UK Tour | Wednesday 6th May – Saturday 27th June 2015
The Ted Bundy Project
by Greg Wohead
Texan writer and performer uses death row confession tapes of serial killer Ted Bundy to make a new performance about morbid curiosity
In November 2012, Greg Wohead stumbled across Ted Bundy’s confession tapes online. He couldn’t stop listening and so began a fascinating investigation of morbid curiosity. Why are we drawn to look twice at gory images? Why do we rubberneck at car accidents? And what is so compelling about serial killers?
The Ted Bundy Project is a solo performance about Wohead’s relationship to Ted Bundy, one of the world’s most notorious serial killers. Bundy confessed to having murdered at least 30 young women between 1974 and 1978. He was known for being handsome, gentle and charming, which is usually how he was able to earn the trust of his victims. There are many utterly compelling twists and turns in his case.
Wohead makes use of Bundy’s confession tapes in unexpected ways to bring a potency and presence into the room. Using some of the items found in Bundy’s car when he was arrested (including a pair of handcuffs, a rope and a panty hose mask), he asks what we are capable of imagining and doing and whether we are who we say we are.
This difficult, slippery show makes us face up to our morbid fascination, a fascination that we share with Bundy himself (the Guardian).
This is an exploration born of a curiosity about the nature of charm, the label of ‘monster’ and the tension between attraction and repulsion. The show itself is part confession (both Wohead’s and Bundy’s), part reconstruction and part exploration of the power of suggestion. Wohead interweaves his own personal account of discovering Bundy’s confession tapes (which led him down a rabbit hole to the darker side of the internet) with the vocal mimicking of the tapes themselves and a reconstruction of one of Bundy’s murders.
“I keep coming back to the night in November 2012 when I first heard the confession tapes. I found the experience extremely unsettling yet totally compelling. The inspiration for the show was the feeling I experienced; being disgusted and horrified by the things Bundy was saying, but also being intrigued and wanting to know more. It’s a feeling to which I think we can all relate.” Greg Wohead.
Wohead made The Ted Bundy Project as part of the Flying Solo International Commission – a commission by Contact, MC Amsterdam, Fuel and The Albany to develop a new solo show. He is also currently developing Comeback Special, a reenactment of Elvis Presley’s 1968 Comeback TV Special with Shoreditch Town Hall, Bristol Old Vic Ferment and Chisenhale Dance Space and touring a performance called Hurtling, which takes place on a rooftop.
Running time 60 minutes
Writer/Performer Greg Wohead
Set Designer Alice Hoult
Touring Production Manager Tom Richmond
Notes Ages 16+. The performance contains extreme images and graphic, violent content
Tour Dates
6th – 9th May Shoreditch Town Hall, London
12th – 13th May Northern Stage, Newcastle
14th May South Street Arts Centre, Reading
29th – 30th May Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
3rd June Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester
4th June Pulse Festival, Ipswich
5th June Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
22nd June Live Art Bistro, Leeds
23rd – 27th June Bristol Old Vic Studio, Bristol