The show itself was inspired by the painting of Ophelia by John Everett Millais which hangs in the Tate Britain. I was struck by the idea that we have so many images of the death of Ophelia - a sort of ultimate muse, a feminine object, who in fact dies off stage. Thus, the artist's imaginings have filled in the gaps for an event which has no original theatrical representation. The show is about a particular type of femininity - the tragic muse, dying too young, living on in the stories people write about her afterwards.
The story of the Millais painting is that the model who posed for it, the artist Elizabeth Siddal (indeed a famous muse who died tragically young whose own work is overshadowed by that of the men who painted her) posed for it in a bathtub and became seriously ill with hypothermia from hours spent posing. So, we decided to recreate the image in a bathtub - a sort of real vs. ideal pastiche, in tribute to Siddal and in hopes of creating an eyecatching and striking image that represents the ideas at the centre of the show.
- Designer
- Gaby Godinez
- Photographer
- Sarah-Lee Evans
- Performer
- Laura Cathryn Thurlow
- Show
- River Time!