"If You Don't Sing Your Demons, Your Demons Will Sing You" proclaimed the sign above the workshop.

It's 1995 and I'm working with the Roy Hart Theatre in France. The company is founded on the work of Alfred Wolfsohn, a soldier in the First World War. Haunted by the agonising cries of the injured men that lay around him in the trenches.

Wolfsohn spent his life trying to understand where these sounds came from - a primal, guttural, baseness that striped away societal conditioning.

The quote clings to me, reminding me each time I step forth on another creative adventure. It turns what too many in this part of the world see as "a wee art project" into a fight of life or death.

The Power Of Art To Explore Our Darkness

Art provides us with the opportunity to dive into the darkness.

We explore the "ugliness" that terrifies those we live amongst. We shine a light on the taboo. We actively engage in discussion that disrupts and unnerves. We embrace that which exists in us all, but were are guilted into hiding away like a dirty secret we should be ashamed of.

In admitting its existence we create commune with those who step with us into the space, and the weight of this penance is lifted.

We need to make sure we sing our songs, at this time, in this World.