Lancaster Arts is thrilled to welcome Ali Matthews back to the Nuffield Theatre for her latest show Mushroom Language: A Fungal Gothic.
They eat nappies
They eat toothbrushes
They eat bombs
They eat newspapers about how the world will end…
a species running slowly in parallel preaching change silently digesting muck into matter and back again.
This show is about the cycles that shape us – eruption, reproduction and decay, perfectly suited to our year on the theme of Land.
In an eerie and funny homage to folk horror, two human performers absorb and mimic ‘mushroom language’ through ritual and power dynamics. Who are these creatures, and what are the mushrooms trying to tell them? Mushrooms offer us a lens into a more sustainable future, but nature is hilarious and terrifying.
Ali Matthews is an artist working in performance, music and video and last toured to Lancaster Arts with The Witching Way, created with Leo Burtin, in 2019, following its premiere at the Royal Exchange in Manchester.
"Gleefully concentrates on how the unpleasant business of decomposition and rotting helps to promote a cycle of rebirth after death"
British Theatre Guide
Join us for a special post-show conversation, when the artists will be joined by Helen Speed, lifelong fungi enthusiast and storyteller of all things mycological, and Richard Bardgett, whose work explores the hidden life of soils and the biodiversity beneath our feet.
A chance to dive deeper into the tangled worlds of fungi, soil, art, and imagination — and to bring your own thoughts and questions into the mix.
For access information about this show please find the company's access guide here.
Ages: 16+
Image Credit: Georgiana Ghetiu
