What You See When Your Eyes Are Closed / What You Don't See When Your Eyes Are Open

Cyclops: a furry monster, seeing the world in 2D through his single eye. Mamoru: a suited hero with two faces, looking forward and back, seeing the world through his four eyes. Through battles and rituals, the show explores what it means to ‘See’ and to ‘Be Seen’ in live performance where, unlike watching a screen, everyone (performers, technicians and audience) has a completely different visual experience of the same event.

All performances relaxed, captioned and with audio description.

Contains brief nudity.

Review Extracts

The Guardian ★★★★

"It is an amusingly hand-stitched investigation into ways of seeing"

"in the most idiosyncratic way, everything is captioned and [audio] described."

"Perspectives shift and the projector dances across the walls in a production that is as eccentric as it is thoughtful."

Full review

The Scotsman ★★★★

“a truly bananas piece of theatre – a joyful avant-garde experiment for the meme generation.”

“Beneath its determinedly silly surface lies a complex proposition for a new kind of theatre that disrupts the idea of seeing as a passive act.”

Full review

British Theatre Guide ★★★★

"Clever, without being pretentious, witty but never flippant, this truly unique production explores complex ideas with a sense of fun, using personal stories to interrogate academic theory in a way that is joyful, engaging and accessible—genius!"

Full review

All Edinburgh Theatre ★★★★

"...thought-provoking, surprisingly touching and visually intriguing."

"Charm is certainly here by the bucketload, as well as ingenuity."

Full Review

-- Matthew Lenton (Artistic Director, Vanishing Point) said: "I wonder if this kind of event represents what the future of theatre should, could and will be - smaller, more intimate experiences that reshape audience expectations of going to 'the theatre’ - which ‘art’ theatre has to do if it is to survive."

-- Callum Madge (Access Manager, Edinburgh Internatioinal Festival) tweeted: ”The most inventive and playful examples of creatively embedded access I’ve seen. Lots of interesting food for thoughts.” 

-- Read Dr Harry Robert Wilson (Dramaturg)’s ‘Unseeing seeing: Notes from a process of making What You See When Your Eyes Are Closed / What You Don’t See When Your Eyes Are Open (See/Don’t See)’ from the link below

https://www.iriguchi.co.uk/WhatYouSeeDontSeeWhen_UnseeingSeeing.html

Creative Team 

Alison Brown: Costume Supervisor

Gavin Pringle: Deviser & Performer

Harry Robert Wilson: Dramaturg

Kirsty Pennycook: Access Consultant

Lydia Sasnovkis: Audio Description Advisor

Mamoru Iriguchi: Lead Artist & Performer

Sorcha Pringle: Audio Description Advisor

Susanne Zaun: Dramaturg

Suzi Cunningham: Movement Director

Daniel Cockburn: Outside Eye

Selina Papoutseli: Outside Eye

Thom Hall: Technical Stage Manager

Wendy Niblock: PR Support

Solomon Szekir-Papasavva (Wellcome Collection): Producing Support

Nicholas Bone (Magnetic North): Dramaturgic Support 

Co-production with Schwankhalle

Contributors who shared their insight in ‘seeing performance’ during the initial R&D supported by Buzzcut Artists Associateship(2019): Mary Brennan, Nikki Tomlinson, Ivor MacAskill, Lucy Cash, Lucas Kao, Adam Gregory York & Gillian Jane Lees, Matt Addicott, Greg Sinclair, Harry Robert Wilson 

photo: Jo Hanley/Wellcome Collection (marketing images), Medoune Seck (production shots) 

Past Presentations

Tramway (Glasgow), Summerhall (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), Wellcome Collection (London), Schwankhalle (Bremen, Germany)