2021 (in progress)
Co-created by Cole Lewis, Patrick Blenkarn, and Sam Ferguson
Produced by Guilty by Association and The Elbow Theatre
Then as regards the actual connection between spirit & body I consider that the body by reason of being a living body can “attract” & hold on to a “spirit” whilst the body is alive & awake the two are firmly connected & when the body is asleep I cannot guess what happens but when the body dies the “mechanism” of the body, holding the spirit is gone & the spirit finds a new body sooner or later perhaps immediately.
As regards the question of why we have bodies at all; why we do not or cannot live free as spirits & communicate as such, we probably could do so but there would be nothing whatsoever to do. The body provides something for the spirit to look after & use. — Alan Turing
2021 is an in-development performance about caregiving, death, and the value of human data.
With the help of an audience member, a group of artists work together onstage to reenact the final weeks of Patient #203—Cole Lewis’ unhoused, Trump-supporting father—and his quest to find a mechanism to hold on after death. Combing video games, live narration, live music, and AI language models, the project is a sequel and response to GbA’s live cinema performance, 1991, continuing its story about border crossings and class through the lens of a Canadian daughter and her American Veteran father. 2021 fundamentally asks: How do we provide dignity in death to someone we fundamentally disagree with?
First developed in residence at Tarragon Theatre’s Greenhouse Residency.
Photos by Dahlia Katz
