Using live drawing, animation and sound, The Splendid Anomaly is a semi-autobiographical solo-performance about finding agency within times of systemic failure and rapid change.
The story is loosely drawn from an experience Ahmarnya Price had after admitting herself into the emergency department with a ‘mysterious illness’ as the World Health Organisation announced a global pandemic.
The show depicts Price quarantined in hospital as she begins to discover parallels between her own complex medical history (chronic health/disability) and the universe’s cosmology.
“After 24 hours of relentless tests and assessments, unable to find a diagnosis or cure for my symptoms and with staff resources at capacity – I was sent home from hospital with no answers,” Price reflected.
“Afterwards I started to ask: where in our universe’s timeline has crises and change functioned as an anomaly? Not only to the thing we call evolution, but also our shared resilience and capacity to better imagine the future.” Price highlighted.
Arts House Acting Artistic Director, Olivia Anderson, said that it is fabulous to present The Splendid Anomaly after seeing it in development as part of CultureLAB in 2018.
“This is a is a beautifully strange, playful and epic show. Ahmarnya has created this amazing work with an exceptional collection of creatives, including dramaturgy by Susie Dee, music composition by Kelly Ryall, projection design by Rhian Hinkley and lighting design by Richard Vabre,” said Anderson.
The Splendid Anomaly is a prompt – it is about hope and a call to action for collective change. Sitting in the unknown and accepting ambiguity can sometimes mean anything is possible in the face of systemic collapse.
