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The show, Look After Your Knees, comes to the Connaught Studio in April. We chatted to the performer, Natalie Bellingham about the show, its inspiration and what she hopes audiences will take away from it.
Tell us what your show, Look After Your Knees, is about?
It’s about a lot of things but at its core I’d say it’s about change and how difficult that can be and how necessary it often is. It’s about learning to let go of the past and being open to what comes next, whilst never promising that it’s going to be easy. Life is complicated!
It’s about feeling displaced by grief and trying to figure out who you are and what you want. My mum died in 2020 and everything changed. The way I existed in the world altered. For me this came at a time when I was also starting to do a little dance with mid life and thinking about the next chapter, whilst all the while slightly cringing at phrases like the next chapter!
What inspired you to make the show?
In 2019 I began making a show with my Italian friend, Daniele Pennati. However, due to the pandemic we were forced to rethink how the show would get made and how we would perform it. Daniele lived in Milan and everything looked a little uncertain so we decided to make it over Zoom. We made a show where I performed live in the space and Daniele performed via Zoom. It was called The Polar Bear is Dead and it actually worked really well! We toured it across the UK until spring last year.
Although The Polar Bear is Dead had two people in it, it was the first time I’d physically been alone on stage. I had always wanted to make a solo show and so this felt like an accidental first step.
At times during the pandemic, it felt like we came uncomfortably close to losing theatre altogether and with that a huge part of my world and future. I wasn’t prepared to let that go. So when things started moving again I took myself off to a theatre making retreat in Glastonbury organised by my friend and international art clown, Jamie Wood. As dramatic as it sounds, it felt a little, now or never- I didn’t want to wait, because we really didn’t know what might happen next. A lot had happened, I knew I wanted to make something and this was where I started to develop Look After your Knees and Jamie became co-creator. It also gave me that push to get it made and to take it to Edinburgh, something I’d always wanted to do.
It really is a personal show about a specific time in my life and all the things I was processing. Loss, identity, complex family relationships, the past, the future, midlife and trying to move when you feel stuck. You know all the small stuff! It’s the show I had in me and it had to come out!
The title is inspired by a song from the 90’s called Sunscreen by Baz Lurhman, it’s brilliant. There is a line in it that has always stayed with me “Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone”. In a way, this show is my little homage to that song and that sentiment.
What do you hope audiences will take away from the performance?
I’ve said a few times the show is personal, but a lot of what we experience in life is shared in some way or another. The themes and feelings in the show are universal, people may connect with part of the show or many parts. I hope the show offers some space for people to think about their own worlds.
Its theatre, it’s live, each show feels different depending on who’s in the room, which is pretty special. So I’d like us to have a lovely time! The show is about big stuff but it is playful too!
Something that was a little surprising to me but a wonderful thing, was how after Edinburgh, a lot of people left reviews and messaged me online to say how the show had stayed with them and that they’d thought about it long after seeing it. Some people even came to see it twice! It seemed to matter to them and that feels huge, so I hope at the end of it all, it might matter to people in some way. Big or small.
Will this be your first time in Worthing
Yes! And I’m really looking forward to it. The show talks a lot about my relationship to the sea and nature so it’s going to be pretty special bringing it to the coast!
Can you describe the show in three words?
Oof, I think it’s hard to describe your own autobiographical work well in three words so I’m going to use my favourite 3 words the audience have said. Choosing 3 words is a nightmare by the way! But here we go:
Poetic, emotional, playful.
Anything else you think our readers should know about you?
I’m originally from Manchester but now live on the border of Barnsley and Wakefield up in Yorkshire. That might also give some context to the style of parts of my work. I studied at a place called Bretton Hall, which is on the site of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (Wakefield). I then lived on site for many years and now live up the road. So I’ve been accidentally surrounded by sculpture for years and when I started making this show I was interested in approaching parts of it like a sculpture. Leaving it open for the audience to interpret for themselves. I’m sharing my story but I hope the show grows beyond that for people. I’m also a Giggle Doctor.
Look After Your Knees was on at the Connaught Studio on Thursday 3 April, 7:30pm