A Long Dramatic Pause
Live performance
Approx. 35 mins
2025
A Long Dramatic Pause is a live performance that explores strategies of resistance against ultranationalism and far-right politics through vernaculars of photography and theatre. Delivered by a solo performer, the narrative comprises twelve scripted vignettes that describe a photographic image as if it were a theatrical stage, bringing that image into being through reenactment and visual analysis rather than explicitly showing it.
At the heart of the photograph being described is a young woman, a figure of solidarity and defiance that the audience can identify with and project their political desires onto. As the performer moves in and out of observing and embodying this unseen figure, the narrative gradually implicates the audience as if they had been unknowing protagonists all along, shifting their gaze away from the performer towards their own agency.
Each staging of A Long Dramatic Pause is developed through a collaborative process between myself and a solo performer, in which we interpret a series of graphic scores and create a new, site-specific choreography together. This process of collaboration shapes the rhythm and emotional register of that particular iteration, and positions the performer as a co-creator of the work.
The first staging of A Long Dramatic Pause took place in collaboration with Francesca Matthys at Studio Voltaire, London in September 2025. All photos by Rita Silva.
Produced with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.
