Louise Westerhout

Showreel: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/590134484/791655a9eb

Murmurations is the result of an extraordinary collaboration between Megan Choritz and Louise Westerhout during this time of virus, loss and lockdown. 

Murmurations is the final production in the 2mApart season, created by Theatre Arts, to answer the question about how to make live performance in a world pushed apart. Ironically it has been postponed twice due to the ongoing infection rate of Covid 19.

When Louise and Megan started talking about making a piece of performance as a response to this time, they were inspired by murmurations; the movement of swarms in perfect harmonious choreography, without a leader or predetermination. And, like the inspiration, the work has swayed and turned, flowed and paused. A reckoning with the ghosts of Theatre.

“We want to have a dmc (deep meaningful conversation) because before lockdown there was the thing called Theatre and it had very specific rules and very set ways of engaging and we don’t know if those rules apply anymore so we have to confront our ghosts of the theatre and decide whether or not we want to revisit it in the same way and whether we feel the same way about it which is why we don’t know what we’re doing in this show because we don’t know what theatre is anymore and we’d love to know what you guys want and maybe you can even tell us what you expected when when you decided to come and whether you can ask the questions about what it is that you need from this space or is it a dead space and how do we revive it and those kinds of things we also want to know if you enjoyed sitting in the dark before and that something that you want still or whether you feel more comfortable to come into the light in a communal space and murmur with us or whether you would like us to filter still for you because we’re not sure if we wanted to do that labour yeah we don’t know but they’re paying us so we know we don’t want to do it in the same way anymore but we don’t know if we’re being successful and we are taking a massive risk as we are flying together with no preconceived idea of direction.”

Images by Jesse Kramer