Actor, writer, co-founder Spin/Stir
Below is an outline of the topics covered in our interview with Joelle Taylor and Vanessa Lee in 2013, recorded to assist with the construction of the Spin/Stir company webpage.
Ness and Joelle’s Unfinished Histories interview is now deposited with the British Library Sound Archive, V&A Theatre Collections and Sheffield University. Please see Viewing Interviews for further details.
Date: 2013
Duration: 01:14.57
Company: Spin/Stir
Interviewer: Lucie Reagan
Interview contents include: How they met and came to work together at Canterbury University. Initial negative attitudes of people to their work which changed with their first show’s highly acclaimed Time Out review. Good descriptions of Spin/Stir shows and ideas, issues, politics behind them: Vampires; Smile Loudly Scream Softly; Naming; Whorror Stories 1 & 2; Loonatik. Full explanations of where their work came from, performance choices – ‘very experimental, funny, sinister dark comedy’. Employed very extreme performance style in all areas – performance, set etc. Call their work ‘Social Surrealism’. Early struggles, rehearsing and playing when Ness was pregnant and trying to bring up a child. Audiences. Quite a long discussion of the status of women in today’s society and issues around current sexual abuse revelations and how their work addressed the latter before its time. Post-Spin/Stir work. Influence of Spin/Stir on their current work. Milk Token – Ness’s play about breast feeding. Lucid Johnson by Joelle.