Your Compliments are my Curse Words

Adedayo launches into a theatrical rant (anecdote, poetry, puppetry, and song) against a fictional corporation that thought a few compliments would make for an equitable environment. Adedayo tears apart seven harmful compliments that have historical impacts on multiple colonially marginalized communities. In the end, they offer a solution to improve the social script, because sometimes, taking a compliment is asking too much!

In this blue themed image, Velvet is at the center, shining in a teal shirt, despite being surrounded by speech bubbles of varying intensity. Four speech bubbles are prominent in a white background and red themed: heart, star, megaphone, applause. Velvet looks up toward the light with a close lipped smile, but they are thinking a strong curse word. "Your Compliments are My Curse Words" October 15, 2022 Workshop performance at Shenkman Arts Centre / Centre des arts Shenkman Photo: Curtis Perry
Photo of Velvet Wells: Curtis Perry

Audience: Adult (18+)
Strong language: Reference to George Carlin’s list of swear words
Timing: Approximately 45 minutes

Velvet Wells, Creator and performer
Velvet Duke Productions

Pre-Production Memories

Read the blog post capturing the development through to the October 15, 2022 workshop performance

Next Steps

  • Create musical backing tracks (2023)
  • Update projection for more dynamism, including images of community members (alongside mine) (2023)
  • Extract stand up and monologue versions to share in other settings (2023)
  • Submit the show to Fringe Festivals (2024)

Logo: articipate articipez
https://articipate.ca/

A recipient of the ARTicipate development grant, sponsored by the Shenkman Arts Centre

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