Sue MacLaine
Four women in sleeveless green and teal dresses sit in a row on a darkened stage, each holding an open spiral-bound script; the nearest, in teal, speaks in profile.

2018 · 2022

Vessel

… takes the lived experience of medieval Anchorites as the starting point to think about the human geography of protest, the body as a political entity and whether withdrawal, hermitage, radical aloneness is, or can be framed, as a political act of resistance. It was performed by an ensemble of four within the form of a polyphonic tone poem.

I directed the work in its first iteration and then joined the cast during British Council Showcase participation in 2019. In 2022, I reworked the performance as a duet between myself and sound designer & artist Owen Crouch as part of Emergency Chorus' 'Recycling Plant' initiative.

The feelings that the words create, rather than their meaning, come to the fore in this quietly revealing piece.

Miriam Gillinson, The Guardian, 2018
Four performers sit on chairs, each in a pool of light on a deep-red stage, beneath projected text reading 'Let's talk about who has the privilege of speaking first.' The four performers of Vessel, seated on a red-lit stage, raise their hands and arms together in a synchronised gesture. Four seated performers read from open scripts, each within a circle of light, as a long passage of projected text covers the deep-red wall behind them.
  • Cast: Karlina Grace-Paseda, Tess Agus, Angela Clerkin and Kailing Fu
  • Set & lighting design: Ben Pacey
  • Costumes: Holly Murray
  • Creative captioning: Giles Thacker
  • Producer: Jane McMorrow
  • 2022 duet reworking with sound designer & artist Owen Crouch (Emergency Chorus 'Recycling Plant')

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