The Dirty Work
Jo Bannon
About The Dirty Work
this show is a little miracle
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian (on Alba)
a timeless experience, rich and resonant.
Total Theatre (on Exposure)
LIMITED EARLY BIRD TICKETS AVAILABLE*
Peek behind the velvet curtain of The Dirty Work, a new solo performance by Jo Bannon.
Blending the tricks of the trade – a white rabbit, a magic wand, a puff of smoke – with her lived experience of visual impairment, Bannon invites you to glimpse a world where truth and illusion, performance and reality converge. Through delicate choreography and magician’s patter, which reveals more than it conceals, she unveils the invisible labour that shapes how we navigate the world - balancing effortlessly between what is seen and unseen.
Through a Crip lens and with a trick up her sleeve, Bannon reveals ‘the dirty work’ that often goes unnoticed on stage and in everyday life. This isn’t just a magic show; it’s a meditation on visibility, disability, and the unseen labour we all perform. Say ‘white rabbit’ three times, and see the magic unfold before your very eyes!
*The Early Bird discount applies at checkout
About Jo Bannon
Jo is an artist working in performance, choreography and film. Her practice is concerned with how our specific bodies, identities and sensory perceptions impact how we experience the world around us, and how this sensory experience can or cannot be conveyed. Her work is informed by her identity as a disabled woman with albinism and attempts to unpick the ways we look, hear and sense our immediate environment in order to rethink or make unfamiliar these intrinsic human behaviours. Bannon’s work is led by form and so manifests in various mediums including intimate encounters designed for single or small audiences, staged performance, dance, film and installation. Her work is guided by her ongoing fascination with objects, visual perception and how strange the ordinary world really is.
Jo has presented work in the UK, Europe, South America, USA, China, South Korea and Australia including Tate Modern, Sydney Opera House, Wellcome Collection, Sadler’s Wells, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Itau Cultural Sao Paulo, The Times Museum Guangzhou and HAU Berlin.
Recent work includes Sleight of Hand (2024) Passing(2024) Feeling Thing(2021) Absent Tense (2020) Kitchen Alba (2020, We Are Fucked (2018), Alba (2015), Dead Line (2013) and Exposure(2011).
Cast & Creatives
Created & Performed by Jo Bannon
Text by Jo Bannon and Gemma Paintin
Director: Gemma Paintin
Sound Designer: Dinah Mullen
Set and Costume Designer: Katherina Radeva
Lighting Designer: Chris Copland
Magic Consultant: Augusto Corrieri
Audio Description Consultant: Charlotte Whitten
Original Development with MAYK
Photography by Paul Samuel White
Production Manager: Froud
Technical Stage Manager: Harry Evans
Producer: Amanda Fawcett
Credits
Commissioned by Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, Cambridge Junction, The Place and Tramway. With additional support from Fabric and Horizon. Supported using public funds through Arts Council England.
The Dirty Work is part of Blind Magic: A triptych of artworks exploring the performativity of visual impairment. A film Passing, an installation Sleight of Hand and live performance The Dirty Work created by Jo Bannon.
Access information
- Audio Description is integrated in the performance soundscape
- There will be a free Touch Tour before the performance, which is bookable below. The Touch Tour is specifically for Visually Impaired audiences and lasts approximately 20 mins
- Before the show, there will be a VIP Area in The Place's Theatre Bar for Visually Impaired People and other Access Patrons to relax, have a glass of fizz before the show, and meet for the Touch Tour
