PLASTIC
The Undergrand, Edinburgh 08
30 Bird invites you to experience a new world of dark comedy and striking images; sex change, botox, pickle and jam. Recreated for each location, 30 Bird bring their unique blend of visuals, humour and song to a variety of unusual and unsettling sites. Plastic explores one man’s quest to enter the world of women in a dynamic and stylish piece that combines video, architecture, lighting, music and performance in an intimate surreal show. The production was orginaly supported by Escalator East to Edinburgh and created in association with The Pleasance and the Iran Heritage Foundation and in collaboration with Virgule Performing Arts, Tehran
Written and Directed by Mehrdad Seyf
Costume Design: Leslie Travers
Spatial Design: Torange Khonsari (Public Works)
Lighting Design: Guy Kornetzki (Elektra Lighting Ltd)
Video Artist: Meika Dresenkamp
Film: Stuart Condy
Composition: Squint/Opera/Music
Cast: Ali Amadi, Yasmin Bodalbhai, Gemma Donohue, Sara Reyhani
Funded by: Arts Council England, Escalator East to Edinburgh and Iran Heritage Foundation.
Supported by: The Pleasance, Edinburgh.
Village green, Southend
Plastic alighted in the Village Green’s film tent as a film installation for one hour on the 26 September 2009. Hundreds of people literally invaded the installation, interacting with the scaffolding structure, talking to the lone performer or just sitting down and watching the film of the Edinburgh version on the main screen. Meika Dresenkamp’s video was projected onto the structure, with the projector placed on two jars of pickled onions. This was Plastic’s first transformation from its initial performance in Edinburgh.
Installation/film
Live performer: Yasmin Bodelbhai
Funded by Arts Council England. Supported by METAL Southend
Victoria Bath, Manchester
Plastic is on the road. It has traveled from a brewery in Edinburgh 08 to a tent in Southend’s Village Green fesival in September 09 and now it is here in the magnificent Victoria Baths in Manchester. With each site, its nature goes through changes, sometimes it’s bigger, sometimes smaller, sometimes it’s a full performance, sometimes an installation. As a multi-disciplinary piece, it’s fluid, happy to abandon itself to the demands of a new site. Hopefully it will never stop changing and growing, it will remain difficult to pin down.
Plastic is not really a finished piece, nor can it ever become one. It can only inhabit one space at a time and change shape again and again. It offers the opportunity to its creators and its audiences to be part of an ongoing experiment with architecture, neurosis and gender.
Plastic was performed at Victoria Baths from 22 until 24 October.
Performers: Katryn Jackson, Donald Slack, Pepa Ubera, Elif Yesil.
Voices of: Betsabeh Emran, Marzieh Mashkoori, Ali Amadi, Gemma Donohue, Yasmin Bodalbhai.
Writer/Director: Mehrdad Seyf
Funded by Arts Council England and Iran Heritage Foundation. Supported by Contact Theatre and Victoria Baths
The Whitechapel gift shop
Plastic is on the road. It has traveled from a brewery in Edinburgh 08 to a tent in Southend’s Village Green fesival in September 09, onto the the magnificent Victoria Baths in Manchester and now it is here in the Whitechapel Gift Shop. With each site, its nature goes through changes, sometimes it’s bigger, sometimes smaller, sometimes it’s a full performance, sometimes an installation. As a multi-disciplinary piece, it’s fluid, happy to abandon itself to the demands of a new site. Hopefully it will never stop changing and growing, it will remain difficult to pin down
Performers: Katryn Jackson, Donald Slack, Pepa Ubera, Elif Yesil
Voices of: Betsabeh Emran, Marzieh Mashkoori, Ali Amadi, Gemma Donohue, Yasmin Bodalbhai
Writer/Director: Mehrdad Seyf