Let the Use of the Words Teach You Their Meaning

Chapter 12

This chapter is written by Sue MacLaine and Jonathan Burrows, who are discussing the play Can I Start Again Please written by Sue with Jonathan as outside eye. Can I Start Again Please is performed by Sue MacLaine and Nadia Nadarajah and was premiered as part of the Sick Festival at the Basement in Brighton in 2015. The performance went on to win a Total Theatre Award that year at the Edinburgh Festival, for ‘Innovation, Experimentation and Playing with Form’, and then toured extensively throughout 2015 and 2016. Sue is a theatre-maker, writer, and performer based in Brighton, England. Jonathan is a choreographer, teacher, and writer who is currently an Associate Professor at the Centre for Dance Research at Coventry University. Although theatre and dance practices are sometimes rooted in quite different philosophies and methodologies, the two artists share a common interest in theatre and performance as a space of shared reflection.