Details

Selfish is an engaging, entertaining and visually arresting piece of theatre that explores the contemporary obsession with self. A devised work, taking place inside a video installation, it ranges from folk tales to philosophy to daytime TV, taking in costume drama and conceptual art on the way. From the golem of Prague to chat show philosophising, from Pico della Mirandola to Emergence Theory and from what you can do with post-it notes to psychiatric case studies, Selfish is a wide-ranging and colourful collage of overlapping sections which comment on each other, showing several interpretations simultaneously of one idea. A theme of the show is the way that different people in different situations have attempted, often bizarrely, to explain self-consciousness and the sense of dislocation it sometimes brings. A particular preoccupation of the show is how, in contemporary society, mantras like 'being true to yourself can get in the way of solving social or political issues. The result is a complex, arresting and enjoyable fusion of visual art and theatre. An Arches Theatre New Work Commission funded by The Arches and Daedalus Theatre Company.

Creatives/Company

Author: Paul Burgess (of Scale Project)