This horizontal artist has limitations. She lies in the wreckage of her former vertical life. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to lay that vertical body to rest.
Lucy’s body was once her livelihood. It danced, waited tables, climbed mountains, ran half marathons and refused to stop. Now, living with ME/CFS, she carries a spirit level and compression socks as more likely companions. Who gets the standing ovation? Who decides what makes a spectacular body? And what if the most radical performance is refusing to stand at all?
Part funeral ritual, part irreverent celebration, This Is a Horizontal Artist is a funny and fearless solo inviting an audience to witness a performer letting go of one identity and reclaiming another as she realises that flat is now the new upright.
Work in progress sharing at Sheffield Theatres Open Works festival, September 2026
Photo credit: Shay Rowan
