MORPHIC RESONANCE
Performance
Nottingham Contemporary, 2026
Photo credit: Reece Straw“This new performance by Beth Kettel explores ‘Morphic Resonance’ - the theory that living organisms are connected via invisible fields, and that our minds can stretch beyond our brains and bodies across time and space. The performance moves through the four natural elements - Earth, Water, Wind and Fire – and leads towards a fifth element – Ether – which connects the material world with metaphysical realms.
The five elements remain omnipresent archetypes embedded deep within the unconscious, while also being unpredictable forces in constant motion in nature - part of an eternal cycle of destruction and creation. In the performance, the elements act as diferent chapters or visions, reflecting parts of the psyche and stages of death in the dissolution and transformation of the body and the ego.
Bringing together ideas from psychology, alchemy and spirituality, this immersive experimental performance morphs across spatialised sound, reactive costume and installation. Wrangling between the light and the dark, force and initiation, the work reflects on the humbling and healing power of the elements, as well as perception, telepathy and consciousness.
Performers: Pádraig Condron, Charlie Dean, Beth Kettel, Danni Spooner
Choe Willis, Jenna Jones
Sound: Tom Harris, Aja Ireland, Beth Kettel
Costume: Pádraig Condron, Beth Kettel
Moveable Structures: Lynn Fulton
Clay Jugs: Dohmshop
AR Sandbox: Alistair Young
Projection Mapping: Mateus Domingos
Stage Management: Paul Paschal
Ceramic Landscape made by Rebecca & Katy Beinart, part of Imagine Geographies, National Trust
Commissioned by Nottingham Contemporary and supported by Broadway’s Near Now using public funding from Arts Council England and The Nottingham School of Art & Design through the Department of Fashion Practice Fund and the Advanced Textiles Research Group.”
Special thanks to Klara Szafranska and the team at Nottingham Contemporary