The Future Show

“As soon as I finish speaking you will clap. Even those of you who were a bit bored will clap because it’s a comfortable way to signal an ending.”

The Future Show is both a performance and an on-going project. It is a piece that tells the story of my future, starting from the end of the performance and going until the end of my life, that is consistently re-written to be both site and time specific. It is a Sisyphean task of a show, examining the mundane, the uncertain, and the fragility of our futures.

“A testament to Pearson’s astonishing skill as a writer.” ***** (Andrew Haydon for Whatsonstage)

“A beautiful, sad show about our mayfly lives.” (@lyngardner)

The Future Show was developed with a grant from Arts Council England and with support-in-kind from BAC, Amhurst Republic and MAKE in Ireland.

The Future Show has been shown at BAC and ArtsAdmin in London, the Lir in Dublin, Fusebox Festival in Austin, TX, the Kinsale Arts Festival in Kinsale, Ireland, Forest Fringe in Edinburgh, Hatch in Leicester, PuSH in Vancouver, Canada, Vooruit in Gent, Belgium, Mayfest in Bristol, the Junction in Cambridge, the TaPra 2014 conference at Royal Holloway University, Culturgest in Lisbon, the Abron Arts Centre in New York City, the Marlborough Theatre in Brighton, the Malta Poznan Festival in Poland and the Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland.  Two Hong Kong performers made their own versions of The Future Show which they wrote and performed in Cantonese at ArtSnap in Hong Kong in 2016.

The Future Show was published by the wonderful Oberon Books in 2015 and can be purchased through their website here.

Check out The Future Show Blog for more information about the show.  Deborah Pearson no longer tours her own Future Show, but is open to other artists using her concept and making their own versions.  Get in touch using the Contact section for more information.