Familiar

I produced Gillie Kleiman and Greg Wohead’s show Familiar, which premiered at Fierce Festival in Birmingham in 2019, and toured to Dance City (Newcastle).

’There cannot be just one companion species; there have to be at least two to make one. It is in the syntax; it is in the flesh.’
 The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People and Significant Otherness, Donna Haraway

‘Cooper: You spoke to me in my dream. About BOB.

Mike: Mmm. He was my familiar. I am similar to BOB. We once were partners.’
 Twin Peaks, Season 2, Episode 6

Familiar is a twinset of performances on significant otherness. One authored by Kleiman and performed by Wohead, the other authored by Wohead and performed by Kleiman, the two are twisted together with story, song and spit.

Springboarding from a question of companionship, Kleiman and Wohead reach for something mysterious: a shaggy dog story danced by Twin Peaks’ legendary Log Lady, speaking from the beyond to enable the pair to become others of significance then and there in the theatre.

‘Aided by two animatronic dogs, it’s a neat conceptual conceit, with both works to-ing and fro-ing around the impossibility of knowing everything about another person.’ Gareth Llŷr Evans, The Guardian

Commissioned by Dance City and Fierce Festival. Supported by Arts Council England, ARC Stockton, Wainsgate Chapel, Shoreditch Town Hall, Northern Stage, Northumbria University and Roehampton University.

Photo: Manuel Vason