Stickman

Category GURMAND

Stickman is a performance which features: a man, a stick and a television.

The man balances the stick on various, and sometimes awkward, parts of his body thereby setting himself and the stick in motion. If the man has an agenda he keeps it to himself. The stick gets moved around and balanced by the man and seems to not have much to say on the matter. 

The television lurks in the background and throughout the performance comments and puts titles on whatever the man and stick are doing, thus dictating what the audience sees.  The audience sit on their seats and try to keep up with the ever changing rules of play. The TV calls them ‘WATCHERS’.

Stickman is an exploration of our relationships with meaning, empathy and agency.

Darragh McLoughlin is the artistic director of Squarehead Productions and a graduate of ACAPA, as well as a laureate of circusnext. He has created three acclaimed performance works and leads this project from within the stage. In this piece, he takes on a deceptively simple yet intense challenge: lying flat on his back, he balances a stick on his sternum for the entire duration—turning stillness into suspense.

Joseph Summers is an artist, instrument maker and organiser based in Berlin. He co-founded the interdisciplinary art space 90mil in 2022 and the record label First Terrace Records in 2016. As an artist he has performed across the UK, Europe and Japan and continues to develop new projects in different fields, including the acoustic drone group µ ensemble (performances at Krafwerk Berlin, Seanaps festival Leipzig, The Cube Bristol, and more).

The presentation of the performance at ConTempo Festival is supported by the Culture Ireland Foundation.