May Contain You is a participatory performance designed for Care Home settings devised by Protein and delivered in partnership with DanceEast. The tour will perform in Eye, Bury St Edmunds, Mildenhall, Woodbridge, Ipswich, Aldeburgh and Lowestoft commencing Monday 28th November & finishes on Friday 2nd December.
About May Contain You
Protein will bring two artists and their artistic director to a series of care homes to work with the residents to create an immersive and bespoke piece of dance theatre performance called May Contain You. Based on the company’s main production May Contain Food which achieved four star reviews during its run at The Place in London, May Contain You is made up of key scenes and excerpts including poetic duets, a capella singing and humorous text. The show mirrors the original in that it is immersive, site specific and responds to both the setting and the audience.
The 30-minute performance can take place within a dining hall or lounge, with chairs (and tables optional) set around a central performing space. The audience – residents and the staff – will be welcomed upon arrival by two host dancers. The show will gradually emerge from this informal gathering and develop into an unusual but welcoming gathering using song, dance and text to engage with stories and issues around food and eating. Protein’s performers will prompt thoughts about what we eat and where it comes from, as well as exploring the sensory aspects of food: the nostalgic reminiscences of a grandmother’s recipe; life around the family table; or the sometimes irresistible temptation to help ourselves to another person’s leftovers.
Prior to the performance ‘storyfinding’ sessions will take place, designed to introduce our performers to the residents and staff and encourage the residents to feel at home in the dancers’ presence. Within these sessions the artists will work either one-to-one or in small groups to get to know the characters and personalities of the residents and to encourage responses to the subject matter of food. These are likely to be verbal recollections and memories but may also be physical movement in response to a move or gesture prompted by the dance artist. These storyfinding sessions will likely be enhanced through the use of sensory props such as kitchen equipment (spoons, whisks etc), fruit and vegetables. These stories will then be intertwined within an improvised section of the show, creating a personal and meaningful performance designed to intrigue, surprise and delight the audience.
Protein will be offering care homes a unique experience in that the show itself will be participatory, blending workshop and performance to become a unique theatrical experience. As such the work will have within it an invitation to engage either passively – as a spectator – or more actively as someone who might want to interject with comment or to dance/sing/hum along.
Company Information
Protein is a touring dance theatre company founded in 1997 with a repertoire of immersive participation and performance work. The company tours the UK and internationally and the success and impact of our accessible and thought-provoking dance theatre productions has seen Protein’s profile grow steadily. The company specialises in reaching those on the fringes of society, such as refugees, older people with dementia, young people excluded from school and those with limited access to cultural opportunities.
“You had taken such care to ensure that performances were adapted to fit the context appropriately and to meet the needs of the patients and yet the artistic integrity of the work was not compromised in this process” Learning and Participation Manager, Salisbury Festival
