eleni Aristeidou, Damian Laprus, Nahed Safa

Sound Design: Harrison White
Production Design: Alex Farrow and John Kurzynowski
Documentation: Matthew Kaltenborn

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