AN EXPERIMENTAL show about longing, imagination and missed connections performed by two unrehearsed performers is coming to a Bridport theatre.

Texan artist Greg Wohead will bring Celebration, Florida to The Lyric Theatre, Bridport on Friday March 31 at 8pm.

His Bridport show follows a sold-out world premiere at Edinburgh Festival.

Celebration, Florida takes two performers who will know almost nothing about the show before walking onstage and they won't know each other, but rather they will meet for the first time ever in front of the audience. Come along to The Lyric to find out who these two performers from Bridport’s community are.

As the show unfolds, the performers will be guided by the artist Greg Wohead, via headphones and a pre-recorded audio track to speak, move and perform tasks live in the moment. The show that unfolds is a meditation on longing, imagination and missed connections that fluctuates between playful and dark, surreal and literal, as Greg uses the performers as surrogates through which to communicate with the audience.

The show takes its title from a town developed by the Walt Disney Company, designed to be a controlled, manicured embodiment of the perfect American town. It is both a real town and a simulation of a town; and so the show is about the relationship between a hollow capitalistic society and a lack of connection, where we might reach for surrogates or stand-ins to fulfill our emotional needs.

Greg Wohead is a writer, performer and live artist originally from Texas. He makes theatre performances, one-to-one pieces and audio work. Celebration, Florida marks a move away from Greg’s practice as a solo performer, including in The Ted Bundy Project, Comeback Special and The Many Apologies of Pecos Bill. Greg does not perform in Celebration, Florida, and is taking a more outward-facing, collaborative approach in response to a contemporary political climate that feels increasingly inward-looking.

Greg said: “As a dual US and UK citizen, I can’t help but respond in some way to what feels like a climate of insularity, blame and too-easy answers.

“Celebration, Florida isn’t an overtly political piece, but to me it feels like a political gesture to make a performance with no easy answers or takeaways.

“Rather it invites audience members to make their own connections and follow their own pathways through the show.

“Hopefully the audience’s engagement with unrehearsed performers encourages reflections on what it means to feel connected and disconnected in this cultural moment.”

Tickets are £12, available in advance from Bridport Arts Centre box office or from the BearKat Bistro, or on the door if available from 7:30pm.

*Celebration, Florida, The Lyric, Bridport, Firday March 31 at 8pm.