Strange Contagions
Created by Soapbox
Soapbox is an interdisciplinary theatre company that devises experimental, collaborative, and female-centred new work. An international cohort of artists that hail from a range of creative backgrounds, we pride ourselves on creating and telling stories that ask big questions and explode traditional narratives of history and identity. Our creative practice centres empathy and cultivates community.
Lead Artist:
Sophia Wai-Yee
Performers:
Sophia Wai-Yee
Domi Ucar
Hannah Gintberg Dees
Mimmi Bauer
Maddie Wakeling
Producer:
Bella Cavicchi
Set and costume design:
Anna Niamh Gorman
Sound designer:
Roshi Cowen
Strange behaviours leap between a community of women, self-replicating and spreading like a bolt of lightning…The memory of students in an empty school auditorium, laughter at a funeral, an impatient canker sore. Bodies twitch, meow, laugh and jive as the dance at the end of the world begins. Maybe it’s her imagination, or maybe it’s the hormones… Welcome to Strange Contagions, a devised, collaborative theatre piece that explores the weird and mystifying episodes of mass hysteria throughout history, particularly in female-centric communities. Devised by the emerging artists of Soapbox, it takes a creative look at the mythology behind psychogenic illness and what happens when a group of women rebel against their constraints.