Walk Out of Yourself is a short docu-opera made in response to the lockdown of spring 2020. Rambling through our haphazard thoughts as we try to carve a new path for society, community and identity, this piece explores the rituals and routine of pacing and retracing our steps. What happens when the daily walk or run is the only opportunity to escape the confines of a home? When the once less-taken road becomes familiar? When the street becomes a gauntlet, and the pavement a game of switch and slalem? And what happens to those people who relied on their daily walks for social encounters?
The Voicings Collective uses its interdisciplinary devising process to capture the thoughts of artists based across England: from urban Manchester and seaside Brighton, to rural Suffolk. Part-diary, part-drama, Walk Out of Yourself captures attitudes and emotions surrounding the lockdown, as well as exploring our relationships with others, and the ways in which this experience has created connection or distance between strangers. The piece is a collage of captured and composed audio, personal video, and animation, interrogating themes of distancing, of inside vs. outside, of how we connect as artists and individuals, and of how we sustain community in a socially distanced world.
Commissioned by #OperaHarmony, Walk Out of Yourself was streamed on
OperaVision.eu in August 2020 and shortlisted into the finals of the Opera Harmony initiative. A downloadable programme can be found
here.
Check out our making of.