Alex Billingham’s queer melodrama reenacts the mythical battle between human, deity and the sea. Over two thousand years ago the Roman Emperor Caligula declared war on Neptune, God of the ocean. Now it’s time for an ultra-glam rematch.
Billingham uses experimental theatre and film to explore genderqueer, trans and disabled experience. In Fishwives Revenge, the sea and its tides symbolise the intersectional spaces of Billingham’s own identity and the continually changing landscape of the artist’s body.
Fishwives Revenge reflects my experiences of existing with a fluid body; my everyday normal shifts from second-to-second depending on a thousand micro factors. In this performance every little defect gets respect. My disability and queerness sit beside me in the work, ever present but never defining me.
Alex Billingham
Performance timings
10.00: Billingham begins battle with the ocean on Porthmeor beach
16.30: The artist returns to Porthmeor beach to apologise to the ocean for her earlier actions
