Theatre-Making and Performance
I am a performance maker and creative practitioner, trained on the BA European Theatre Arts programme at Rose Bruford College, through which I also spent time at ESAD Murcia. Over the past 5 years, I have worked on a range of projects, with a particular focus on queer and neurodivergent narratives.
I have led multiple projects through my company The Not-God Complex, which I founded to be a collective of artists who repeatedly collaborate in different ways at different times, with a shared goal of disrupting power structures both in the process and in the performance itself. I have also worked as a solo artist, which I am now increasingly exploring in my practice. My work is physical and multidisciplinary, and interested in subverting established stylistic conventions to convey queer and neurodivergent experience. I integrate creative access into my process, and am interested in how this changes the form and aesthetic.
In addition to the following projects, I regularly co-create performance work with participants and students in a range of participatory and training settings
All in Good Time
Performed at Vault Festival 2023, supported by Arts Council England
Created by Zoë Glen and devised by the company for The Not-God Complex
ALL IN GOOD TIME is a post-modern celebration of ADHD experiences of time onstage. Filled with disco balls, glitter and hundreds of rubber ducks; this show is an ADHD time travel adventure which deconstructs our experience of time, and boldly puts neurodivergent traits on stage. Created by brains prone to tangents and non-linear thought, this piece subverts theatrical conventions in its pacing; refusing to translate the neurodivergent experience for the neurotypical gaze.This piece has been created with a focus on integrated access, and features an integrated interval and relaxed performance announcement. It also has creative captions and creative audio description.
Praise for All in Good Time
"There’s thoughtfulness to appreciate and fun to be had. There’s a keen eye for striking visual.... and a pleasing resolve to do things their own way." There Ought To Be Clowns
"An absolutely fascinating piece of theatre....
This show really has thought of everything to ensure its diverse audience are all made to feel welcome." Everything Theatre, ★★★★
"As a fellow ADHD'er it felt really close to home"
"As someone with ADHD, I found it to be a really accessible form, enjoyed the chaos and interactive elements of the show and came away with a big smile on my face."
Audience Responses
"I felt seen"
Zoë Glen: Project Lead/Deviser/Performer
Billie Grace: Deviser/Performer
Rebeka Dío: Deviser/Performer
Eilidh Northridge: Producer
Gisela Mulwinda: Creative Captions
Yuval Brigg: Sound and Lighting Design
Alina Longmore: Stage management/Access Support
Photographs by Lidia Crifulli
Creative Team
Everything Theatre, ★★★★★
"The pair lead us through strange performance dance, recitals, singing (including in foreign tongues). There’s even some delightful puppetry. It’s all very abstract. Weird. But again, does it matter? Because there is an absolute beauty to this piece. Because Glen and Grace are truly captivating as they glide across the spaces between us. Captivating like the Celtic “Selkie” and Slavic “Rusalke” they represent, two mythical creatures who lure people to their deaths." - Rob Warren
What Makes a Body Terrifying?
Performed at The Hope Theatre, supported by Arts Council England
Created by Zoë Glen and devised by the company for The Not-God Complex
"Blending movement, puppetry, folk songs, audio clips, pseudo- verbatim passages, folk dancing, sound design and more besides, a richly evocative but highly abstract collage is built up over the space of an hour. And in the manner of much devised theatre, it proves to be equal parts beautiful and baffling." - There Ought to be Clowns
WHAT MAKES A BODY TERRIFYING? is a queer exploration of two strikingly similar folk tales: the Slavic Rusalke and the Celtic Selkies. These two folk tales centre around mythical sea-people - said to shed their skins and become dangerous, beautiful human-forms, who seduce sailors and lure them to their deaths. This piece explores how they use narrative and rhetorical devices to create fear, and how these parallel with the ways fear is generated against queer bodies. Taking a curious approach, this piece asks questions about how we are persuaded to be scared of the sea, as a way of understanding how we are persuaded to be scared of others.The Not-God Complex embrace this topic with a physical, multidisciplinary approach. The result is a show that plays with pace, structure and form. The company deftly uncover the lines been storytelling and real-life impact, between the sea and the land, between human and non-human, between straight and queer and between fear and safety. Drawing on elements of dance, theatre and poetry, this piece has something for any audience member willing to be open to questions.
Further Development
Following it's inital run at The Hope Theatre, the company have continued to develop What Makes a Body Terrifying? for one off performances at a range of venues.
The project has also involved outreach activities with young queer people across England about representation and devised theatre.
Creative Team
Zoë Glen: Project Lead/Deviser/Performer
Billie Grace: Deviser/Performer
Bethan Barke: Deviser/Director
Eilidh Northridge: Producer
Holly Gifford: Designer
Rebeka Dio: Sound Design
Poster design by Iza Jem.
All other images by Theo Ahimana
I Talk with My Friends At The Witching Hour
Performed at and Supported by Camden People's Theatre
Created, Devised and Performed by Zoë Glen
I TALK WITH MY FRIENDS AT THE WITCHING HOUR is a project that looks at the intersections between gender and disability through the history of witchcraft and alternative spirituality.
This project experiments with persona, performance lecture and ritual elements, and makes particular use of sound - both live and recorded - to do this.
The work was guided by notions of the uncanny, and what it is that makes something or someone be perceived as unnerving.
The development of this work was supported by a seed commission from Camden People's Theatre
Photos by Michael O'Reilly
How Do We Talk about a Manless Woman?
Developed at NDT Broadgate, Performed at The Cockpit
Created and Devised by Zoë Glen and Billie Grace for The Not-God Complex
HOW DO WE TALK ABOUT A MANLESS WOMAN? is an exploration of chrononormativity, heteronormativity and the reoccurring character trope of a woman who's husband leaves, found within women's literature. Inspired by 'The Days of Abandonment' by Elena Ferrante, the project asks what the idea that a woman without a husband is a woman in crisis means for the perception of queer lives within society.
The piece is part-film, part performance, building on hybrid techniques developed during the pandemic, and was performed at The Cockpit. The film component premiered as part of The Posthuman Symposium in 2021
Other Projects
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Candy House
Brooklyn Rep
Actor
Written by Hugo Crick-Furman
Directed by Emily Baldwin
Performed at The Glory
Photos by Max Kennedy
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Rites to Celebrate a Sun Goddess
A short film about Celtic Spirituality, created throughout 2020 using work-in-progress rehearsal footage and iphone video clips
Sea Legs
Writer
My short play 'Sea Legs' was featured as part of volume 4 of broken silence theatre's 'voices from home' festival.
Performed at Theatre 503
Tales of the Monsters Inside my Head,Naked Frank Theatre
Contributing Writer
My monologue 'Broken Blinds' was included in Naked Frank Theatre's physical theatre show about mental health.
Performed at Tristan Bates Theatre
Images by Naked Frank Theatre
