In a 2017 survey, 34% of young people chose YouTuber as their top career choice; one year later, the highest earning YouTubers were reporting burnout, anxiety, depression and chronic fatigue. Inspired by the 34%, Claire Gaydon set up her camera to see how hard being popular could be. Blurring the lines between reality and fiction, this edited, unedited, live, pre-recorded reality show reveals the addiction in validation, and the pressures of performing for an algorithm that values clickbait over nuance, rating you highest when you’re sharing your lowest, darkest moments. Presented with her back to the audience and a camera on her every move and innermost thought, Claire Gaydon invites the audience backstage with a YouTuber who promises to be engaging, entertaining and absolutely 100% authentically real.
Claire Gaydon said, “When a third of a generation want to work in the same industry you can’t help but be curious. I definitely see the allure – be your own boss, do what makes you happy and have fun, basically everything we’ve been taught to aspire to. I’m used to working in an oversubscribed profession, but when a profession is that oversubscribed how do you make yourself stand out from everyone else? I wanted to understand more about the conscious and unconscious strategies YouTubers might use to try to increase views/subs and how that journey could look and feel.”
Claire Gaydon is a theatre-maker and performer creating work in the East Midlands and London. She specialises in creating research-driven, multi-disciplinary solo performance blending live art, storytelling and multimedia. Claire is Associate Artist at The Old Church in Hackney and one of CPT’s 2019 starting blocks artists. Previous work includes Somebody I Used to Know andRemy.
Jaz Woodcock Stuart and Grace Gibson are the associate directors on See-Through. Jaz Woodcock Stuart is artistic director of ANTLER as well as an independent theatre-maker and director. She is currently making a show at Performance Laboratory Salzburg 2019, a MITOS21 project at Thomas Bernhard Institut and is also assistant director on Ivo van Hove’s All About Eve. She was a JMK Award finalist in 2016, a Genesis Future Directors Award finalist in 2017, and the RTST Sir Peter Hall Directors Award finalist in 2018. Grace Gibson is a theatre-maker and director. She recently directed Within Reach (Young Vic, Taking Part) and was the Associate Director of See Me Now, which was a part of the British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2017. Her solo show, How to Drown a Fish toured the U.K last year and her past collaborators have included Tim Etchells and movement director Imogen Knight.
See-Through Tour Dates:
8-9 Mar VAULT Festival, London
14 Mar Cast, Doncaster
23 – 27 Apr Camden People’s Theatre, London
31 May Derby Theatre
