Adult Children was originally born from the provocation 'how do we make auto-biographical work safely?' As artists, we are often expected to draw on personal experiences as part of our creative process, willingly opening old wounds in the name of collective truth and understanding. But how often do we prioritise ourselves in our practice? We spent 5 days at The Royal Exchange, as part of REACT, exploring alternative models to using lived experience in the rehearsal room without leaving artists feeling exposed or burnt out.
Our shared experience was living with and loving those with alcohol dependency, whether they be family members, lovers or friends. Throughout the week we experimented with different techniques and styles to create something creatively interesting and emotionally truthful, whilst prioritising the wellbeing of our creative team. The process was powerful and cathartic. We realised the rarity of flipping the script and shifting the spotlight away from those with alcohol dependency and onto their surrounding network.
For this next stage of the process we will be consulting with academic researchers, gathering anonymous stories and running focus groups for those who have lived with and loved people with alcohol dependency. We want our piece to be reflective of voices and experiences beyond those we have represented in the room.
Following this, we will come together as actors and theatre-makers to combine the stories we've heard with our own into a finished theatre show, which we imagine to be a cross-discipline piece including elements of physical theatre, film, verbatim and spoken word.
We will hold a private (potentially digital) sharing for industry colleagues and focus group attendees to gain feedback before embarking on the next phase of the project, which we hope will be a series of public performances in Spring 2022.
