Greek Myth, Contemporary Paignton in Hybrid Experiment

Humetheus and The Quest for The Bronze Cloak

BUT ON THE PIER

WE CAN FIND A GROTTO

WHERE THE HOPE-LUCK-LADY LIVES

A LARGE, LUMINOUS CRAB UNDER TINSEL

SHE SENDS DRUID LUCK TO ALL THE MACHINES

The Quest for the Bronze Cloak will see Humetheus in jeopardy, encountering mayhem and myths. Which way to turn, which challenge to conquer next, seems so binary. Our hero’s insatiable desire to prove worth may be the downfall that prevents him from ever seeing home again. What if Hugh & Steve get stuck in the loop of trying?

Hugh & Steve’s fourth collaboration promises to take the mundane to the theatrical, inviting audiences into arrestive dialogue, laced with discomfort, humour and commonality.

As part of ongoing development process, we Scratched this experimental work with Barrel Organ's LIVE programme, who provided resource, dramaturgical advice and hosted a hybrid evening of original work. Our Greek heroes have been laid to rest for now - in slumber with the gods, ready to awaken as the quest to find truth, community and belonging never ceases.

Special thanks to Erin Walcon, Jennifer Noice, Sandy Akerman and South Devon College

Core creative team: Hugh Malyon, Steve Sowden and Mair George and the drone

This work is on Eventotron and we are actively looking for digital festival/events and hybrid platforms to present this work

A brown sandal on a sandy beach with a pier and blue skies and sea in the background

We use aerial and conventional filming techniques, capturing experimental performance and highs and lows of artists in the English Riviera. Determined to beat capitalist algorithms, we go guerilla, inviting audiences to reclaim creative narratives

Humetheus and the Quest for the Bronze Cloak is a timely and resonant digital performance growing from a fruitful collaboration between disabled artist Hugh Malyon and neurodivergent artist Steve Sowden.

Torbay, where Hugh and Steve make their work, is a southwest holiday destination synonymous with the classic iconography of deckchairs, seagulls, beach huts, ice cream and slot machines. In this performed postcard, as memories of holidays fade, a story of human connection and meaningful homecoming unfolds.

We want to use our performance postcard to expand conversations around belonging, home and community, with accessible touring at the heart of the next development stage. How do we transcend the screening format we have previously used, to lean fully into a community setting/space, augmenting and bringing new dimensions to this story? We want to use live sound-scaping and foley to accompany the projection, empowering the creativity of a live audience in exciting ways. We would like to host dynamic audience conversations and inclusive, fun workshop activity, to explore notions of homecoming, heroism, isolation, accessibility & to ask: who gets to tell our stories and why?

Layering personal narrative with experimental aerial filming and dynamic conversations/workshop, reclaiming the English seaside with classical myth, subverting the hero’s journey to the dreamlike sounds of sampled arcade machine riffs, this immersive and emotive experience takes us to the end of the pier and back again, asking: have we been here before?

Hugh Malyon: Humetheus and himself

Steve Sowden: The King and himself

Erin Walcon: Spirit 1 & 2

Creative team:

Hugh Malyon (him/he): Artist, Script and Co-Producer

Steve Sowden (him/he): Artist, Script and Filmmaker

Mair George (she/her): Co-Producer for the scratch performance