Barrowland Ballet Presents Chunky Jewellery at Tramway
This new play delves into friendship, womanhood, and motherhood, weaving the creators’ personal experiences into a universal narrative. Premiering at Tramway on 9 March , it’s an exploration of life’s complexities, with special consideration of the complexities of being a woman.
Courtesy of @stillmotionarts
By Devon McCole | Photos by Brian Hartley
Barrowland Ballet’s latest production, Chunky Jewellery, is an alternative love story, following two best friends over the course of a year as they navigate life as middle-aged women, who are caring for both their children and their parents.
Honing in on themes of friendship, womanhood and motherhood, Chunky Jewellery takes the personal experiences of co-creators and performers, Natasha Gilmore and Jude Williams, putting their experiences on display for audiences, their intimate experiences becoming universal.
Talking about the show, Jude Williams said: “Our lives authored Chunky Jewellery. The work is autobiographical, with stories that overlap birth, grief, and death; it explores the sustained thread of friendship during achingly wild and beautifully heartbreaking times.”
Chunky Jewellery doesn’t shy away from difficult subject matter, like birth, death and illness but instead handles it with humour and insightful observations of human behaviour rooted in the creative directors’ first hand experiences.
Courtesy of @stillmotionarts
Natasha Gilmore said: “The title of the work came from a playful conversation Jude and I had about chunky jewellery and how it signified women of a certain age. I think ‘Chunky Jewellery’ captures the humour of the work and of our laughter filled relationship. The jewellery women wear and are gifted over their lifetimes tell a story.”
Chunky Jewellery is the embodiment of those stories, and it’s likely lots of women can relate to those themes and humorous delivery which binds it together when the going gets rough for the two female protagonists.
Jude Williams said: “We started riffing on the title and the possibilities of unfolding our lives into art. I mean, what else will you do with life's challenges as an artist, but try to bring it into the light?”
What was initially a year to forget for the creative directors has now become a heart warming and gut wrenching display of what it means to be a woman, a friend, and a mother.
Premiering in the Tramway on Saturday 9 March, Chunky Jewellery will show at 2pm and 7:30pm – and is presented just in time for International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day. So, if you are struggling to come up with the perfect Mothers Day gift, mate-date or date-date, check out this exciting new contemporary dance show.
The performance will be filmed live for promotional purposes and a subsequent film will be presented nationally and internationally for anyone who will miss the premiere this weekend.