Lost with All Hands (lost without hands)

Like a little dog snapping at a large beast the fictional play circles its quarry, taking some of its images from memories of real life

An old man’s text, discovered by the young reader, explores fictional and documented lives - narrated or withheld - of three characters: a young foreigner stranded in Cape Town in the 1950s, her absent seafaring husband, and their child - now the performer as an old man. 

A transgenerational presence, in the guise of a nineteen-century watchman – a ‘knowing one’ - guides (and haunts) the mother, her son and grandson.

Using video, sculpted objects and live performance, the tableaux and actions ‘scratch out’ images from once pervasive suburban life:  post-second world War austerity and optimism, the repressed memory of colonial genocides, and enforced displacement to the Terra Nullius of those found guilty of crimes -  crimes of survival and crimes of rebellion.

Lost with All Hands (lost without hands) was developed at ZINK, a shed theatre on the slopes of Signal Hill. Interrupted by COVID, the theatre shut down after props, sets and equipment were repeatedly destroyed and stolen during a local crime wave. 

The production was recreated and completed on invitation of the ICA Live Art Festival 2024 at UCT. The show sold out within half an hour. This enthusiastically received but rough and ready premier and a subsequent short season at Theatre Arts suggested further development and exposure.

Lost with All Hands (lost without hands) completes a series of ‘family life’ performances, including Shakespeare’s Chair, Mama Papa Kaka, Death and Utopia (The Young Pioneers) produced at ZINK between 2011 and 2019.