Colin Powell (P/V): A twisted biography of comparison, the performance explores the increasingly ‘unnatural’ order of things embodied by the likes of Colin Powell, expounding some theories as to why Powell looks the way he does, and acted the way he did (the two are connected), with Deacon asking himself - is this really a self portrait?
Harry & Me (P/V): Harry and Me, is a lecture piece dealing with unreliable memory and unreliable narration. The performance describes Robin’s search for television footage of himself as a member of his school choir on an edition of Harry Secombe’s religious programme Highway. The programme was originally broadcast in 1989 from his home town of Bedford, and proved to be controversial due to a perceived ‘ethnic bias’ in its presentation of the town. The accusation was that black children were planted in the school choir to present a more ‘integrated’ image. For this performance Robin revisited various locations in Bedford to film re-enactments of the programme, and to try and find the real reason he was asked to join the choir. "Not even by the remotest stretch of the imagination could you call this good." Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 2004
Shelf Life (P): A series of meditations on dead food products.
Unit/Speech (P): A request to present a performance for a themed event centring around kitchens had left me feeling rather uninspired. My solution was to contact a professional speechwriter with the brief I had been given (peppered with a few downright lies about the nature of the event) and ask him to come up with the goods. All interactions (including telephone calls) were recorded and included in the performance.
Key: V - Video / P - Performance / T - Talk
Robin Deacon and Harry Secombe, 'Highway', 1988