Deciphering: Steph Street on working alongside her daughter, Asha

2 September 2021

'There are very few plays that tell us things that we really don’t know about, or shed light in corners that we haven’t seen.'

Our in-house spies recently visited curious directive's home in Norwich to catch up with them on the process behind the devising of their most recent show, Deciphering - which will have its world premiere at NDT 09 September - 02 October. They caught up with actor Stephanie Street, who is working and performing alongside her daughter, Asha, for the first time.

Steph: 'Asha and I play the same character at ages of eight and 43 respectively. Elise finds herself as an adult with an expertise in geometric symbols in early cave art. Across the three ages that we see Elise she’s a creative, imaginative person who finds herself questioning the systems that exist.

How it came about

'Jack (Lowe) got in touch last summer to ask how I would feel about working alongside my daughter. I was both really keen to give it a go and scared of what it might represent for Asha. Was it too much to ask of an eight year old? I spoke to my partner about it and he felt that asking Asha what she wanted to do was absolutely the right idea – and Asha jumped at it.

On working with her daughter

It's been incredible rehearsing together. I've been acting for 20 years, and so the simplicity of Asha’s process has amazed me, and reminded me of some of the important things. That's not to underestimate how much of a practical challenge it has been - curious directive have been wonderful, and so sympathetic to how difficult it can be to work when you look after other people. They had no guidelines to go by, because there aren’t any guidelines in our industry yet, but they’ve been incredible.’

The experience has enabled Steph to practice doing her best work while simultaneously holding a safe space for her kids.

‘It's been really, really intense performing alongside Asha, but wonderfully so. The emotional charge of connecting in a theatrical moment with your daughter on stage is huge.'

Steph believes that their mother-daughter collaboration is at the heart of this story – but that it's become much less obvious, and is now more discreet and embedded in the soul of the work.

'The play is about what we inherit and what we evolve into. Human growth is at the heart of this piece, of what Jack’s making.

Decolonising our historical perspective

Learning about the caves has been quantum-shifting. We've learned so much about roots and growth and development. I grew up in South East Asia, and I've found the process of decolonising our understanding of human history thrilling. This is human history pre Europe in a significant context. The caves and the art in them has only been discovered in the past 12 months.

There are very few plays that tell us things that we really don’t know about, or shed light in corners that we haven’t seen. To understand where we’ve come from – that’s a good reason to go to the theatre.'

Deciphering premieres at NDT 09 September – 02 October. Book now!

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