You wake up
You haven’t woken up before
You hear a voice
This voice
Shivery in the salt and you
Is this what you sound like?
You look around
And see what you can’t yet name
Which you know as nothing
You look down and…
You appear to have tentacles?

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you wake up / octopus is an immersive audio-visual, branching narrative created by you - a newly awakened octopus - on a journey to the centre of the earth or distant space to find your missing mother: an ethereal and moving exploration of identity, gender, loss and (re)discovery, performed in collaboration with its audience.

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Originally written for Distracted Rat's The Emoji Project by ariella como stoian, you wake up / octopus is an ever-evolving collaboration between artists, composers, and theatre-makers including ariella como stoian, Zygmund de Somogyi, Susie MacDonald, Annys Whyatt, Lisa Maeda, and James Aldred, and the first production by Distracted Rat affiliate Mushmoss.

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In March 2022 you wake up / octopus was commissioned by Camden Peoples' Theatre for a R+D session at SPRINT Festival.

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