About

Something Tender: a performative lecture

“This is a short story from a long life.”

Something Tender is a generous, painfully honest, open and intimate account of a life and a practice.

It combines a history of Mayhew’s practice, an account of why live art is essential, documentation of some key pieces and personal testimony.

Something Tender takes the audience on a journey through Mayhew’s peripatetic practice, crossing through the seasons of Russia, the deserts, mountains and cities of China and the suspended encapsulation of Switzerland.

It closes with an act of tenderness and creative intimacy as the audience witness Mayhew drawing off some of his own blood into a registered donor bag.

History

Something Tender has been performed at Contact Theatre, Manchester, and at the National Review of Live Art, Glasgow (2005)

"I was struck by the sense of yearning in it; you seeking to find/ define yourself, your past, your path to this point, your acknowledgement of yourself as a conduit for other people’s stories, a vessel other people pass through and even a yearning for the work itself, its ephemeral being, its lack of documentation, its here now gone tomorrowness."

Terry O’Connor

Forced Entertainment

Technical Information

Running time: approx 100 minutes

Lighting plan to be provided.

Stage space can be flexible

Data projector, DVD, CD & VHS machine, Radio microphone – all needed

Show to be operated by in house technician

The blood-letting will be assisted by a registered nurse.

A detailed tech spec and health and safety plan is available upon request