They eat nappies
They eat toothbrushes
They eat bombs
They eat newspapers about how the world will end…
a species running slowly in parallel
preaching change silently
digesting muck into matter and back again.

MUSHROOM LANGUAGE: A FUNGAL GOTHIC is about the cycles that shape us – eruption, reproduction and decay. It’s about role-playing the lichen love stories, spore shoot-outs and truffle siren songs found in our forests.

In an eerie and funny homage to folk horror, two human performers absorb and mimic ‘mushroom language’ through ritual and power dynamics. Who are these creatures, and what are the mushrooms trying to tell them? Dreamlike conversations and movement sequences are underpinned by original music from composer Hannah Miller (of the Moulettes) and playful design by Rūta Irbīte.

Mushrooms offer us a lens into a more sustainable future, but nature is hilarious and terrifying.

Developed with support from The Lowry and partners including Dartington Trust, Wainsgate Dances, Slung Low, New Adelphi Theatre/University of Salford, Centre for Live Art Yorkshire and the Centre for Folklore, Myth and Magic and the British Mycological Society. R&D design support from Jamie Simmons. Supported with funding from Arts Council England.

The performance will be followed by a post-show Q&A featuring:

Dr Alexandra Brand (she/her) works at the University of Exeter and is a Wellcome Senior Research Fellow and a fungal cell biologist. She combines molecular and biophysical approaches with live-cell imaging to investigate the regulation of directional growth of hyphae in response to the spatiophysical properties of the environment. This directional growth promotes matrix penetration and host tissue invasion that is fundamental to disease progression.

Sam Le Butt (she/her) is an SWW DTP funded PhD researcher in English Literature and Environmental Humanities at the University of Bristol and University of Southampton. Her research focuses on monsters as environmental storytellers in literature, film, and popular culture. Her doctoral work is on fungal horror and fungal monstrosity, digging into the affects of pain, pleasure, and disgust that the categorical ambivalences of fungi provoke in speculative representations. Her debut fiction collection Curious Women and other Creatures was published in 2022 by Radical Bookshop.

CONTENT WARNINGS

Age Guidance: 16+

Content Guidance: Strong language, references to sex & death, flashing lights, loud noises.

Download a Visual Guide to the Show (Opens in your web browser)

Pay What You Can Afford

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When you book a theatre or dance performance you will see the recommended price of £14, alongside Pay What You Can Afford options, which are offered at £12 / £10 / £8. We are hugely grateful to anyone who is able to pay the recommended price: as well as helping to support the artists who make the work, it allows us to continue nurturing a thriving local arts ecology.

VENUE: EXETER PHOENIX, AUDITORIUM

*Subject to a £1.50 ticketing system charge. We don’t charge this to make a profit. Find out more >>