Touring performances for shop windows, featuring eye-catching glimpses into the life-cycle of shop mannequins.

 

Secret Life of the Dummy treated the shop window as if it were a cage in a zoo and invited the public to look in on the exotic behaviour of wild shop dummies kept safely behind glass. The dummies fed each other, attempted to communicate, squabbled and engaged in colourful courtship displays. Achieved without words, and with the use of striking costumes and a series of mannequin heads fitted with ingenious automated features (for instance fluttering eyelashes and waggling ears), the emphasis was on comic, visual theatre.

Premiered in May 1997 in the front window of M&S in Ashton-under-Lyne.

Subsequently toured throughout the UK and to festivals in Eire, France, Australia and Luxembourg.

 

Credits

Created and Performed by
Sue Auty and Edward Taylor
Created with
Greville White
Funded by North West Arts Board.