articulate elbow
Articulate Elbow is a theatre company founded by Susan Swanton. It produces theatre that is physical, female and funny.
Author Archives: Articulate Elbow
Doctor! Doctor!
Movement and choreography for this physical theatre production about the NHS and mental health. 
Feldenkrais
Learn to move with ease not dis – ease
I’m teaching new Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement Lessons
Tuesdays 7-8pm
The Health Hub (Formerly Habitual Fitness) 559 Barlow Moor Road Chorlton Manchester M21 8AN
What is Feldenkrais?
It’s a gentle somatic movement practice lying on a yoga mat following verbal instructions making slow, micro movements to find more movement in the body and better functioning. Learning to move with e
What do I wear?
Wear comfortable clothes that you can move in. Tracksuit bottoms, jumper and socks. Bring your own blanket for extra warmth and comfort.
What participants say
“The most soothing and meditative experience you will have all week”.
“makes you rethink the interconnected news of each physical movement.”
“I always leave feeling very positive”.
“…releasing my shoulders and pelvis bringing a sense of space to my body I hadn’t felt in a long time”.
“I became more aware of my movements during other exercise classes”.
Happy Mental Mothers Day!
Brilliant so eloquent and do true and honest. I can relate to it all. The PND, the comparing and listening to the mothers who have it all sorted and feel angry that the mental health is truly not cared for at the time. More power to you! Xx
Today is Maternal Mental Health Day, when we celebrate all the many ways women can go completely bonkers when they have a baby.
I knew I’d get post-natal depression with my first baby. Gwyneth and I went to the pre-natal classes at the hospital (NB: NOT the NCT classes – they were for people who were grown up about having a baby whereas Gwyneth and I had yet to even move in together and imagined having a baby would be ‘cute’ and a bit like having a dog without the fleas and much less demanding).
At the class one night they showed us a film about PND featuring Denise Welch who told us some of the risk factors which included:
- A history of depression ✔
- Family members with a history of depression or mood disorders ✔
- Job insecurity ✔
- Moving house ✔
- Unstable relationship ✔
- Little or no family support…
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Hypochondriac! (On the Sick)
“Hysterical!”
“Funnier than Joan Rivers.”
“Funny as f**k!”
The premiere of Hypochondriac! (On the Sick) is part of the Chorlton Arts Festival.
Book your tickets.
Saturday 28th May 2016 7.30pm tickets £10/8 conc.
Seeing Blue Super8 film
http://www.straight8.net/results
Just heard that Seeing Blue super8 film has been selected to be shown in London! Made with Sarah Toogood Sayers and Jeannette Burton McFaul
Bonkers in a Bunker
It’s going to happen. Come with me down the stairs.
A site specific promenade theatre production about captivity in the cellar of the King’s Arms, Salford. Inspired by the stories of Brian Keenan, Terri Waite, Patti Hearst and the survivors of Ariel Castro and Joseph Fritzl and the books, The Collector, the Lovely Bones, Room and Plato’s Cave. It’s on in October 2014.<!
6 things that happen when you write about feminism
True true true.
1. You will be accused of hating men
At first this will sound ridiculous. Then you’ll feel irritated. Then you might feel riled and want to say: “YES I HATE MEN AND THEY MUST ALL BECOME SOYLENT GREEN.”
But the truth is, I don’t hate men. I just think I am awesome – too awesome for my life to be decided along the lines of what someone else thinks is appropriate to my gender. Too awesome to go around cringing over the fact that I am woman-shaped and have woman interests and woman-y inside-bits.
The people who accuse feminism of hating men have a very fragile, narrow idea of being a man – they’re something like a fluorescent tube. They are worried that any change will shatter them. Feel sorry for them, but not too sorry: like the rest of us, they will probably be OK.
2. You will get…
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Mother F and PMF at the Edinburgh Festival
Oh God, I’ve got PMF. Post Modern Feminism. On the Brain. Being away from the family for the Edinburgh festival performing in Mother F, a comedy about mothers is post (or is it post post post modern? – how many posts?) modern feminist irony. Doing a show about motherhood, having a mother, being a mother when I am NOT performing my duties as a real life mother. This thought has been jostling around argumentatively in my head since I landed in Edinburgh. Can one be a feminist AND be a mother? If feminism means women working out of the home and making their own decisions and working equally side by side with men then I am a post modern feminist. Does it make me less of a mother? Will my two female children suffer because of my PMF?
I love feminism, I just don’t feel like I am a good one. I endeavour to be a better PMF. Looking around at the other shows at the Edinburgh festival there are plenty of shows that are women lead and women producers and more women at the helm commissioning work. It’s refreshing, positive. And there are still shows that pander depressingly to titillate men with bikini and tongue flashing leaflets to shows all about dealing with the disempowerment of women and S&M or female stand ups talking dirty for the benefit of men. I am surprised by this as a PMF in 2013. Do women still feel that they have to wear a bikini to get people in to see their show like women did in the 1970’s to sell cars? I’m no prude but this rubs my sexual politics up the wrong way.
On the positive side, there are brilliant shows like Croft and Pearce, a slick sketch show that should be on the telly now and if they don’t get picked up I shall eat my copy of vintage Spare Rib. There’s the all female Titus Andronicus, Stephanie Preissner’s ‘Solpadeine is my boyfriend,’ and the very funny ‘Women of an Uncertain Age,’ Bridget Christie, Viv Groskop, Katie Goodman. Just to name a handful off the top of my head. And while I am here on the uncertain age debate that goes on for every actress over the age of thirty we must abandon the classical canon. We PMF’s must keep writing parts for women of all ages. Let’s make PMF visible and vocal. Come on the Women!
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