‘Goner’ is a sensual, suspenseful choreographic journey delving into the depths of psychological horror. Through a story of alienation, migration, and violence, it crafts radical visual culture from the marginalised perspective. Tracing roots while leaning into the traditional tropes and sensibility of the horror genre, ‘Goner’ places audiences on the edge. It is co-commissioned by The Yard Theatre, Dansehallerne Denmark, MDT Sweden and Cambridge Junction.
Through ‘Goner’ in an attempt to rewire the social condition of Blackness for something other than tragedy, Marikiscrycrycry takes the hard-hitting, deeply effective things that happen to marginalised people, and uses choreography and dance as a place to reorder them.
A ‘goner’ is a figure traditionally doomed, bound to death, a lost and hopeless case. This misaligned character expresses not giving on people because some of the responsibility for them lies on all of us, that we’re all implicated in the creation of monsters in the world.
Malik Nashad Sharpe said: “’Goner’ comes from watching a lot of horror films and being really inspired, particularly by the likes of Jordan Peele [Get Out]. But also by other horror and gore-zombie media. I’ve become interested in the person who’s doomed, the subjectivity of this person who’s about to turn into a zombie and leave their life, gets viciously mauled by a monster or goes into the creepy house on the hill and never comes back.”
Through ‘Goner’ Marikiscrycrycry elaborates on making sense of, and creating space, to think about what it is to be a Black marginalised person in this world and the kind of complexities and the real horrors of that. Malik Nashad Sharpe’s ‘Goner’ subverts what the expectations will be upon a Black body in entertainment, “I’m quite curious about how monsters can be created from a social context.” Sharpe adds.
Working with primarily new sounds and musical director Tabitha Thorlu-Bangura, the show has commissioned soundscapes, with experimental dark techno tracks, Caribbean music, Soca and Dancehall touching upon Sharpe’s heritage from St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Rehearsal direction is by dancer Blue Makwana with lighting design by Barnaby Booth. The costumes are by Stockholm designer Erik Annerborn and the environmentally economical set is by Felix Villiers and follows the theme of dark fantasy set in the present day.
Malik Nashad Sharpe said: “I feel like choreography is a place where we can build worlds. Where we reorganise the way that things are done within our actual lives. The key themes of ‘Goner’ are half formal and half thematic. I’m playing with feeling out of place, being othered, and being overtly and overly sexualized. The deep and dark effects of marginalisation on people, the emotional impact and the allostatic load. On the one hand, I want to know as a choreographer if it is possible to make dance horror, what dance offers the genre of horror, and what the genre of horror offers to the field of dance. This show is an accumulation of 10 years of work and interests in alienation, the effects of migration, migratory patterns, and colonisation. I am trying to understand from the perspective of being a Black artist, what are the merits of horror for my practice and within the wider marginalised, Black experience – so to be touring ‘Goner’ to arts venues around the world feels important.”
Age Guidance 14+. This show contains strobe lighting, strong language, loud sounds including gunshots, sensitive themes and topics, partial nudity, violence, and simulated blood.
Tour Dates and venues:
- Thu 29 Feb 2024 – Square Chapel Arts Centre, 10 Square Rd, Halifax, UK
- Sat 2 – Sun 3 Mar 2024 – Theatre in the Mill, Off Shearbridge Road, Bradford, UK
- Fri 15 – Sat 16 Mar 2024 – MDT Stockholm, Sweden
- Wed 3 – Thu 4 Apr 2024 – ICA, St James, London, UK
- Tue 16 Apr 2024 – Cambridge Junction, Clifton Way, Cambridge Cambridge, UK
- Fri 19 Apr 2024 – Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK
- Sat 27 Apr 2024 – Live Collisions / Project Arts Centre, Dublin Ireland
- Thurs 23 and Fri 24 May – Mayfest, Bristol
- Thurs 30 May 2024 – Gender House Queer Arts Festival, Aarhus, Denmark
- 7 – 8 June 2024 – Audra Festival, Kaunas, Lithuania
- Fri 13 – Sat 14 Sep 2024 Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, USA
- Thu 19 – Sun 22 Sep 2024 – Abrons Arts Centre, New York City, USA
- Sat 28 Sep 2024 – The Place, London, UK
- Fri 18 Oct 2024 – Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, UK
- March 2025 – Undisciplined Festival, Brighton, UK
- May 2025 – 9 Performance run Venue TBC, London, UK
Related links
Review – Marikiscrycrycry
