Here is what creator / performer / designer Casey Jay Andrews says about her latest show, Oh My Heart, Oh My Home:
The last few years have fundamentally changed us. And no two people have been changed in the same way.
My personal mythology had always been that I thrive in crowds, but when I returned to the busy places I had missed the most, the places I knew I loved the most, I felt a loud unignorable loneliness. The stark contrast in the physical closeness of all these people back together again, against the personal isolation in all of that noise was quite alien to me.
Places that had once nurtured me were no longer places of solace.
Meanwhile in the stillness and solitude of home, I had cultivated meaningful connections with purpose and care.
So look, this is not a show about COVID, but it is about how connection endures and transforms when we are subject to meteoric shifts beyond our control. I think we are transformed by the places we inhabit; these places begin to inhabit us. One byproduct of being detached from the people who feel like home is a necessity to rekindle our sense of sanctuary, belonging and community in whatever brave new world we’ve stumbled into.
This is a fable about what happens to a family when a meteorite lands on their house. Magical realism has been a strong thread through my recent work and this is no exception. The house is at the centre of the story, it comes to life as the tale unfolds. Storytelling and poetry are accompanied by an original score of live music composed by George Jennings and Jack Brett.
Daniel Kitson has praised my previous work, so if that genre of storytelling is your cup of tea please do come along.