'Fascinating, original and innovative'

London Living Large

Park Bench (Act 1)

I directed Act 1 of brilliant Tori Allen-Martin's Park Bench for the re-opening of Park Theatre in Summer 2021.  This was a digital film in which the second half was live on stage (directed by Sarah Henley and Timothy O'Hara). The challenge was telling a story across 2 mediums, but the beauty of it was embracing what lockdown gave us. Complicated relationship breakdowns and awkward zoom conversations. 

'Captures a moment ... Cleverly explores how the lockdown has reframed relationships' The Stage ★★★★

'A seamless story through two mediums ... the quality of the writing and the performances are extremely high' LondonTheatre1 ★★★★

'Innovative ... A smart form of storytelling ... Park Bench splitting the format of a single work between a digital and in-person experience opens up an exciting are of theatre' The Guardian

 Watch Act 1 of Park Bench

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"Harris' playful yet focused approach to the rehearsal process encapsulated the department's ethos, using the limitations of the pandemic as an opportunity for us to create new theatrical possibilities" 

                 - Hannah Gow, Student UoB

Love & Information by Caryl Churchill | DTA, University of Birmingham

Love & Information by Caryl Churchill was a live-streamed zoom show which took place in March 2021, for the DTA at the University of Birmingham. Each scene was devised to be contained within a life-simulator which was monitored by technicians of life. A sci-fi angle to make sense of our zoom context/laptop screen/phone screen setting. 

It's aesthetic was monochrome walls and white-wash lab-coats against intervals of with digitialised animations filled with songs by LCD Soundsystem.

'And it keeps coming / And it keeps coming /And it keeps coming / Till the day it stops' -Someone Great, LCD Sound System

We are floating in a sea of internet, religion, politics, communication, news, adverts and Instagram. Love and Information dares to scratch the surface of this world in a series of atomistic vignettes exampling the state of the nation and delving into human psyche.

Churchill encourages us to break the rules with practically zero stage directions, episodic snapshots performed within any order across 7 thematic chapters and little indication of who our characters are. It's all to play for.

Our Love & Information is set within a simulator of life. Our technicians are watching, studying and recreating what the meaning of life is through a study of expressions of both love and information. Asking, why do we exist and what is our information?

In this lockdown world, Love and Information challenges us to think about our interaction, how we code our language and what is really going on behind the computer screen. We ask ourselves about the information that makes us human beings; our feelings, dreams and minds - and how these are negotiated in a world dominated by digital information.'