Lead photo by Claire Haigh
Championing radical bodies and exploring the trans narrative, trans and non-binary creator Hester-Stefan Chillingworth stands on stage hidden deep inside a latex Frankenstein’s Monster costume and performs a solo re-dubbing of the entire audio score of the 1931 film Frankenstein.
Opening on Halloween at Camden People’s Theatre, Monster Show considers the potential violence in how we read each other’s bodies, questioning why we crave so much to know what people look like to decide how we feel about them.
Blending live art, ridiculous spectacle, film, and the exertion of performing an impossible audio score, Hester-Stefan Chillingworth investigates what our bodies declare and mis-declare for us, through the lens of gender. Based on a story that famously questions ‘who is the monster’, Monster Show is a powerful consideration of how surgically constructed bodies are perceived as monstrous.
Hester-Stefan will also be conducting post show talks, discussing the making of Monster Show. On Wednesday, November 1, they will be joined by Cathy Naden from Forced Entertainment to talk about their experiences performing experimental work and on Thursday, November 2, Hester-Stefan will speak to queer artist Nando Messias about the trans themes of the show.
Hester-Stefan Chillingworth said “Monster Show is a wild ride. It’s completely impossible to accurately produce the whole soundtrack using just my voice, so the real meat of the show is in the audience being witness to this obsessive effort – they can’t see me but, because I’m mic’d up inside the costume, they can hear as I get more and more out of breath and worn out by the daft attempt.
“The humour is in the cracks and failures which happen, and happen differently, every single time I perform it. Sometimes something I do is miles off target, sometimes it’s hilarious by coincidence and other times things line up so perfectly it’s mind-blowing and joyful.
“I always try to use humour to get to difficult questions in my work, and in Monster Show it’s about the struggle of this unseen body to complete this ludicrous task, and the questions this throws up about the unseen labour that comes with existing in a marginalised body, or identity, in a mainstream world.”
Hester-Stefan Chillingworth presents Monster Show at Camden People’s Theatre, 58-60 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 2PY from October 31 – November 3. Suitable for all ages. For tickets, CLICK HERE
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