What's On | Feel Me

Feel Me artwork. A collage image of a woman's face, smeared around the edges with colourful paint. Hands reach in from the edges to touch the woman's face. Text reads: 'Feel Me'; 'Who do you care about and why?'

Feel Me production photo. Three performers sit on the floor in the centre of a cube made of gauze which can be projected onto. It is missing two side walls, through which they can be seen. They are miming holding devices in front of their faces, silhouetted against a red-to-white gradient background.

Photo by Will Green

Feel Me production photo. Three casually-dressed performers stand side-by-side in front of a cube made of gauze which can be projected onto. It is missing two side walls, and the back walls are displaying a black and white photograph if a person carrying the body of a small child on a beach.

Photo by Will Green

Feel Me production photo. A young performer with long, dark hair tied into a pony-tail stares into the middle-distance. Behind her, two perpendicular walls display a projected black and white photograph of people picking their way across rocks in a choppy, shallow sea.

Photo by Will Green

Feel Me production photo. Three casually-dressed performers dance in a loose line with their knees bent and their hair swishing. The background is a shadowy stage pierced by a warm white spotlight.

Photo by Will Green

Feel Me production photo. A performer stands facing away from the camera with a black rucksack raised above their head. Behind them, a cube made of gauze which can be projected onto. It is missing two side walls, and the back walls are displaying a brightly coloured and highly-saturated photograph of a stagnant body of water, bordered by short, scrubby trees.

Photo by Will Green

Feel Me production photo. Three causally-dressed young performers sit on the floor and take selfies. The images are displayed in real-time on an LED television behind them.

Photo by Will Green

Feel Me production photo. A close-up of a mobile phone in the hands of an audience member. The screen is dark, with white text reading ‘How connected do you feel to the issue of forced displacement? Place a dot on the image. If you feel very connected to the topic, put yourself closer to the person. If not, put yourself further away.’ The image is the figure of a person made up of white pixels.

Photo by Will Green

The Paper Birds presents

Feel Me

Show Information
Company

Who do you care about and why?

Feel Me is a new interactive theatre show from The Paper Birds, UK leaders in devised verbatim theatre. Feel Me asks, via your mobile phone, who and what you care about from the stories unfolding live on stage in front of you.

A stunning mixture of live performance, film, projection, dance and music, Feel Me will explore the different lenses through which we are told, and connect to stories in the modern digital world.

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. An interrogation of empathy, Feel Me asks what makes us ‘feel’ for another person, as we journey through landscapes and across borders, through weather storms and paperwork, changing seasons, endless queues and interviews.

Accessibility

All performances of Feel Me include integrated captions. If you require captions, we suggest you sit on the right side of the auditorium.

Feel Me is made by The Paper Birds in partnership with Theatre Centre. A co-production with New Wolsey Theatre. Supported by Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja and The Point, Eastleigh. Funded by British Council International Collaboration & Arts Council England.

Find out more about how Feel Me was created by visiting our Greenroom page.

About the Paper Birds

We are a devising theatre company who have been making work with, and for, communities since 2003. We believe wholeheartedly that the arts change lives and make society a better pace to be. We make theatre using themes that feel important in the here and now, and believe that process is as significant and empowering as product.

Our mission is be quiet rebels, amplifying the voices of everyday people. We are known for our use of verbatim and for bringing multiple, diverse voices to the fore. We strive to encourage change one encounter at a time. We want people’s lives to be improved by the arts and encourage agency through the workshops, performances, and conversations that we lead. We spend time in communities, listening to personal experiences and using the words of the people we meet to form the backbone of our shows. Recognised as UK leaders in devised verbatim theatre, we exist to create participatory theatre for social change.

Cast and Creative Team

Writer & Director – Jemma McDonnell

Co-director – Kyle Perry

Assistant Director – Shanice Sewell

Designer – Imogen Melhuish

Sound & Music Design – Fraser Owen

Film Director & Movement Consultant – Munya Muchati

Video Designer – Ben Glover

Video Associate – Bella Meyersohn

Performers & Devisers – Lil McGibbon, Daz Scott & Kiren Virdee

Lighting Designer & Technical Consultant – Mat Spencer

Data Visualisation Coding Consultant – Kris Sum

Touring Technician – Fraser Owen

Northcott Theatre

Theatre

Running time: 80 minutes, no interval

Members Discount, Group Discount (10+)

Age 13+
This performance contains some disturbing images that some people may find upsetting.
Cameras will be used in the show to stream what is happening in the auditorium on screens onstage, but this is not recorded or used outside of today's performance.