★ ★ ★ ★
Pain and I’s accessibility is woven into the very DNA of the piece. Before performer Sarah Hopfinger even starts, there are noise-cancelling headphones on display, comfy bean bags, caption apps and BSL dates. The show’s opening narration encourages the audience to move, to stim, to stretch – what a wonderful acknowledgement and awareness of neurodiverse and disabled bodies. We are also told we are perfect.
Sarah enters the stage nude, and her words flow with repetitive rhythm, the movements are delicate and slight, as we go through five stages of a conversation with pain. To a neurodiverse and disabled audience, Sarah’s movements and relationship with her body, will be all too familiar. Alicia Jane Turner’s composition is sparse and purposeful, complimenting every moment.
I wonder if movement director Laura Bradshaw studied or has personal experience of stimming, as there was a lot of it going on in the show. Again, showing stimming in physical theatre is very new representation, and we are glad of it. Michaella Fee’s lighting design was bold yet never distracted us from the minimal space.
Pain and I shows that a subject as complex and indefinable as how our bodies rebel can be conveyed through physical theatre. A direct address to pain, having no answers, it gave the audience a new vocabulary. Pain is a very present character, like a lover. At times we could see pain itself dancing.
Pain and I Summerhall – TechCube 0, 13:25 (50m) Aug 3 -7, 9-10, 12-14, 16-17, 19-21, 23-24, 26-28, £13-10. [The show also exists in audio and graphic score versions]
