RIGHT OF WAY: an embodied reflection on chronic illness
Week 5 at #VaultFestival and we've got eyes on VAULT Five, a training scheme for young creatives. Among them is emerging theatre-maker Beth Bowden. We got the chance to catch up with Beth to discuss her new show, RIGHT OF WAY, a thoughtful meditation on joy, young carers & hiking...
Fringebiscuit: What was the initial concept behind RIGHT OF WAY?
Beth Bowden: I planted the seed for this piece during the first lockdown - amidst feelings of grief and anger at the continuing lack of social provision for disability and chronic illness.
I started to write drawing on family history, as well as personal experience of DNRs, benefit claims, PIP, COVID isolation, and caring.
In 2022, I revived the project and began walking the South West Coast Path. I was raised walking... For me and us [mum, aunts, cousins], the sea, the water, the hills, and the coastline hold a very significant space for creativity and conversation.
The piece is semi-autobiographical and explores the intimate connection we have with powerful bodies of water and our heritage...
FB: Why did you submit to VAULT 5?
BB: We applied to VAULT 5 with a desire to platform work that centres on disability, chronic illness, and Young Carers. The work explores the strain that has only increased since the first COVID lockdown, ever-decreasing benefits, cultural stereotypes of disability, and mental health impacts.
As a platform for accessible live performance, VAULT seemed like the perfect opportunity to do this [exploration].
FB: How do you recreate the South West Coast Path in a VAULT space?
BB: From the first walk I did, I documented my journey and reflections, through words, pictures, and videos. The projection videos serve as a window into the landscapes, locating my body, and a mapping of the passage of time – soaked to my skin in the rain in May 2022, or in warm sunshine in August... there is an interaction and a meeting of past and present versions of the writer, coastlines, and person.
We also include tangible materials that I encountered on the way: the piece is about bodies moving through, against, and within natural materials. It is experimental with all these elements - a mess created with salt, soil and water, bodies bathed in images of the landscape, and chalk carved out onto the floor. It gets mucky...
FB: Were there any surprises in the creative or collaborative process?
BB: The process of walking as an embodied, creative practice surprised me - I found it could be a methodology for making that is rooted in well-being, restoration, and joy. The paths and natural landscapes I encountered became an inherently creative and collaborative space - and the work was inspired by my physical, bodily and sensory experience of walking.
The piece is infused with raw creative responses to emotions, natural landscapes, histories, weather etc. Similar creative responses are reflected in other works by female artists like Rebecca Solnit, Nan Shepherd and Anaïs Nin.
FB: What would you like your audience to come away with from the play?
BB: That RIGHT OF WAY is not a story of defeat or sadness. It is ultimately a story of joy: choosing to walk, grow, and reclaim space. This is so important - to reframe the narrative around disability, chronic illness, and Young Carers.
We hope that RIGHT OF WAY can highlight social justice issues - through a personal story told in moving explorations of walking, bodies, and landscapes. Ultimately, the piece wrestles with grief and anger but is also brimming with joy.
FB: And now every creative's favourite question... what's next?
BB: Oh bloomin heck! I mean, we’re open to anything and with VAULT, you never quite know what will happen... Obviously, we’d love to tour RIGHT OF WAY to the South West – to the spaces and places that inspired the work.
Mostly, we just want to make brave, collaborative, community-focused work – and continue to break down inaccessible architecture, geography, pricing, and etiquette in our own work, and in organisations we collaborate with.
You can catch RIGHT OF WAY at VAULT Festival, February 21-26, 2023.