Zen Zen Zo’s Blushing is a moving and immersive work of physical theatre, exploring the emotional side of physical touch with a focus on the duelling forces of shame and curiosity.
Directed and designed by Zen Zen Zo Artistic Director Indiah Morris, Blushing was a promenade performance by eight artists in the high-ceilinged hall of Fortitude Valley’s Holy Trinity Church. The audience shifted positions in the space, sitting or kneeling in the areas indicated by the artists. All four sides of the space were utilised, and the scene was set prior to entry as the audience gathered outside and were briefly, wordlessly engaged by the performers through gestures and eye contact.
The cells on a cheek remember the kiss, and they remember the slap. Through a series of movement vignettes, usually with a self-contained arc, Blushing depicted bodies in contact through conflict, celebration, and consolation, with intimacy coordination by Tahlia Miller. Lovers courted and embraced, athletes shoved and showed off, and bodies were shown in moments of judgement, violence, and fear. The artists’ exaggerated expressions stretched faces and bodies into hyperbolic emotion, and the work raised ideas of autonomy and empowerment in the conditions of touching and being touched.
Angela Barnard, Anabella Gregory, Liam Linane, Bryson McGuire, Shanne O’Leary, Mia Sibley, Ebony Webb, and Cade Williams performed as an ensemble in varying combinations, with a throughline of push and pull between Shame (O’Leary) and Curiosity (Webb). Explosive movement and shifting formations, as well as the evolution of the costuming, maintained a strong sense of dynamism over the course of the hour-long performance.
The costuming was designed by Morris and realised by Maxi Mossman, Shanne O’Leary, Ebony Webb and Mia Sibley. Dressed in stark white that slowly revealed layers of patchworked reds and oranges, the ensemble artists wore white caps over their hair and white paint across their chests and faces, with dramatic red makeup that further exaggerated their expressions.
Lighting designed by Briana Clark varied between soft illumination and saturating, pulsing colours that heightened the atmosphere and energy of the performance. Sound design included soundscapes, songs, and silences in which the ensemble’s breath, bodies, and vocalisations set the pace and tone. The tension and feeling rose and fell, as Shame and Curiosity orbited one another and eventually reconciled in a beautiful, final moment of tenderness and vulnerability.
In a world only recently pushed apart by pandemic, in which every touch became a threat, Blushing reminds us of the vitality and aliveness that come from being in contact with other people, whether in a football scrum or a lover’s embrace or a theatre audience.
Blushing will be performed at Holy Trinity Church, Fortitude Valley, from 19-29 June 2025
For ticketing and further information, visit the Zen Zen Zo website
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