Artist to stage 24 hour walk around Liverpool

An ambitious performance piece will see performers and participants embark on an all-night vigil and 24-hour pilgrimage around the streets and green spaces of Liverpool next month.

Titled ‘The Handless Project: Journey’, the event by artist Aleasha Chaunté, is aiming to push the boundaries of theatre and performance. The work is inspired by the fairy tale ‘The Handless Maiden’, a tale about a girl whose father cuts off her hands to save himself from a bad deal.

Aleasha is inviting members of the public to join her as she leaves Unity Theatre in Liverpool city centre at dawn, to walk with her and two collaborators Vicci Riley and Joanne Tremarco until 2am the next morning.

Along the way she will be visiting places around Liverpool that are of importance to people living in the city, marking them with small rituals and performances, from singing songs and telling stories to building temporary markers.

The weekend will be preceded by several community workshops across Liverpool, asking people to tell their own stories about their map of the city.

Handless Project creator and performer Aleasha Chaunté said: “This is about personal landmarks, so we will honour the places that are meaningful to individuals who we have met during the development of the piece, be they ordinary houses, park benches and swings or a workplace that is no longer there.”

“The Handless Project is my response to an old fairytale I read when I was very young called ‘The Handless Maiden’. The story follows a classic female Heroes’ journey trajectory and contains much folk wisdom that has been very useful to me.

“The project isn’t about telling the story itself, it is rather more about what the handless maiden spurred me to do.”

Ahead of the 24 walk, as part of Light Night and Unity Theatre’s reopening celebrations, Aleasha will lead a procession, starting at Liverpool Cathedral and moving along the short route to Unity Theatre. On arrival, she will awaken the ‘sleeping’ building, which has been closed since January for an £845,000 redevelopment project, with ritual and light.

She and 20 participants will then retire to one of Unity Theatre’s performance spaces until around 4am to prepare for the pilgrimage, which will end in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The full details and route are still under wraps, but organisers advise that the weekend will be divided into chapters. There will be opportunities for members of the public to join the route at various points around the city, and to share meals and celebrate at a closing party.

The Handless Project: Journey will take place from 5pm on Friday May 19 until 2am on Sunday May 21.