From an end to handshakes between acquaintances, to dates meeting via Zoom, to grandparents unable to hold their grandchildren, COVID-19 transformed how we touch. In response to this dramatic shift in human experience, in June 2021, the London-based theatre company Dante or Die created Skin Hunger – an interactive work intended to explore touch and its vital role in our lives. Staged at a chapel in the West End in London, the show featured three actors sharing stories with touch at their centre. With the performers surrounded by cascading walls of touch-safe plastic, each of these encounters invited moments of touch between actor and audience. Skin Hunger is documented in this short film from the UK filmmaker Pinny Grylls, which features three audience members – a dementia care worker, a professor of neuroscience specialising in touch, and a former prisoner – attending the show. As they move from piece to piece, each brings their own unique perspective on touch to the performance.
You can watch a full archive recording of the live production of Skin Hunger here. An audio-described version of this film is available on YouTube.
Film by Dante or Die
Created by: Daphna Attias, Terry O’Donovan
Director: Pinny Grylls
Producer: Sophie Ignatieff
Co-producer: Anna Snowball
video
Art
Grotesque imagery meets religious conservatism in Hieronymus Bosch’s art
51 minutes
video
Architecture
Why a sculptor pivoted from gallery installations to big-box stores design
9 minutes
video
Physics
Spectacular fractal patterns emerge when electricity meets a wooden surface
4 minutes
video
Wellbeing
A tender poem doubles as a guide to sitting comfortably in one’s own company
3 minutes
video
Values and beliefs
How a God-fearing Jewish woman found atheism – and bacon – in her later years
9 minutes
video
War and peace
Before he leaves to go to war, Artem, 18, says goodbye to the man who raised him
12 minutes
video
Art
A mindbending trip that summons the forgotten women of surrealism
17 minutes
video
Animals and humans
What the ancient city of Kars looks like from the perspective of its stray dogs
9 minutes
video
Family life
A son of China’s former one-child policy remembers the sibling he never had
8 minutes