Indestructible is an unflinching examination of nauseatingly complex, and just plain nauseating, interplay between gender and power in the contemporary art world.โญโญโญโญ
North West End
Catherine Shaw spent the 90s shocking the art world withโฏher provocative performance art.โฏSheโsโฏalwaysโฏcalledโฏherself a feminist, but looking back through the lens of #MeToo,โฏsheโsโฏquestioning how much she enabled the culture she now seesโฏbeingโฏcalled out. An ambitious Curator approaches her to put togetherโฏan exhibition of female Artists at a major new gallery; a scandal breaks andโฏunwittingly caught in the centre, she begins to question everything.
Can we, and should we, separate the art from the artist? How far do the ripples of consequence spread? And why is it so often women who are expected to hold the moral space?
Indestructible takes in uncompromising female Artists,โฏfrom Lee Miller to the Guerrilla Girls via Sinead OโConnor and Taylor Swift, to ask:โฏwhy is it still so difficult for female Artists to succeed? And why are womenโฏalways the Muse, never the Artist?
Using animation and AI-generated projections, ‘Sharp art-world dramady’ (Theatre Weekly) Indestructible is a highly visual, surprisingly funny and fiercely theatrical show from award-winning Proteus that asks serious and vital questions about cancel culture and accountability.
Indestructibleย makes for a hugely entertaining, important, and engaging piece of theatre. Itโs a play that audiences will take with them long after the house lights come up.
-Reviews Hub
Extending the world of Indestructible
Blurringย the worlds of gallery and theatre and drawing on the visual language and art speak of gallery websites, Proteus theatre commissioned digital artist Paula Varjack and web developer Ben Gregory to create a website for the [fictional] galleryย MOCA North.
The website includes additional material that extends the narrative outside the physical show: a virtual gallery and online guide for the Indestructible exhibition, an interview with Catherine Shaw. The gallery of 26 artworks features real work by emerging and established female artists alongside fictional digital works created with AI, raising questions about truth, authorship and the rising using of digital creative tools across art forms.
MOCA North.com features work made by Paula and Ben under the character pseudonyms Catherine Shaw and Beatrice Gaskin, alongside work by Paula herself and then pieces created by other emerging visual artists: Naomi Escott, Laura Greenway, Imogen Reeves, Susan Francis and Claire Prouton.
Read more about the project in this article written originally written for Clapham Omnibus Theatre in January 2024.
Have you heard about the Indestructible Podcast?
Can you separate the art from the artist? How do you approach artworks you love after you discover the artist has behaved reprehensibly, abominably, illegally?
Indestructible – The Podcast explores these questions with artists, actors, curators and directorsย in a series that also examines the challenges of building a career in the theatre industry, and champions creative women from a range of disciplines whose work may not have enjoyed the exposure it deserves. Listen to episodes here.
This is a show that handles its arguments with great skill, and will inspire audiences to keep pushing for change โญโญโญโญ
- Theatre Weekly
AUTUMN TOUR DATES 2024
Proteus Creation Space, Basingstoke (tour previews) | Wednesday 18th & Thursday 19th September | 7.30pm
The Lighthouse, Poole | Saturday 21st September
The Barnfield, Exeter | Tuesday 8th October
West End Centre, Aldershot | Tuesday 15th October
Arena, Wolverhampton | Wednesday 23rd October
The Lowry, Salford | Friday 25th October
Cast and Creative Team
Writer and Director – Mary Swan
Dramaturg and Digital Artist – Paula Varjack
Dramaturg – Saul Jaffe
Animation and Projection Design – Christopher Harrison
Set and Costume Design – Sam Pine
Lighting Design – Joe Hornsby
Composer – Paul Wild
Performers
Mary Rose
Danny Charles
Paul Huntley-Thomas