My Mum Put the Y in DIY
University of East London
2021
An autoethnographic multidisciplinary performance piece exploring the stigma, stereotyping, and demonisation of the single mother figure while simultaneously challenging the elitism of live and performance art.
Working with three generations of my family to reflect on how the British class system has influenced them across different historical moments. The piece explores and shares verbatim, ethically, the personal experiences of my family, exploring socio-political themes of class, taste, clothing, food, domestic violence, poverty and identity. Drawing upon cabaret, stand-up comedy, and improvisation, with underpinning themes of contemporary performance art, the piece draws upon autoethnography - as opposed to autobiography - to relate personal history in a non-egocentric way, engaging with shared communities. These varied presentation modes allow frantic, purposeful moments to weave through the performance, breaking the fourth wall and taking the audience on a non-linear, disruptive journey of multiple high and low moments.