Upon completion of our piece, it’s now time for us to evaluate what worked within the performance and what did not. The way in which we decorated and set our space was with the intention of making it ‘safe zone’; making the concept of giving these words acceptance viable. We constructed the set with a child’s ‘den’ in mind; bed sheets draping across and down as a roof and walls. We also filled the space with cuddly toys and seemingly harmless and child-like objects. This was so that once audience members entered the space, they feel welcome and secure. However, if a participant was to delve deeper into the space they would discover subtle hints of a darker agenda. Slightly hidden in the organised mess of children’s toys and cushions was a number of sex toys and sexual paraphernalia, hidden because we appreciated the idea of participants getting the ‘secure’ sense first and then after visual investigation, begin to see what the content could possibly involve.
The segment of our performance which involved offering audience members a big bowl full of bits of paper which each contained a question seemed to work. As the questions were topical about taboo words and subjects, they generated a good amount of discussion and contemplation. We were concerned that people would feel as though they could not speak their mind about these subjects; on the contrary, we were finding it difficult to move from one question to the other. It’s apparent that the way in which we set our space made participants feel more open and accepted to discuss their thoughts. Overall we feel our performance went very well and we had masses of fun in the process. We feel it ran smoothly and the audience involved themselves when appropriate.
