Simon Banham

Weather

noun: condition of atmosphere at a certain time and place.

verb: to weather – to change form or appearance [through wearing away]

verb: to weather – to come safely through or withstand a difficult situation.

Scenography: [perhaps] the creation of atmospheres in a certain space and through time.

[often] the alteration of form and appearance.[hopefully] a challenging and transformative experience.

With the Weather + Scenography theme we issue an invitation to explore the intangible, the transient and the accidental. The moments when ‘being there’ reveals the here and the now and the ‘potentially’ never again. A shared experience, exploring the permeable border between maker and watcher.

As a result of this invitation you might encounter:

The Weather outside: the weather as co-author, a transient and changeable (mood-y) collaborator.

When placing work outside, the weather is potentially a highly positive agent of disruption and can become the most significant optic through which we might view that work. This might be vivid crimson sunsets or blankets of cloud, driving rain or endless drizzle, mysterious mists or impenetrable fog, natural events that carry their own inherent dramaturgy.

The Weather within: the weather as scenographic element, taking the outside inside.

The creation of weather inside: fog, rain, wind and temperature variations are all elements that can regularly inhabit our theatre spaces; what are the consequences of inviting what’s out there in here? Perhaps, as an agent of disruption the potential risk is greater when we attempt to control the weather? Perhaps we should ‘allow’ it to destroy the other scenographies and embrace the uncertainty?

The Weather within us: the audience as weather.

As well as the ‘temperature’ of a ‘passive’ audience that can affect the atmosphere of an event, what happens when an audience is given direct agency? When there is an invitation to act? When the spectator becomes a creative actant, a force (of nature).

Let us offer you another invitation. When you start your conversation about the weather perhaps you could also [mis]pronounce or [mis]hear ‘weather’ as ‘whether’, and open an opportunity to ask- “what if ?”