Gary Stevens  

An unknown person points at an apparent stranger with a growing sense of recognition. The stranger is transfixed and mortified by the gesture, pinned down or held up like someone facing a loaded gun. They are released as some doubt creeps in and the hand is lowered. They make good their escape but the tendency spreads through a group until five people are caught in a gestural equivalent of a Mexican stand off. They try to hold on to one another, frantically pointing from one to another...

Their simple lives become increasingly complex as they forge relationships and attribute names. They discover that they know each other intimately. They explore and uncover the interconnections and interrelations as their lives interweave. The performers are distinguished from the audience by the conceptual network that grows up between them. The character or name assigned to a performer does not necessarily correspond to their gender, ethnicity or age. Emotional ties become factual statements in a memory game.

No man is an Island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main.
John Donne

Hell is other people.
John-Paul Sartre

Duration 35 minutes (approx)
Written and Directed by Gary Stevens
Performed by Isabel Carr, Cindy Oswin, Florence Peake, Barnaby Stone and Gary Stevens (Initially developed also with John Hale)

Island is a BAC Scratch Commission. First performed at BAC, London in May 2010 Subsequent performances at Circular – Festival de Artes Performativas, Villa do Conde, Portugal