The first of six new performances by independent artists in Volcano's 2024 The Shape of Things to Come series explores our wildest hopes and dreams for the last years of our lives.
IS THAT ALL THERE IS? by CATHERINE ALEXANDER is performed in "The Cupboard" at Volcano's Swansea High Street HQ, from 2nd to 4th May.
Part performance, part conversation, IS THAT ALL THERE IS? is a piece about social care for the elderly by a care worker who sometimes works in theatre. During the pandemic, Catherine fell out of love with the theatre world and became a domiciliary care worker, finding a new sense of purpose and clarity in daily exercising compassion and forming relationships with vulnerable people. After long struggles with chronic anxiety and with the everyday pain of endometriosis, she is approaching performance from a different place, creating work that is informed by her experience as a care worker, with compassion and laughter at its core.
CATHERINE ALEXANDER studied Drama at Manchester University and trained at L'Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. She was Artistic Director of Quiconque and has worked with Complicité for over twenty-five years. She has directed work for Secretariat, Opera North, Royal Academy of Art and Pleasance and worked as Movement Director with Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru and Bristol Old Vic and in other directing roles for National Theatre and the Southbank. Catherine won the Young Vic, Jerwood Prize in 2006 for work on Amédée and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award in 2011 for her devised production SOLD.