Anna Smallman

A Family BBQ in the Back Garden


First performed 2 June 2018

On a rectangular (3mx5m) “stage” covered in turf, a shed, a BBQ and generic garden furniture. A family made of 13, with age ranging from 2 to 88 sit down for a summer lunch.

The performers are enacting versions of themselves, and are instructed through audio on what to say, where to move, and how to act. One by one these characters are introduced to the stage by passing through the shed which acts as the base of operations for the director.

Where are the boundaries between organised and improvised? Orchestrated and spontaneity?