Third IMH research cabaret is a resounding success

Funded by the Being Human Festival, ‘Landmarking’ brought together researchers and performers from the Institute and the local area to examine how we begin to understand the events that have made us who we are. 

The sell-out crowd at the Radisson Blu, Durham were treated to an evening of live performance and chaos, all expertly compered by event co-organiser Dr Louise Creechan.  

Eleven acts drew on their own lived experience and research to share powerful insights on what makes a 'landmark moment’. From songs inspired by Covid-19 and childbirth, through to explorations of neurodiversity by way of poetry and aerial work, the cabaret stage was used to its fullest extent as performers made meaning from memory. 

The evening swept through the full range of human emotion. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house after Anna Foster had finished her rendition of ‘O mio babbino caro’, after speaking movingly on her experiences with OCD, while Daniel Jones had the audience roaring with laughter at his incisive commentary on ableism in academia. 

For the first time, the Institute also came together with New Writing North – the writing development agency for the North of England – to create a writing Fellowship, which culminated in a performance at the cabaret. Fellowship recipient Megan Adams wrote a ghostly short story inspired by Durham University doctoral candidate Lucy Jameson’s research on the intersection of the history of disability with the legacy of coal mining in the North East. The full story was published on our website and can be read here. 

The full breadth and depth of the event was thoughtfully captured by stand-up poet Kate Fox in the final act of the evening, with her poem composed about the cabaret during the show itself: 

 

Landmarking 

Rewind, hold these memories of memories. 

A key to unlock a research cabaret. 

All these hidden voices. 

Constructions, deconstructions, 

erasures, choices. 

  

Remembering the masks that bind us, 

rope us, unloose us, 

can be a poetic way to lose 

and find us. 

  

The masks of Covid health workers 

trying to breathe and care 

in complicated air 

  

choking air 

haunting miners and their families. 

Scarring reminders 

  

of caesarian pain. 

Having a dream of women’s care in birth. 

Their thousand year unheard voices 

given value and worth. 

  

Dancing through distractions 

and moments into cultural memory 

entwined, swooping in a body 

  

or a head voice singing Wednesday’s pull 

in a new direction 

  

away from the best rejection 

when you’re on a roll, 

labelled as a troll, 

talking back to the shitty ass job, 

successfully failing. 

  

Or talking on the airwaves 

while messy, obsessive thoughts are flailing. 

Horse hugging, 

lungs struggling 

dog-Hoping, 

operatic unroping. 

  

Voices, these voices soaring, yearning. 

Loving widowed unbelonging ghosts 

recurring returning. 

  

The marginalisation of death. 

Landmarking as sparking friend 

in the last breath of the end. 

  

Memories formed and reformed 

in the intermittent dark, 

new connections ready to spark. 

  

Credit: Kate Fox (Instagram: @katefoxwriter). 

Speaking after the show, Kate said, "I was blown away by the recent Cabaret because it was a multisensory experience of mental and emotional stimulation. Researchers shared their ideas but then also did everything from dangle from a rope, burst into an aria, perform a country song like Johnny Cash or take us into the depths of an Indian ghost story. I wish all university teaching could be like this." 

Audience member and Senior Impact and Engagement Manager (Arts & Culture) at Durham University, Rachael Barnwell, was similarly moved by the event, commenting on LinkedIn that the cabaret was, "an excellent, creative showcase of the important research going on across [the] University."

We are indebted to our performers – Amy Pearson, Kate Fox, Andrea Lambell and Mick Hill, Megan Adams, Halima Akhter and Nahmira, Yuvel Soria (Balbir Singh Dance Company), Louise, Daniel, Anna, Arya Ray and Adam Powell – for taking the time to share their talents and experiences with us.