LÄBU VOL2 | EPISODE 5 | Avery Gerhardt | Juuli Hyttinen

Southern Drawl
by
AVERY GERHARDT
USA

Author and performer: AVERY GERHARDT
Sound: LES SOEURS GOADEC
Lighting design: ROMMI RUTTAS and LEON ALLIK
Technical support: LEAH GAYER
Dramaturgical support: SANDRA KÜPPER and GIACOMO VERONESI
Producers: JÜRI NAEL and ANNIKA ÜPRUS
Thank you: To my cohort
Production: CPPM | Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre
Premiere: 13 September 2025 Kanuti Gildi SAAL

Southern Drawl is a choreographic inquiry into the politics of withdrawal—what happens after seeing the elephant. Drawing on the American idiom once used to describe disillusioning encounters with war, labor, and vice, the piece stages a disarticulated body wedged between exhaustion and refusal. The solo considers what it means to shed the weight of legibility in an increasingly polarizing, media-saturated world choosing instead to linger in a suspended, gestural state. Southern Drawl performs withdrawal not as absence but as antagonistic potential—where burnout, disorientation, and the embrace of uncertainty become acts of speculative becoming.

Avery Gerhardt is an independent choreographer and freelance performer from Houston, Texas. She is a resident choreographer for the emerging collective Motlee Party and is honoured to be pursuing a masters in Contemporary Physical Performance Making at EMTA.

Crab Cage
by
JUULI HYTTINEN
Finland

Author and performer: JUULI HYTTINEN
Sound design: VAIDA VOVERE
Scenography: RIIN MAIDE
Video: DĀRTA URBANOVIČA
Lighting design: ROMMI RUTTAS and LEON ALLIK
Technical support: EDWARD SKAINES
Dramaturgical support: RINGA AARIMO, SANDRA KÜPPER and GIACOMO VERONESI
Producers: JÜRI NAEL and ANNIKA ÜPRUS
Thank you: Vaida Vovere, Joonas Purastie, Dārta Urbanoviča, Säilättäret and CPPM cohort
Production: CPPM | Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre
Premiere: 13 September 2025 Kanuti Gildi SAAL

The human wears the skin, but what if the skin is wearing the human?
Crab cage moves inside a body in constant alert, a body whose fragile surface no longer protects. It brings forth the never-ending itch and the quiet shame of being visibly uncomfortable. It gives shape to an invisible condition that isolates, exhausts, and wears down both body and mind.

The performance moves through the delicate landscape of fragile skin, tracing the silent marks of discomfort. Combining physical theatre, object manipulation, movement, and music, the piece transforms irritation and invisibility into presence and encounter — allowing space for absurdity and irony to flicker through the cracks.

Juuli Hyttinen is a performing artist with a background in musical theatre. Through a dialogue between music, movement, and storytelling, her work explores the edges of genre and structure, creating space for unexpected moments and honest emotion.

Vaida Vovere is a poet, songwriter and composer with a background as a musical theatre performer. Her work focuses on the meeting point of contemporary academic music and theatre music. Work on Crab Cage has been an exploration of viscerality and audial discomfort.

LÄBU VOL2 is proudly part of the Tallinn Fringe Festival
Esineja: Avery Gerhardt Juuli Hyttinen
** Žanr:** kaasaegne etenduskunst
** Keel:** inglise
** Kestus:** 2 tundi
** Vanusesoovitus:** 18+
** Piletid:** 15€ 10€
Maailma esilinastus
#TallinnFringe2025