Over three weeks back in May, our third year BA Drama & Theatre Arts students self-organised and performed in our annual TAP Out Festival, which brings together an eclectic mix of performance work from the Theatre Making 3 Projects module. Now, we’re taking a look at a couple of our newly graduated students’ work and reflecting on the success of their final performance at Goldsmiths.
This year’s TAP Out Festival included a programme more diverse, more innovative and more experimental than we’ve ever seen. From devised performance to live art, installation, new writing and solo performance, each project was the result of a critically informed, research-led performance making process undertaken by our talented and dedicated students.
April Spiers in Opia
One of the many standout performances was April Spiers’ ‘Opia’, a solo clown, mask and movement piece. Opia refers to “the ambiguous intensity of looking someone in the eye, which can feel simultaneously invasive and vulnerable”. The foundations of April’s performance were built on audience interaction and eye contact as the trickster-like figure explored what it is that makes a space comfortable.
She explains, “I wanted to explore the temporality of ‘home’ and the emotions we associate with it, as well as the feeling when moving on and seeking comfort in new environments.” Slinking around the stage to music from Mac Demarco, The Smiths and Oasis, April’s character unloaded various props out of his suitcase, trying to fashion his own concept of home.
Daisy Moloney in Do You Hear the Apocalypse
Daisy Maloney’s ‘Do You Hear the Apocalypse’ was a minimalist solo performance. Daisy’s script followed a deaf woman who had survived the apocalypse and convinced herself that a mannequin was her husband to cope with being alone and unable to hear the world around her.
As Daisy’s mum is transitioning from being partially to completely deaf, she wanted her piece to be completely disability accessible. “I had my script running throughout on a projector which told people to a T the dialogue and my actions, so it worked as subtitles,” Daisy explains.
TAP Out marked the end of the creative journey that our students have taken through their time at Goldsmiths. After three years of devoted study, we are so proud of our BA Drama and Theatre Arts degree finalists for putting together such a dynamic programme of performances.
As summarised by Daisy, “The experience was, of course, stressful at times but so liberating. The course consists of a new profound art that pushes you as a person. A constant creative clash of themes and ideas that ultimately reinvents you as a person.”