Goner is a sensual, suspenseful choreographic journey delving into the depths of psychological horror by Marikiscrycrycry, the alias of Malik Nashad Sharpe.
Through a story of alienation, migration, and violence, it crafts radical visual culture from the marginalised perspective. Tracing roots while leaning into the traditional tropes and sensibility of the horror genre, Goner places audiences on the edge.
Through Goner in an attempt to rewire the social condition of Blackness for something other than tragedy, Marikiscrycrycry takes the hard-hitting, deeply effective things that happen to marginalised people, and uses choreography and dance as a place to reorder them.
A ‘goner’ is a figure traditionally doomed, bound to death, a lost and hopeless case. This misaligned character expresses not giving on people because some of the responsibility for them lies on all of us, that we’re all implicated in the creation of monsters in the world.
Malik Nashad Sharpe said: “Goner comes from watching a lot of horror films and being really inspired, particularly by the likes of Jordan Peele [Get Out]. But also by other horror and gore-zombie media. I’ve become interested in the person who’s doomed, the subjectivity of this person who’s about to turn into a zombie and leave their life, gets viciously mauled by a monster or goes into the creepy house on the hill and never comes back.”
Through Goner, Marikiscrycrycry elaborates on making sense of, and creating space, to think about what it is to be a Black marginalised person in this world and the kind of complexities and the real horrors of that. Malik Nashad Sharpe’s Goner subverts what the expectations will be upon a Black body in entertainment, “I’m quite curious about how monsters can be created from a social context.” Sharpe adds.
Working with primarily new sounds and musical director Tabitha Thorlu-Bangura, the show has commissioned soundscapes, with experimental dark techno tracks, Caribbean music, Soca and Dancehall touching upon Sharpe’s heritage from St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Rehearsal direction is by dancer Blue Makwana with lighting design by Barnaby Booth. The costumes are by Stockholm designer Erik Annerborn and the environmentally economical set is by Felix Villiers and follows the theme of dark fantasy set in the present day.
It is co-commissioned by The Yard Theatre, Dansehallerne Denmark, MDT Sweden and Cambridge Junction.
Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill , London, SW11 5TN from 6th – 10th May. 7.30pm
Booking and full details: https://bac.org.uk/whats-on/goner/
