CHAIR!

by Geraldine Pilgrim Company

Performance

An image of a group of performers stood in front of some plastic chairs scattered around a courtyard. There is a female performer at the front of the frame wearing a white dressing gown and slippers, with her arms outstretched and she is smiling.

A performance that celebrates the act of sitting down.
When did our public seating disappear and what would happen if we brought it back?

Set in a dreamlike world, CHAIR! imagines how we can once again have public spaces that care. Where people can sit uninterrupted ready to relax, work, remember and have time and place to dream. This performance with chairs plus every day and surreal objects and actions reiterates the fact that everyone has the right to sit down.

CHAIR! is now in the midst of touring to Greenwich and Docklands International Festival (September 2026), and Inside Out Dorset (2027).

An image of two men stood facing a woman sat on a chair. Both men are wearing high vis orange jackets, and the woman is wearing a dressing gown and slippers.

An image of a group of people sat on some chairs that are scattered around a courtyard area surrounded by buildings.

An image of two women and a man sat on some chairs around small tables. The two women are playing chess and the man is tending to a plant pot.

“Geraldine Pilgrim is a visual magician, who has been creating site sympathetic shows long before such work became fashionable.”

Lyn Gardner

“Geraldine Pilgrim has a unique theatrical vision and ability to collaborate with space like no other artists I know.”

Judith King: Artistic Advisor Arts & Heritage

About Geraldine Pilgrim

Geraldine Pilgrim is a site-specific director/designer and installation artist. As Artistic Director of Geraldine Pilgrim Performance Company she is known for her socially-engaged participatory performances creating contemporary dialogues with occupied and empty buildings, landscapes and historic houses, where the architecture of the site is used as inspiration and narrative together with the history – imagined and real – of the space. Her works have taken place in the UK and Europe in sites ranging from cemeteries and castles to factories and hospitals. Trained as a fine artist and theatre designer, and she is an Associate Lecturer at Central St Martins UAL.

The Chair Company

Artistic Director: Geraldine Pilgrim
Assistant Director: Kelsey Yuhara
Producer: Emily Jones
Performer/Movement Director: Sara April Lamb
Performer: Nelson Holtz
Performer: Amir Sharief

CHAIR! Compton Close Participant Performers:
Ciaran Barker, Debora Bellintani, Julie Isherwood, Dee Kushlic-William, Mike Park, Molle-Mae Rochester, Nuin Stephens, and Will To.

Funding, commissioning and partner credits:

Supported by Without Walls and commissioned by Brighton Festival and Activate/Inside Out Dorset.

Also by the Old Diorama Arts Centre. The initial R&D for CHAIR! was supported by FESTIVAL.ORG (Greenwich+Docklands International Festival).

Image credits

Videographer: Ben Hewis