Biography

E. Mallin Parry is a designer of sets and costumes for theatre, opera and live art, and a cross-disciplinary performance-maker with a background in devised work.

A previous winner of the Jocelyn Herbert Award and a Linbury Finalist, they trained at Wimbledon and Motley, and are currently pursuing a PhD in Performance & Queer Studies at the University of Brighton. Recent and forthcoming work includes Hamlet and As You Like It, Shakespeare’s Globe; Translyria, Sogn og Fjordane Teater, Norway; Rotterdam, Arts Theatre & Trafalgar Studios, West End, 59E59 Theaters, NY, national tour; Winner of Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Associate Theatre; Grimm Tales, Unicorn Theatre; The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-Under-Lyme; Posh, Nottingham & Salisbury Playhouses; Magna Carta, Salisbury Playhouse, and Neige, Grand Theatre de Ville, Luxembourg. Mallin is an associate artist at Shakespeare’s Globe, maintains a personal practice in live and installation art, and is a cult favourite on London’s queer cabaret circuit as drag king Mal Content.

Translyria is a collaborative devised project commissioned by Sogn og Fjordane Teater, Norway, using fragments of Shakespeare texts translated into modern Norwegian to explore embodiments of gender, trans* identity, power and desire.

R&D workshops and rehearsals involved the acting ensemble and creative team exploring the sculptural qualities of costume, the prosthetic gender construction of Early Modern clothing and identity, and the haptic, kinesthetic knowledge available from costume. Observational exercises such as drawing were included alongside movement work.

Putting stories and bodies on a public stage, and choosing how to frame, contextualise, dress and present those bodies, those stories – this is inescapably political, and I think as designers we need to be constantly aware of that responsibility – mindful, listening, communicating with our collaborators and educating ourselves.