The Shape of Things to Come season is underway at Volcano. The series of new small-scale performance commissions, now in its third year, was ushered in by a prologue from the BTEC students at Rubicon Dance called Once Upon a 2024. Their show developed on some of the themes of The Rising Damp & Other Tails, a duet that Marianne made as part of the Shape of Things to Come series at Volcano in 2023.
This week at Volcano, the programme of new commissions opens with Is That All There Is? by Catherine Alexander. 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 returning to 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 describes the show as a “collective conversation about making your final years fabulous.” There are four chances to see the show from Thursday evening to Saturday afternoon.
The second performance in the season will be Rituals of the Molikilikili by Eric Ngalle Charles, next week from 9 to 11 May. Molikilikili is a Bantu word for Stick Insect. His piece is about the power of stories to overcome trauma. It weaves between languages, folktales, and Bantu oral traditions.
There is more new work to come in the season, from Christopher Elson, Luke Hereford, Elin Phillips and Akeim Toussaint Buck. The Shape of Things to Come runs until 15 June.