Whelping Box

Overview

Two men tie themselves to stakes inside a wooden box. They throw their bodies at each other, and their rubber cords snap back. They start again. You’re in there too — and you can’t look away.

Whelping Box is an intense, psychological experience, created by Lee Wilson and Mirabelle Wouters of Branch Nebula with Matt Prest and Clare Britton. Wilson and Prest are the ones who take on the production’s demanding onstage roles. As they play and fight inside their dark arena, they navigate their audience through an unsettling combination of theatre, dance, and performance art. Arts House’s Meat Market is the container for Whelping Box’s feral energy, where the work is double-billed with Roslyn Oades' I’m Your Man.

As they strain in their bindings, these two performers stretch the rituals and everyday mythology of masculinity to breaking point. They test the limits of their own bodies as well as their relationship with an intimately close audience. With so much at stake, why not put yourself in the middle?