Preview: There but for the Grace of God (go I) at Stockton ARC

Adam Welsh, North-Eastern theatre maker, brings his new show to Stockton

There but for the Grace of God (go I)

Stockton ARC   

Thursday 18^th January 2018

There but for the Grace of God (go I) was borne from a simple action – Adam Googled himself – and the resulting show was created around what he ended up stumbling upon; the tragic story of the similarly named Adam Walsh, a child who went missing from a shopping mall in Florida in 1981.

ARC is tremendously excited to be able to host this performance – a superbly clever and emotional work – from a talented theatre maker who hails from the North-East. Adam Welsh grew up in Spennymoor and There but for the Grace of God (go I) features video interviews with his parents, whose accents and words add a local flavour to a work that is universal in its themes.

The drama draws comparison between an unknown living man and a famous missing child. It engages in weighing up the value of a life and what constitutes real success.

By combining true crime, re-enactment and autobiography, Adam Welsh reflects on the care that parents have for their children, but how they can’t always help them. It is a meditation on how tragedy can render the world meaningful, an investigation into not being dead, yet.

Adam says: “I am really excited to bring my show to a Teesside audience. I live in London now but as a native north-easterner, it is so important to me to share my work on home turf. ARC have been incredibly supportive and have given me a safe space to wrestle with some difficult and challenging ideas. The show came out of navel-gazing narcissism, I wanted to know if I was “successful enough” but I realised that I had got it all wrong. By reaching out to understand the un-understandable, I think I’ve grown less selfish, more empathetic. I don’t Google myself as much now anyway.”

There but for the grace of God (go I) is priced on a Pay What You Decide basis. ARC wants to encourage more people to come and see shows at ARC more often. Pay What You Decide not only allows visitors to pay what they can afford, rather than a fixed ticket price, but also removes the financial risk of buying a ticket for a show in advance without knowing whether they are going to enjoy it or not. More information about this pioneering initiative can be found here.

Tickets:

Tickets can be booked here: http://arconline.co.uk/whats-on/theatre-dance/there-but-for-the-grace-of-god-go-i