I felt really privileged to be able to photograph the new dance-theatre work from Beyond Words, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, that reimagines Max Porter’s novel through an evocative interplay of words and bodies, rendering both Porter’s world and the experience of grief as fully kinetic and alive.

Performed by five dancers and accompanied by an original score, the work unfolds through the company’s pioneering movement language, Hypha — a gesture-based choreographic system allowing words to be embodied, disrupted, and remade in real time.

CAST

Dad — Dominic Coffey
Boys — Claire Victoria Lambert, Katie Albon
Mom — Holly Jones
Lead Crow — Jessica van de Koot

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director & Choreographer — Helen Calcutt
Producer — The Middle Floor
Dramaturg — Shelley Eva Hadon
Rehearsal Director — Ayesha Fazal
Composers — Dominic O’Sullivan, Jobe Sullivan, Barnaby Taylor
Music production – Anna Russell-Price
Production Manager — Helen Mugridge
Lighting Designer — Jason Addison
Set & Costume Designer — Emma Williams