Alex Whelan, Joana Dias and Marshall Stay
Resolution Festival 2025
About Alex Whelan, Joana Dias and Marshall Stay
amateur dramatics
Through collaborating with his brother Matty, a musician, Alex’s work focusses on ideas around queer brotherhood, growing up in a queer-parented household and the experience of coming of age within these parameters. The piece aims to find a common language between the brothers, in a retrospective exploration of childhood emotional experiences.
About Alex Whelan
Alex is a queer male artist who’s interests lie in the intersection between day to day life and performance. This is rooted in a curiosity for social choreography, and how identity and emotion affect the physicality of people in space. Alex is undertaking ongoing research in this, and his work continues to explore and extend his findings.
Cast & Credits
Choreographer/Performer: Alex Whelan
Composer/Performer: Matty Whelan
89
89 explores themes of identity, memory, and empowerment, drawing from personal and historical narratives. Inspired by conversations between Joana and her Portuguese mother about the disappearance of her Angolan father in 1989, the piece takes the audience on a journey of a mixed-race woman reclaiming her identity. It delves into the strength of mother-daughter relationships and the universal quest for self-discovery as Joana tries to puzzle her family story together and meets a man on stage she never met in real life.
The performance combines aerial hoop, dance, original music, and dynamic sound and light design.
About Joana Dias
Joana Dias is a mixed-race black Portuguese artist, blending her talents in singing, dancing, acting, and circus arts. With a background in ballroom dance competitions and musical theatre, she graduated from the National Centre for Circus Arts in London, specialising in Aerial Hoop in 2014. Joana’s career spans UK, and international tours with companies such as Upswing, Mimbre, Cirque Bijou, BMT, Ella Mesma, Cirkör, Nikki & JD, and Lost Dog. Passionate about storytelling, she aims to spark important conversations. Currently, Joana is creating her first solo show, 89, while transitioning into a role as an outside eye for autobiographical performances.
Cast & Credits
Creator & Performer: Joana Dias
Director/Collaborator: Vicki Dela Amedume
Composer: Finn Anderson
Dramaturg/Writer: Nuna
Producer: Fae Fichtner
89 is funded by Jerwood Arts and created in cooperation with Upswing.
The Darndest Things
What do you want to be w̶h̶e̶n̶ if you grow up?
The Darndest Things is a provocative piece of physical theatre that blends conversations with kids and hyper-detailed expressionist movement. The naivety and wonder of children crashes into the crushing realities of climate change, political upheaval, and looming threats of war to ask: can kids just be kids? Inspired by the works of Crystal Pite and Pina Bausch, The Darndest Things collides joy and dread to paint a picture of an unsettling future.
About Marshall Stay, Kill Your Darlings
Kill your Darlings(KYD) is an emerging interdisciplinary performance company, made up of an international cooperative of actors, dancers, writers, and directors. With a collective portfolio of award winning and critically recognised work across continents, the KYDs have come together in London to create work that bleeds creativity, curiosity, and dramaturgical rigour. As the company continues to find form throughout 2025 and beyond, the KYDs continue to devise a varied program of intrepid work across forms and methodologies.
Cast & Credits
Director, performer: Marshall Stay
Performer, deviser: Tom Claxton
Performer, deviser: Adam Havsky
Performer, deviser: Eliza Scott
Performer, deviser: Jahvel Hall
Dramaturg: Izzy Edwards
