As the new show PUNISHMENT prepares for the premier in Aberystwyth Arts Centre we catch up with Sean during rehearsals to chat about the show:

So tell us a bit more about PUNISHMENT

Well PUNISHMENT explores the darker side of humanity; through physical theatre and dance we examine what makes a person deviant, evil, wicked, criminal and ask ourselves – and the audience – if a person can be wholly ‘bad’ or indeed wholly ‘good’. The piece examines the UK’s restorative justice system and takes a look inside the minds of those who society has branded criminals. How did they come to be where they are? Is it nature or is it nurture?

What is your concept of art?

Art is supposed to make you react and question your ideas and beliefs. It can also throw a light onto what society considers normal behaviour and normal treatment. I think PUNISHMENT throws all of our perceptions about good and evil into question; it’s a very powerful piece. Physical theatre is a way of expressing myself and my thoughts to an audience in order to make them feel and think and reconsider things they have always taken for granted.

How do you develop such complex concepts into physical expression?

I work with the dancers and performers themselves in order to create a piece that’s completely organic. I have the narrative and the structure
in my head, but the choreographing process must be responsive and must come from the performers as a collective so that we can all express the way the themes and ideas affect us individually and as a group. We spend a great deal of time in rehearsal trying out ideas and confronting notions that many people would find distressing and we work out how to physicalise this darkness to tell our story to the audience.

When can we see PUNISHMENT?

Punishment opens in Aberystwyth Arts Centre on November the 1^st and will be in Cardiff’s Chapter Arts Centre from the 27^th to the 29^th of November