Performance Space Residency

Shawbrook's Performance Space Residencies support artists in the final stages of creating new work. Designed as an intensive period of development, these residencies provide artists with the time, space, and technical resources needed to bring projects from studio research into fully realised performance works.

Over two weeks, artists focus on refining choreography, dramaturgy, staging, sound, lighting, and design elements, allowing ideas to be tested in a theatre environment and prepared for public presentation and future touring.

The programme culminates in a public sharing or performance, offering audiences the opportunity to experience new work at a pivotal stage in its development while supporting artists as they move towards professional presentation and touring.

Shawbrook presents

Silent Mirror

by Mitch Harvey

  • Mitch Harvey — Silent Mirror

    Following a Creative Space Residency at Shawbrook in 2025, Australian choreographer Mitch Harvey returns for a two-week Performance Space Residency to continue developing Silent Mirror, a new contemporary dance theatre work exploring solitude, connection, and the evolving experience of loneliness throughout our lives.

    Inspired by David Whyte's essay Alone, the work began as a duet created with Singaporean performer Zee Zunnur and emerged from questions around what it means to be truly alone. From the silence of isolation to the loneliness that can exist within relationships and communities, Silent Mirror reflects on the many ways we experience connection, separation, and belonging.

    During this residency, the project will expand into a four-person intergenerational ensemble of Australian artists, working in close collaboration with composer Louis Frere-Harvey. The residency will focus on refining the choreography, developing the theatrical structure of the work, and exploring the integration of spoken text alongside movement and music.

    Drawing on the performers' lived experiences as artists constantly in transition, Silent Mirror combines a visceral and rhythm-driven movement language with immersive sound and powerful theatrical imagery. Through this process, the work asks how solitude changes as we move through different stages of life and how our relationships with ourselves and others continue to shape who we become.

    The residency will culminate in a public performance on Shawbrook's Forest Stage, offering audiences an opportunity to experience this compelling new work as it moves towards its next phase of development and future touring. Friday the 14th of August at 7.30pm

    Instagram @mitchharveycompany

    Proudly supported by Irish Arts Council

Tickets Coming Soon

Creative Space Residency Sharing 2025

This video captures an early sharing of Silent Mirror, developed during Mitch Harvey's Creative Space Residency at Shawbrook in 2025.

Created in collaboration with performer Zee Zunnur and inspired by David Whyte's essay Alone, the work began as an exploration of solitude, connection, and the many ways we experience loneliness throughout our lives. Developed through movement, rhythm, and improvisation, this initial stage of research laid the foundations for a larger performance work.

In 2026, Mitch returns to Shawbrook for a Performance Space Residency, expanding Silent Mirror into a new ensemble production and continuing its journey towards a fully realised touring work.

Supported by Arts Council of Ireland