If you haven't been announced, don't come in (2015)

In 1929 Mayakovsky wrote what would be the last in a series of five plays, a matter of months before his suicide in 1930. In his final play The Bathhouse Mayakovsky openly ridiculed the Communist Party administration using the principle of the emperor’s new clothes through an invisible time machine. 

This performance installation is the second in a series of five works re-interpreting Mayakovsky’s plays.  In this work the commentary on the Soviet State has been changed to one on the Capitalistic Conservative government of the UK. Switching Mayakovsky’s time machine for an ATM the performance comments on the economic banking collapse and the idiocy of the current political system.

The new version of the play replaces significant objects and characters, Russian officials become members of the Conservative party, and key players in the financial crash such as FTSE100 and Northern Rock are personified. The performance is a criticism of today’s government and bureaucratic system.

Performed with: Sarah Fortes Mayer, Anna Phillips, Kate Spence Tadas Stalyga
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Photography: Greg Milner