The House of Tragic SHE...with a HE by Matt Harper

I've worked with Six Lips Theatre as and Associate Artist since 2011 as a Director, Writer and (when they work their sweet charm on me) as a performer too. So, who are they, what do they do and why have I stayed with them so long?

Well, first and foremost they make bloody brilliant work; work that excites me both visually and thematically - narratives which are rich, textured and evocative, imagery which is vivid, hand crafted and beautiful in detail and ingenuity, a process which is thorough, yet playful and totally immersive for any Creative . Everything that I look for personally within theatre and something I am proud to play my part in!

The culture of the company is second-to-none (as anyone who has worked for SLT with testify); the repertoire of artists, practitioners, and performers has such a vivid eclecticism that every project is fresh, bursting with life and full of wonderful newness!

As you can probably tell I am a Six Lipser through and through!

But during our last rehearsal I became perturbed. A university student observing our ways of working, techniques, methods and such like asked 'how does it feel to be part of a female ensemble?' 

Oh

Erm

Is that what it is? Well yes, the founding members are all female, the cast is all female and we are exploring the representation of mental health from the female perspective....so maybe....

 

 

My first writing and directing job with SLT was on a one woman show called Hooked, which had my personality, my gender, my sexuality threaded through it...I'd never thought about Six Lips as a female ensemble or within any feminist arena at all.

And

still don't

We (and I throw my male self into that we) make work that interests us, content which appeals, visuals which stimulate. End.

Gender plays the part we want it to, the aesthetic we decide to see, but do Six Lips only represent the female agenda, the woman's perspective? No. As with previous productions with the company, I will creatively contaminate the process of The House of Tragic She - a part of me will most certainly be within the final performance...my opinions, my reflections, my masculinity. How could it not. In its most simple terms of binary opposites; to discuss female, you must also discuss male. Surely.

To go back to what I said before - we make work that interests us, content which appeals, visuals which stimulate and that is what makes Six Lips Theatre universal, accessible and a wonderful force within the Theatre world.

See it as a female ensemble, a narrowed perspective, a woman's voice, whatever you see it as - just see it. It doesn't effect the fact that SLT performances are spectacular to behold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matt Harper