Bobby Baker live production made in collaboration with Polona Boloh Brown

50 minutes

LIFT Festival 1995, Southbank Centre, London

Take a Peek! was devised as a visit to a health-centre and based on a woman’s experience of the health care system. It was housed in a labyrinthine installation designed by architects Fraser Brown Mckenna and was evocative of a funfair with nine ‘attractions’. Groups of visitors were escorted through a series of immaculate white booths, corridors, stands, towers, and seating areas. Each attraction or exhibit took its lead from components of a traditional fairground – The Fat Lady, House of Horror, Fortune Teller, Lucky Dip among others. Cajoled by two assistants adopting the fairground tone of banter, the audience were invited to enjoy themselves and peek at Bobby Baker: the patient on display. 

Credits

Collaborator: Polona Baloh Brown
Performers: Bobby Baker, Tamzin Griffin and Siân Stevenson
Production Manager: Steve Wald
Lighting design and technical management: Cath Brittan
Composer: Sylvia Hallett
Installation design: Fraser Brown Mackenna Architects
Structural Engineers: Hanif Kara and Albers Williamson Taylor
Construction: Streeter and Jessel
Curtains and Fabrics: Prompt side
Photography: Andrew Whittuck
Graphic Design: Lewis Nicholson
Logo: Visible Edge
Filming: Simon Maggs

Commissioner: LIFT’95 and Southbank Centre

Support from London Arts Board and Arts Council England

Daily Life Ltd. & Arts Admin Production

Take a Peek! is the third work in the ‘Daily Life Series’, which comprises five performances that span the decade between 1991 to 2001. Other works include: Kitchen Show (1991), How to Shop (1993), Grown-up School (1999), and Box Story (2001).