Jamie Wood’s O No! is a solo performance piece based on his life and inspiration from Yoko Ono’s work, such as Cut Piece, where audience members are invited up to take a pair of scissors and cut off part of the clothing the performer is wearing. Due to Jamie only wearing a nappy throughout the majority of the performance he managed to put a dress on for this part. The audience interaction was very notable in this performance and i wanted to take part as much as i could. I went from passing around a giant orange gym ball that ‘represented the sun’, to cutting the middle section of his dress off, to ending on stage blowing a funny sound making instrument that ‘represented a duck’ and i then had to fall onto the floor ‘die’ when the third balloon was popped. When i saw it in Edinburgh i also had to play ‘a cloud’ by holding a bundle of cotton wool. Utter madness but pure brilliance is how i would sum this performance up.

The way Jamie was stood in the audience, like Tim Crouch in ‘An Oak Tree’, as we entered made me feel at ease and let me know that i played a part in this piece. He asked me to ‘play his chimes’ so i did, I then was able to laugh and feel relaxed so when crazy things then happened in the performance i just went with it. I like the idea of the audience wondering what the rest of the performance is going to en-tale as soon as they walk in the doors, or even before they go through the doors. This is why i want to have an almost pre performance. I like the idea of charts and leaflets set up like in a hospital waiting room, and a blood test kit placed out with instructions of how to use it. Therefore, it would be nice if my audience tested their blood sugar levels (and also because it would be funny for them to panic that they have diabetes when they match up their level to the chart, although i hope i don’t find out someone is diabetic on the night of my performance). But the main reason i want the audience to ALL test their sugar levels (which i know they wont because some people are scared of a tiny ting needle), but i have to do this at least 4 times a day so they should man up and see what i have to go through. After all it is a solo show about MY life.

“Be as self indulgent as you possibly can… ” (Wood, 2016)

Jamie in his post show discussion also said that it is important to make theatre where you don’t show fear as the performance is only one tiny proportion of you. Therefore, make an autobiographical piece as much about you as you wish. this is why i want to use the basis of my Off The Page Script, about the insecurities of a girl in twenty first century relationships, which played on sensitive parts of my life but with light hearted comedy, as that’s how i deal with hard things in my life. Social media played a large role in my script, and i even used memes that i related to on instagram and facebook, which i have been looking at to find diabetic memes. Social media is a mix of peoples opinions and views, like a lot of work, people take inspiration from other artists and if they like an image or dance ,ove then why cant they use that in their piece. I like the idea of doing ridiculous things and because I’m a positive person, who look son the bright side of everything talking about the dangers of living with diabetes and what actually it involves, doesn’t have to be shown in a boring serious way. Jamie used a CD to create ‘a rainbow’, so the use of everyday props and also creating lighting effects has inspired me. i want my lighting to reflect my text. If i am talking about hallucinating, then why not have loads of jars of nutella flying around a projection screen. Crazy visuals but with simplicity will be key in my performance, i want the audience to remember my piece.

Not only do i want my piece to visually be remembered, through projections and lighting, possibly the involvement of nutella or hundreds of sweets and chocolate bars. I wouldn’t mind eating on stage. But i’ve thought about using these common associated objects to create something visual. For instance using all the multi-coloured shiny chocolate wrappers to create a backdrop, like Jamie has in his piece, just a hanging tie-dyed screen in the middle of the stage. To the audience it may just be a piece of material but to him it may represent peace and the hippy nature he creates. I want everything i do or use to have a meaning. So quite literally making a backdrop out of chocolate wrappers would represent not only the preconception that diabetics cant eat chocolate or that’s why they got diabetes in the first place, but the colours represent the different colours. The variety of colours, textures, patterns. Like living with diabetes, all the different challenges i go through that people don’t think about all the layers underneath.

Another key aspect of O No! which i really liked was the use of genuine voice recordings from his family members. Although you didn’t see them you got the sense of his life and how their voice impacts the decisions he makes.