Leading verbatim theatre company returns to Leeds Playhouse with innovative technology exploring the empathy we feel for others
Using a mixture of live performance, film, projection, dance and interactive elements, Feel Me, explores the different lenses through which we are told, connect with and read about stories. Created by UK’s leading devising verbatim theatre company, The Paper Birds, the production will play in the Playhouse’s Courtyard theatre from 20-21 November.
In Feel Me, worlds unfold from backpacks, and tents are constructed and dismantled again, each scene and location temporary, like a transient teenager in search of safety, acceptance and a new place to call home.
Talking about the inspiration for the show, the company’s Co-Founder and Co-Director Jemma McDonnell said: “The idea for Feel Me started in 2015 when I saw a picture of a three-year-old boy, Alan Kurdi, washed up on a beach. It was a picture I couldn’t get out of my mind, there was something in that horrifying viral image that kept making me return to the concept of empathy and what it means to feel for another. Jump forward five years and sitting in lockdown with my own small children to take care of I decided to revisit this idea.”
The idea has since grown even further, following the show’s initial preview tour and change of company. McDonnell elaborated: “The beauty of being a devising company and the show having a change of cast has allowed us to revisit the original show and to look at widening the lens, using the live and film elements of the show to explore through the character’s eyes, rather than the performer’s story – because that character could be anyone.
“We’ve also incorporated the new performers’ voices within the piece more. They are directly interacting with the audience more, which results in greater opportunities to discuss the barriers and complexities of empathy. It’s a show that encourages audiences to think, but ultimately empathy is about emotions and so we’ve been really working on ways in which we can encourage the audience to feel more.”
Feel Me seeks real world impact and action and achieves it with help from modern technology. As active participants within the show, audiences are gently and anonymously asked to share how they feel about the story they are witnessing at different moments using their mobile phones, and to consider who they connect with, who they feel empathy for and why.
The results gathered of these collaborative ‘check-in’ moments will be shared live as part of the performance. Working in collaboration with academics from Essex University, the Company is using mobile phones to measure the impact Feel Me has had on their audiences and their empathy levels.
Overall, 72% of the audience so far said they would probably or definitely show more empathy in the future and 81% said the show made them reflect on the world today.
Known for their exceptional work with and for young people, The Paper Birds put together a fantastic creative team of emerging artists under 30 on Feel Me, including, among others, Shanice Sewell (Assistant Director), Imogen Melhuish (Designer), Fraser Owen (Sound & Music Design) and the cast of Rebecca Callow, Klara Kaliger and Elinor Solly. The show was initially devised and performed by Lil McGibbon, Daz Scott, Kiren Virdee.
The company also worked with five Youth Creative Councils – steering groups made up of young people aged 13-25, some of whom with a lived experience of forced displacement. They supported the devising process by sharing their thoughts and opinions in R&D and rehearsals.
Listings information
The Paper Birds Theatre Company presents
Feel Me
Courtyard Theatre, Leeds Playhouse
20-21 November
80 minutes with no interval
Suitable for ages 13 years+
Includes integrated captions
Box office 0113 213 7700
Book online at leedsplayhouse.org.uk
Contains mild strobing in the projections, loud noises and atmospheric haze.
The show uses cameras to stream what is happening in the auditorium on screens onstage, but this is not recorded or used outside of the day’s live performance.
