A work about death, grief, and the moments in between, Shanell Winlock-Pailman’s Oh Death! Where is Your Sting? is a playful and profound work that sits somewhere between dance work, theatre, and act of mourning.

It begins with Winlock-Pailman and Billy Langa, setting up the funeral, swapping jokes and memories, gossiping. They mime all of this, a prerecorded track sounding out and providing great comedic relief. And so we listen to them talk through their gestures, their facial expressions, and their bodies.

“Let’s dance!”, comes the call, the activation, and suddenly there is so much energy and exertion to mourn the dead, to perform grief and loss. They are jumping, jumping, jumping, shaking off the grief, and bringing life back into the body. 

They are joined by the pastor who reads out a eulogy, a textual backdrop to powerful, surreal solos by Langa and Winlock-Pailman where chairs become stages, and bodies begin to leave the ground.  

Death, they posit, is simply a comma, not a full stop.  

— David Mann

CREDITS

CONCEPTUALISER | Shanell Winlock-Pailman
DRAMATURG | Namatshego Khutsoane
PERFORMERS | Shanell Winlock-Pailman, Billy Langa & Namatshego Khutsoane

With thanks to Pastor Hubert Tiger