EMOTION 2025: ACCESS GUIDE | What to expect as an audience member
Introduction
Thank you for joining us for EMOTION.
This Access Guide is made up of three sections:
- When you arrive. Which provides details of our building and what it’ll
be like on the day of the show. - About the performance. Which details audience movement, light
and sound changes throughout the show. - A sound guide. Which describes the sounds throughout the show in
more detail.
With each section more is revealed about what happens in the show,
so we have separated them across three pages so you can more easily
choose how much you want to know in advance.
Arrivals
When you arrive
- The studios will be open from 3am. We advise you arrive around
3:45am. - When you arrive, walk across the courtyard, our team will greet you
and ask for your name so we can check you in. - The lights will be low in the building to honour the natural light of the
early morning. - There are spaces to sit or stand on the first floor before the
performance begins. - There are all gender toilets on the ground and first floors, two with
wheelchair access (the toilets in our disabled toilets are 42cm high). - The performance will be filmed and photographed, if you have
questions please see a member of our team on arrival
About the performance
EMOTION is a relaxed performance, which means you can come and
go, make noise or stim as you need.
Light: Gradually increasing natural light, with some subtle additional
theatre lighting. Let us know if you are light sensitive so we can advise
on where to sit.
Sound: Begins gently and builds. There are no jarring sounds, but some
singing using microphones. Ear defenders and ear plugs are available.
Themes / Quiet Space: The work is shaped with a cycle of birth, life
and death. We welcome your feelings in the space and there is a quiet
space on the first floor and places to sit on all floors if you need some
time out.
Performance outline:
- The performance will begin around 4am in the school playground
behind our building, accessed via a fire exit. You will be silently
invited to stand and gently move by the performers. - Next, we will move up to the second floor to the Roof Studio. You can
go up in the lift or via the stairs. - A subtle scent will be diffused in the stairwell with citrus, lemon
grass and rosemary. - In the Roof Studio you will be invited to sit round the edges of the
space, you can sit of the floor, cushion, bench or chair. Our team can
help if you need us to. - Part way through the performance you will be invited to move
to watch from one end of the space, where you will stay for the
rest of the show. Let us know if you need to stay at the same spot
throughout.
After the performance:
- At the end of the performance (around 5:15am) you are invited to join
us on the ground floor for breakfast. We will be serving a buffet of
breads, pastries, fruit and vegetables. There will be some vegan and
gluten free options. Everything will be nut free. - During breakfast we will gently echo a moment from the show,
creating a final image together. We welcome join in, or not join in,
as you prefer.
Sound Guide
Outside
Silence and some hushed voices to guide people.
There is likely to be some ambient sounds, like early bird song or dogs barking
and possibly some traffic noise.
In the Roof Studio
As you come into the Roof Studio, a quiet sound emerges.
Andreas, the Sound Designer, is mixing the sound live.
Whilst the performers are on the floor, rolling in through the studio door and from the edges of the room, the sound is gentle and growing. We hear a baby, crying, heartbeats, breath, a soft lullaby with a female voice and street sounds. As this section develops, we start to hear bird sounds and synthesised bell type sounds, supporting a pastoral atmosphere.
When performers stand up at the edges of the space they begin to sing long tones of different pitches, sometimes in harmony, sometimes clashing and dissonant. The sound in this section is quite loud and full.
As the performers walk around, the different tones continue and a song emerges. The song is a choral arrangement of a Russian folk song, Oi Maros (phonetic spelling) which is thought to date back to the 19th century with possible Ukrainian origins. The song continues for several rounds with a melody and a bass part. Towards the end of this section the performers invite the audience to move to one end of the studio and they move to the sides.
Next, there are some sections of movement that 5 groups dance in different orders. The sound mirrors this sectional structure. The individual elements seem to contrast and include ambient synthesised sounds, real time radio station shuffling, instrumental versions of popular songs and pulsating percussive loops. The elements are overlayed and shuffled.
Some of the performers perform a karaoke song using a mic with a low quality echo effect, as the rest of the group dance different sections around them. When the karaoke finishes the overlaying and shuffling of sounds become more percussive, with a steady beat culminating in a big group routine.
When some performers begin spinning the sound cross-fades to melodic, melancholic, flowing piano which follows the cyclical atmosphere of the spinning. Gradually, an orchestral funeral march begins as performers pick up chairs. This transitions into a sequence of songs which follow the same pulse but are from different cultures and include folk, classical, balkan, pop and techno music.
As 24 people sit on a chair, the last song is played in full. This is a recording of a live version of a popular 60s spanish song by Silvia Perez Cruz and Raul Fernández.