A facilitated conversation between artists and audiences, with Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas.

This three-part event was designed to function as an exchange, or as a testing ground for conversations between artists and audiences when we cannot be in the same physical space. 

Part 1:  

All participants were invited to tune into the Live Stream of Bert and Nasi’s performance The End from HOME in Manchester.

Part 2:  

All participants received an email with a series of questions to consider before, during and after watching the Live Stream of The End.   

Part 3:  

Monday 16^th November, 4pm – 5.30pm 

All participants joined a facilitated conversation over Zoom with artists Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas. Participants were invited to bring their responses to the questions, and to engage in a wider conversation with the artists about their experiencing of The End. 

About Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutas 

Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas are two performance makers that have been working together since 2015.  Creating work in an age of austerity and about austerity their work is stripped right back and sits somewhere between live art and theatre, but if you held them against a wall, they would probably say it’s theatre.  Together they first created the trilogy EUROHOUSE, PALMYRA and ONE which explored power dynamics and political themes on a micro, human level, and complex political and social questions – Greece’s relationship with the EU; the Syrian crisis; the rise of the ultra right – in an accessible, immediate form. Using humour and the dynamics of their onstage relationship, Bert and Nasi undercut and explore the darker aspects of contemporary subjects in work that questions both their own – and the audience’s – role as ‘active’ spectators in global conflicts. 

Dr Kate Craddock is a Research Associate in SELLL at Newcastle University, and Festival Director of GIFT: Gateshead International Festival of Theatre.  This event offered Kate an opportunity to experiment with methodologies for engaging audiences in conversations around their experiences when watching performance works online.