cw: gentle conversations about youth s*icide through a nuanced, informed and respectful lens, and comfortable disclosures of participating artists’ connections with this subject

About the Music

Nick Drake (1948 – 1974) was an influential English folk singer, whose music conveyed an oft-stigmatised world of loneliness, confusion, pain and awe. Drake passed away when he was 26, and his experiences with mental illness and s*icide still resonate with many today.

In After Nick, interdisciplinary artist Patrick Gunasekera and cellist Ben Buchanan will perform Drake’s treasured song “River Man” 26 times, alongside 26 improvisations inspired by the musicians’ own voices at the age represented by the repeat number.

Woven into these cycles are excerpts of recorded conversations with Gunasekera’s close friends – digressing earnestly on Drake’s life and work through contemporary perspectives of s*icide ideation recovery and grassroots cultural change.

Performed at the tail end of Gunasekera’s 26th year, this quietly powerful durational performance asks what it means to be living beyond the age Drake died, and what it requires of communities to create spaces where s*icide is prevented through safety and belonging being the norm for all bodies.

Donate to support the work

We are running a crowdfunding campaign to support our delivery of this project. For more information on the performance, ways to support, and how funding will be allocated, click here.

Access Information

🚦Here is a link to a detailed content warnings guide for different times of the performance. General content warnings: this work involves conversations about youth s*icide from a lens of hope, lived experience, social nuance and respect for both storytellers and audience. It also includes comfortable disclosures of participating artists' connections to this subject.

🗣 An audience peer support worker will be present across the performance, at a wellbeing table outside. The table will include a communal butchers paper mural and pastel chalks to draw with.

👨‍🏫 The front of house team will receive some disabled cultural safety training ahead of the performance.

👋 The social environment will be friendly and casual, with no expectation to socialise. Earthwise Subiaco is a public space, and on the day you may bump into some nice people from the nearby community garden who aren’t attending the performance.

🏡 The physical environment is very casual and relaxing, surrounded by a luscious garden with some slightly creepy but also pretty cool scrap material sculptures hanging around.

👨‍🦯 As this work is all audio, a performer will give a general audio description of the stage setup and performers’ appearances after the Acknowledgement of Country at the 2pm start of the work. Different areas at the venue (audience area, snacks table, and wellbeing table) will be pointed out to all patrons on arrival – you are welcome to request an usher take you to where these areas are when you arrive.

🔤 Song lyrics and pre-recorded conversations will include projected subtitles in OpenDyslexia font.

🧏‍♀️ As After Nick is a DIY, artist-run project supported by a small fundraiser, we cannot confirm being able to afford an interpreter at this stage. But we would love to work out what’s possible and do whatever we can for you to access this show. Please get in touch to discuss your access requests with us by email at wwimfest@gmail.com

🚂 Earthwise Subiaco is about an equal distance from both Subiaco and Daglish train stations on the blue Fremantle or Claremont lines. Walking or rolling from both stations involves occasionally uneven paths, a lot of uphill to the venue, and a lot of downhill back to the station.

🚌 There is no bus from Subiaco train station on Sundays, but the 27 bus runs from Daglish station every 10 – 20 minutes during the day and every hour in the evenings on a Sunday. It stops 1 minute away from Earthwise at Bagot Rd before Rowland St. The 27 bus runs also from the CBD to Claremont.

🚕 The drop-off and pick-up address for rideshares is 317 Bagot Rd, and the entrance is down an unmarked road off Bagot Rd that just has a parking sign and an arrow. There are 5 Earthwise parking bays just outside the performance space. 2 of these will be marked off as ACROD bays on the day.

👨🏻‍🦽 Brick pathways outside the venue are slightly uneven but still comfortable to manually roll over at a faster speed. The entrance has a flat threshold, and the floor inside is flat linoleum. The sign-in and audience areas will be arranged to prioritise physical and social comfort for mobility aid-users.

🪑 Seating will be a mix of chairs with no armrests, a few chairs with armrests, and cushions over blankets for sitting or lying on the floor. There is no fixed seating, and mobility aid-users can have any seats/cushions moved to choose a space for themselves. Default seating arrangements for mobility aid-users will be centre front row and centre back row.

🎭 The performance space is a small hall, with space for about 25 patrons to comfortably gather inside at one time. A couple of seating areas will be marked as “squished seating”, and some overflow will be permitted into these areas if it’s comfortable for everyone who’s already chosen to sit there.

🚪 There is no lockout – you can arrive and leave anytime, and you don’t have to stay the whole time.

🎶 Sound will have comforting textures, and have a grounding effect overall. Improvised music may sometimes include dissonance.

🏮 Lighting will be a mix of warm lamps and natural light through the glass walls during the day

🪀 There is a tactile stim toy library at sign-in desk – please return anything you borrow before you leave

🫖 There will be a snacks table with black and herbal teas, vegan hot chocolate, and some food donated by patrons. Everyone will be asked what their dietary requirements are when they buy a ticket, and this information will be shared anonymously with people who volunteer to contribute food.

😷 The performance will take place indoors in a room with low ventilation. Disposable surgical masks will be available from the sign-in table, and we encourage you to wear your own if you can (no judgment if you medically can’t!)

🧻 There is one toilet with a sanitary bin, one toilet without a sanitary bin, one RH wheelchair accessible toilet with a sanitary bin. Toilets will be labelled gender neutral on the day.

🎟️ Tickets are pay-what-you-can.

👩‍💻 Livestream tickets are available, and all ticket-holders will be sent a link to our livestream around 1:45pm on the performance day. Please don’t share this link with anyone who hasn’t registered with a ticket.

Contact the host of After Nick