B Like Water
(A co-production with Contact Theatre, co-directed by Benji Reid and John McGrath, written by Lemn Sissay.)
On the cusp of falling – on the verge of flying, Benji Reid jumps from poetry to body popping and back again in a heart stirring exploration of the role that heroes play in our lives.
‘Paint the Heroes, the queens and kings. Paint yourself wings. Paint yourself wings.’ Words by Lemn Sissay
Statement:
“I had the opportunity to work with one of strongest voices in contemporary poetry today, Lemn Sissay. John McGrath and I had spent a week in Birmingham just playing with flight on the end of a bungee. This has been the biggest challenge to date; I wanted a piece that would be able to live with 13 Mics.
O Jay (Musical Director) and I had been touring The Holiday for some time and we both loved the piece because in one respect the theme is timeless and the subject is endless emotional and physical break down. In the end of The Holiday the protagonist jumps. I wanted to start B Like Water at the end of The Holiday, as a sequel if you will. O Jay and I had an idea of angels for the songs and movement in B Like Water. I really needed to feel a sense of closure to the whole idea of some one taking their life.
I wanted to move into a more spiritual zone that would examine my respect for black heroes and how we connect to them. The narrative is a fall and what happened between the jump and salvation, and how the angles save the protagonist’s state of mind. Very simple. Of course there is the physical proposition of being suspended from a line, I wanted to play with weightlessness. This has proved to be very hard, I have never developed such a painful piece.
The title ‘B Like Water’ comes from an interview with Bruce Lee. In order for us to overcome our fears, our oppressors, our economic entrapment, we need to be like water. Whenever the world throws a bolder in the stream of life, we must learn to flow around it, over it, underneath it, and record it in time. We take our love and positive energy and flow through time creating little streams called our children.
There is something simple and beautiful about this piece.”
B Like Water from Breaking Cycles on Vimeo.
