Welcome.
Well done everybody. Everybody’s doing really well.
Well done everybody. Everybody’s doing really well.
Take care.

Caretaker was a livestream of the uninhabited stage of the Royal Court Theatre’s Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, which ran throughout the first Covid-19 UK lockdown.
Intermittently, the lights changed and short automated messages of support were broadcast. Mostly, there was silence.
I wrote new text for the announcements more or less daily.
Caretaker ran from May 8 - November 15 2020.

Caretaker was about carving out space for us all to be in however we wanted or needed to, and that not having to link to productivity; sharing time and space as materials, not as commodities; finding new ways of watching and being together or being alone; the power of slowing down to let stuff emerge.

The disembodied voice which delivered short moments of positivity was the piece's way of popping into people's lives and homes to say 'good job, you're doing well, just by getting through it'. 'It' might have been lockdown, but might also have been gender, work, mental health, family, life... 

And of course, there was something wry about it being an automated voice which delivered these encouragements. It maybe makes us think a bit about the structures of power that we seek affirmation from, and what things might be like if compassion was at the heart of these structures.

You can read some more of my thoughts about Caretaker here on the Royal Court website.