This is the second performance, and Australian premiere, of The Chair and the Cello. Held at the UniSC Theatre, Sippy Downs, on 2nd July 2026 as part of a Research Project Performance Event that also featured a presentation from Associate Professor Nicola Hyland about the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of performance from an Indigenous perspective. This performance is a redeveloped version of the work that initially premiered at the ADSA 2025 Conference in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Credits: Devised by Hannah Banks, Nicola Hyland and Briony Luttrell with Carl Walling and Lucy Orkild. Performed by Hannah Banks, Briony Luttrell and Lucy Orkild. Directed by Nicola Hyland with Musical Direction / Composition / Sound Design by Briony Luttrell. Lighting Design and Stage Management by Carl Walling. Projection Design by Rebekah De Roo with Technical Support by Paul Davis.
The Chair and The Cello is a new creative work which was devised as part of the research project “The Chair and The Cello: Developing industry guidelines for practicing creative safety.” This project began in 2025 and is funded by a UniSC Internal Research CONNECT Grant, supporting us to collaborate with an international scholar, Associate Professor Nicola Hyland (Te Atihaunui-a-Pāpārangi and Ngāti Hauiti) from Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington, in Aotearoa New Zealand. The purpose of this research project is to develop an innovative best-practice industrial framework of practitioner wellbeing within the Creative Industries. This autoethnographic research is investigating creative safety in the rehearsal process by developing a new live theatrical performance.
The Chair and The Cello is set over the course of one night and explores ideas of loneliness, isolation and academia. The human need for connection is confronted by the inanimate object: sexy cellos, fascist chairs, and piles of doom. When we are overwhelmed with to-do lists and easy-clean DIY dystopian capitalism, when we are confined in a liminal and uncanny space, what is it that we need to survive?