Rainschemes for Insomniacs

Rainschemes for Insomniacs – Residency with Artist Shaun Caton – Spill Festival

‘Rainschemes for Insomniacs’ – Performance art with Shaun Caton and five residents taking the part of performers. Set created by Shaun Caton, photo courtesy of Julius Beltrame.

I was thrilled when I applied for and was chosen for the ‘Spill’ Festival workshop and performance with artist Shaun Caton. A team of five of us spent a week with Shaun learning about his approach to performance, practicing and rehearsing, then putting on three durational performances of Shaun’s direction ‘Rainschemes for Insomniacs.’

Shaun’s method is that there are elements of the performance that happen differently each night and he doesn’t tell us the performers so we react in the moment to what is happening around us.

We improvised with musical instruments, found objects and a 15 metre-long (est.) painting along with torches, shadow puppets and a collection of stuffed animals from the Ipswich museum collection, to create a haunting, mesmerising and sometimes disturbing performance piece.