this is a group performance after all…

‘Mind Control Victims Anonymous’ (2019 | 1hr) is an interactive poetry performance taking the form of a fictional mind-control support group. A work that develops through successive iterations, MCVA navigates themes of free will, coercion, and the relationship between an audience and a performer. The length of the piece can vary but usually consists of 30mins interactive performance and 30mins facilitated discussion.

The performed poem follows a dreamlike first-person account of a speaker attempting to understand their place in the world. Various junctions in the poem offer the opportunity for the audience to vote between two narrative paths. After mentally tallying the votes, the performer continues along the route chosen by the majority.

MCVA was first produced for the Supernormal Festival Artists Residency (2019) and has been further developed as part of the Vivid Projects Artist Residency (2022-2023) and for the Jerwood Staging Series (2022). A completely improvised iteration of MCVA was developed during Melati Suryodarmo’s Performance Art Laboratory at Ikon Gallery (2023).

Read Afterview’s review of ‘Mind Control Victims Anonymous’ here.