Other.

The stage is a magic circle where only the most real things happen, a neutral territory outside the jurisdiction of Fate where stars may be crossed with impunity. A truer and more real place does not exist in all the universe.

-- P.S.Baber, Cassie Draws the Universe


This afternoon I went on a walking tour of Dundee as an audience member of a live street performance project called Other, created by several of my colleagues at the Rep, National Theatre of Scotland and over 80 performers from our community theatre, women singers, and youth theatre groups, to mention but a few.

Over the space of an hour we were led on a sinister, creepy and haunting journey through the city streets where we witnessed strange events, sounds, sights and goings-on.

I took this blip towards the end of the tour - I wasn't really supposed to be taking photos, but I personally thought that was a silly rule for street theatre. My friend Richard joked that I was like the paparazzi, taking snaps whenever I could be sneaky enough! This photo is of Sophie who is one of my lovely youth theatre support workers being all spooky-like in a blood-stained dress. In the distance, you can see a number of the other ghost-like performers walking the streets and chalk-drawing on walls.

The whole event was so rich with material that I found it hard to process. I'm still mulling over it all now, and probably will be for quite some time ...

See close up