THE COMFORTER at The Yard

The Comforter: not a particularly comforting performance, until the last few minutes when I finally sort of understood what the performance was getting at. As part of a trilogy of performances on faith, The Comforter represents Stacey Makishi’s feelings on The Holy Ghost. Alone on stage, Makishi poured her heart out. We heard stories of loss, love, connection and disconnection. We heard Makishi’s opinion that she doesn’t deserve love and that we should ‘choose death’, not life. Like I said, not very comforting. We also saw her sing along to some George Michael songs. There was a clip from Dumbo. There were breathing exercises. There was a suitcase that she was stuffed into. There was a tub of Vaseline, which was prodded by an audience member, which was then prodded into various other audience members’ crevices. All her talk of connection made me wonder where the connection was in her performance. All these elements didn’t seem to match up. Until one silent moment, where Stacey stuffed the duvet, the love she felt she didn’t deserve, under her shirt. She desperately held it close to her body, and we watched silently at her struggle. That simple action clicked for me, and I could have happily watched it for much longer.

Makishi’s performance lived up to its name in the end, with an uplifting message: ‘We’re all worthy of love.’ I just don’t see what that has to do with The Holy Ghost. Or George Michael. Or a Vaseline soaked finger being poked between different ‘holes’.

Any Indecent Exposure?                   Makishi mentioned her queer identity in passing. Love is the same whatever your sexual orientation, and that was refreshing to see.