Feminist Utopia: Tess Letham on Remedy for Memory

Tess Letham is hoping to bring some joy (back) into the unknown. In an environment full of what she calls "unjoyful behaviour", Letham hopes to bring audiences into the whimsical, fun, and bitingly witty world of Remedy for Memory, produced by Stories Untold Productions and showing at Dance Base this August. The show begins as a live talk show, complete with a live videographer, eccentric guests, and a host you love to hate. However, as the show progresses, guests and hosts alike are forced to confront a cosmic level of uncertainty. Remedy for Memory is part dance, part theatre, and part multimedia performance art – it is a delightfully immersive and engaging work made by and for women and non-binary people.

Letham says: "It’s bold, it’s wild at times. It’s a realm of feminine fantasy, which travels through a journey of depicting these characters that are like alter egos. They depict mainstream characters playfully that then begin to break down and dissolve and reveal more intimate parts of themselves. It’s really vibrant, it’s really comedic, and then it kind of goes into these darker places. At the end, it's joyful and searching for a different realm, a different feminist utopia where we can all live peacefully."

But Remedy for Memory is not without conflict: "What I wanted to do was create an uplifting time for people. So it's fun and it's multi-dimensional, and it's vibrant, including all the design elements. It looks at harder subjects, like how the patriarchy and capitalism affect women and non-binary people all the time and have done for so long. It's kind of playfully twisting that so that we can all laugh at it."

Since its conception, Remedy for Memory has always been an exploration of "fantasies and intimacy and what you show to the world and what you keep in." The show has been in some sort of development since 2014, but Remedy for Memory in its current iteration was developed during the pandemic in a five-week research and development workshop. Letham emphasises that the show's entire team, down to the crew and designers, is comprised of women and non-binary people. "It was really collaboratively built," Letham says. "All of the performers were very non-hierarchical in the way that I wanted to make the room work. So everyone definitely gave all their ideas and love to the show."

One of the show's more unique features is its use of live videography, provided by Glasgow-based artist A. Ponce Hardy. Ponce Hardy's videography plays an essential role in creating what Letham calls an "abstracted form" of daytime talk show. The talk show's three guests are equally eccentric. Letham describes them as an astrologer-psychic hybrid, a raw-food ambassador, and a dating influencer. These three characters, together with the smarmy presenter (Skye Reynolds), try and fail to put their best foot forward before unravelling into the fantastical unknown. 

"Because of the themes and because of the way I wanted to make it, it felt really important to include just women and non-binary people. It felt very easy with everyone involved." Letham describes the team behind Remedy for Memory as highly diverse and international. She says, "It's geared towards the audience that the show is made from, but I want everyone to see it. It's for all of us. It travels through personal stories to come to this idea that there is possibly another way." 

This "other way" is elusive – Remedy for Memory makes no promises of sweeping, magical solutions. What it does offer is a look at creativity divorced from patriarchal hierarchy, at movement and fantasy that celebrate, rather than obscure, the joy of the feminine. At its heart, Remedy for Memory is an invitation into a rich, immersive world of play. Letham calls it "loud performance mode". It is unapologetically expansive – how far does it go? The possibilities are infinite. 

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Remedy for Memory, Dance Base (Studio 1), 23-28 Aug, 4.10pm, £12-15