Photo by Hannah Davis of the Dysbiosis Collective and QTH Associate Producer Steven Bowyer at Queens Theatre
It has been four years in development, including some long pauses for fundraising. But we finally premiered Dysbiosis to a public audience last weekend. It took place at Queens Theatre, Hornchurch, which is also where it all started. We had performances on the main stage and an exhibition, titled Queering the Earth in the foyer.
The Dysbiosis Collective are Amy Daniels, Amy-Rose Edlyn, Fran Olivares, Kathryn Webb, Nuke Lagranje, Paul Burgess, Shakira Malkani, Tasnim Siddiqa Amin, Yael Elisheva and Zia Álmos Joshua.
Some highlights from the journey. Walking and drawing in Rainham Marshes with local residents. Running a workshop in a chapel in the middle of a cemetery in Sheffield. Doing a birdsong-filled sound walk in another cemetery, this time in Mile End, London. An exhibition of community artworks at the Royals Youth Centre in Rainham. Turning up to make a pitch to a Havering Changing residents’ panel with tea and homemade cake. Collaging with LGBTQ+ young people in Romford. Testing out ideas at Omnibus Theatre, as part of the 96 Festival of LGBTQ+ theatre.
The project plunges headfirst into a complex, albeit important topic. How do we as a society relate to and understand Nature? It achieves this by bringing together queer, global majority, and working-class artists. There’s then a process of co-creation, generating a kind of theatrical collage. Workshops with local residents are also a fundamental part of this. It all adds up to a rich range of perspectives.
But the project doesn’t just explore a fascinating topic from various points of view. It’s also an experiment in democratic and eco-minded theatre-making, influenced by – to name but a few – climate dramaturgy, Rob Hopkins work on ‘falling in love with the future’, the writings of Donna Haraway, and the principles of ecoscenography (the set is all salvaged material, apart from some fixings).
Paul Burgess, the company’s artistic director, brought his experience of sustainable practice and designer-led work to create an initial framework for the project. But beyond that, there was no hierarchy. No single director’s or writer’s vision. The core team comprises cross-disciplinary artists who make their own work. People stepped in and out of the role of director at different times. Some writing was by individuals, some was collaborative. Everyone had a say in what the show looked like, sounded like, and how it was structured.
This expanded on Daedalus’s previous innovations in democratic theatre making. As Paul explains:
‘Dysbiosis is more than either a piece about Nature or an experiment in collaboration. Form and content are striving for symbiosis. The overarching theme is whether humans’ relationship with nature is symbiotic or dysbiotic. To do that, we wanted to bring people together in a kind of creative symbiosis. By that I mean a space where people can both be themselves and work in balance with each other. Where they can co-create coherent, profound, and beautiful. And at the same time, true to each individual artist.
This builds on A Place at the Table, where a piece of verbatim theatre was followed by a collage of performers’ responses to the material, before inviting the audience to share food and talk. With Dysbiosis, everything is far more interconnected. We let things get a bit tangled and messy, and learned to let go of our ideas so others could rework them.
You can judge if we achieved it, but there’s one thing I know for sure. I can’t imagine a better team for such a project. We were lucky enough to work with a group of incredibly brilliant and generous artists.’
Photo by Amy-Rose Edlyn of Paul Burgess at Queens Theatre with assistant director and producer Tasnim Siddiqa Amin.
Although we’ll doubtless keep developing the prohject, for now we’re very happy with what we made. We have received a lot of positive and helpful feedback, which we’re digesting. We’re also hugely grateful to Queens Theatre, Havering Changing, Migration Matters Festival, A Season of Bangla Drama, Omnibus Theatre, our crowdfunders, donor Matthew Lee Knowles, Arts Council England, Creative People and Places and everyone else who made the project possible.
We now start a period of reflection, from which a touring version of the piece will emerge. We very much look forward to taking it to venues around the country and seeing how it evolves in response to new places and ideas.
In the meantime, Queering The Earth is on in the Queens Theatre foyer until 17th September.
A tiny fern becomes a projection of a tree – photo by Hannah Davies
