Echoes of This Place is inspired by the stories spaces hold and how we capture them in a moment, making them tangible.
The audience enters a room under renovation, with sheet-covered floor and furniture, painting materials scattered about. Three rolls of wallpaper drape through the room, intersecting at the centre.
A duo of decorators(∅) invite the audience to share a detailed memory of a wall. What was its color, pattern, texture? How did it make them feel then, and now?
The first of three guest improvisers begins a character monologue inspired by the memory. ∅ capture the story's echoes on the paper, painting feelings and unspoken elements. They may join as characters to reveal more.
The second improviser starts where the first ended, ∅ work on the second paper. The third improviser continues from the second's ending, concluding where the first began.
Afterwards, ∅ invite the audience to explore the space, absorbing the resonance of the stories, now living as echoes captured on paper.
Christianna and Roz, both visual artists with backgrounds in design and scenography, share a passion for the embedded history of spaces and their storytelling potential.
After meeting at IMPRO Amsterdam, their connection through improv, art, and design grew, and they began collaborating through weekly Zoom sessions. Their exploration focuses on the ephemeral nature of improv performance and impact of documenting it on perception and memory, as well as how spaces hold layers of history and transformation - echoes of past sounds, stories, identities - and their influence on performance.
They share a mutual love for intense, silent scenes that use body language to express emotion and bring abstract ideas to life. They’re fascinated by how stories emerge through connections with fellow performers.
This show culminates their desire to integrate visual art and design with their improv, offering a deeper investigation of these concepts and their potential for storytelling.