Cow | Deer

Wind whispers through the bushes and treetops, rain drips onto the ground, something rustles in the undergrowth, something breathes, hums, buzzes, takes a step. »Cow | Deer«, developed collaboratively by sound artist Melanie Wilson, writer Nina Segal and director Katie Mitchell, is a theatrical production that entirely dispenses with words. It shifts the audience’s focus from sight to sound – and from the human to the ‘more-than-human’ perspective. In a live sound composition, four performers – together with countless objects – narrate a day in the life of two animals: a heavily pregnant cow awaiting the birth of her calf in a fenced-off meadow, and a deer ranging the woods adjacent to the cow pasture. The landscape, the passage of time, and the movements and encounters of the two animals with their environment are created solely through sound.
In this piece, the theatre becomes an acoustic space of experience where sound neither underscores nor explains, but is itself the action. The animals, the landscape and the weather interact in a way that relativises the human perspective and invites the audience not to interpret the world, but to listen to it.

MELANIE WILSON, born in London in 1977, is an interdisciplinary sound artist and performance maker. Her work is based on the interplay of sound art, experimental forms of composition and language. Her sound performances have been featured at international festivals and have won awards. She shares a long-standing collaboration with Katie Mitchell. 

NINA SEGAL, born in London in 1988, is a playwright and librettist. Her work has been performed at the Royal Court Theatre, Dutch National Opera, Royal Shakespeare Company and the Young Vic, among others. She is an Associate Playwright at the Royal Court. 

WITH: Korina Kokkali, Christos Thanos, Joanna Toumpakari, Alexandros Zotaj
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR GREECE: Irene Fanarioti
DESIGN: Alex Eales
FOLEY CONSULTANTS AND FOLEY SCORE: Ruth Sullivan, Tom Espiner
LIGHTING DESIGN: Prema Mehta
ASSISTANT TO THE DESIGNER FOR GREECE: Stavroula Papapostolou
PRODUCTION DRAMATURG: Eva Sarag