Class and queerness: BULLYACHE on newest work ‘TOM’

TOM is a piece that blends the parable of Orpheus with the Division for Work and Pensions. It’s a pop-culture collision of working class and queer expression. A conflicting area of custom & lived expertise, private & pop. A pageant is about to start, there is no such thing as a name time…perpetual purgatory.

BULLYACHE is a dwell music & dance firm whose work traverses pop-culture, classical textual content & opera; assume Pina Bausch cosplaying as Dua Lipa and performing albums as theatre works, theatre via the lens of a pop music video.

Alongside co-directors Courtney Deyn & Jacob Samuel, TOM might be carried out from 9-13 Might with Belén Leroux, James Olivo, Yen-Ching Lin, Lewis Walker & Ed Mitchell as a part of Now 23 at The Yard Theatre.

Bullyache co-directors Courtney & Jacob share:

“Throughout the pandemic Courtney was in a residency, locked in a resort room for 16 days dropping their thoughts & Jacob was sending them beats to sing on. That was the start. We each went to remedy and received sober. BULLYACHE was an act of us coming collectively to create one thing lovely that embraced a journey of therapeutic, sustainability and a spot that may act as an organization to permit marginalised voices to search out comparable peace. BULLYACHE is sort of a 3rd particular person now. It’s us giving our greatest to one thing”

“TOM is our try and distil, to speak views & lived experiences we have now round class. Life is exhausting. Surviving is exhausting. This work is about making an attempt to make some sense of that labour”

“Usually these emotions concerning the world are so summary & difficult to render straightforwardly in phrases. Our course of – making music, working with collaborators (dancers, designers) & sharing with audiences – all of those are methods in. Methods for us to create area for communal expertise; particularly for individuals who can really feel so othered by a lot of tradition”

“Our solid conjures up us a lot & their identities, the bodily contrasts they carry all feed into the work we make. We have an interest within the variety of individuals and character – making a protected and dynamic area for the performers. We work with world champion gymnasts and voguers, classical musicians and Kakatk dancers. It’s this technique of layering, oscillation & distinction which excites us a lot and helps to construct our shared bodily language”

To guide to see TOM go to: https://theyardtheatre.co.uk/events/now-23-bullyache/ Header picture by Harry Clark Pictures.