ARTISTIC MANIFESTO

nervousystem is evolutionary in its approach to theatre creation.

nervousystem ventures forward while maintaining the thread to our collective past, conserving what is essential in the tradition and knowledge handed down by those who have come before us.

Our remit is the systematic exploration and elaboration of an authentic objective praxis, language and aesthetic for performance appropriate to the needs of our time.

The starting point is that place where the dramatic experience is laid bare and all one is left with is the interplay of actuality and illusion via the encounter between actor and onlooker.

nervousystem promotes the actor’s psychophysical art and creates a context where detailed investigation and experimentation nurture a process that clears obstacles to creative impulses and artistic objectives. Extensive (and intensive) on-going auto-didactic daily actor training is central to our practice.

This combined with a commitment to exposing our practices to diverse audiences in as many different contexts as possible (i.e. non-conventional theatre environments) is fundamental to our investigation into the actor/audience relationship.

From here the evolution of new forms can emerge and the beginnings of a new language for theatre making can grow, therein allowing the creation of original contemporary secular rituals that permit a total sensory engagement of the spectator, revealing and intensifying the theatre event for all involved.

It is our aim to move ourselves into a position where we can feasibly continue to work with financial backing and a strong administration. This will allow us to continue as a full-time ensemble, investigating the fundaments of theatre, by continually developing the actor’s craft and building a repertoire of original work of the highest quality to present to our audience, nationally and internationally. We also seek to form and strengthen dialogues with other artistic bodies to share and broaden the horizons of our research work.