Mother Has Arrived

“By the time the wig comes on, Martha’s presence is irrefutable. We must believe our eyes.”

Witness a lifetime in six hours: two actors, live prosthetics, and a mother’s 84‑year journey.

Spanning 1942 to the present day, Mother Has Arrived is Than Hussein Clark’s homage to his mother. It follows Martha Fuller Clark’s life and political career from her early support of President Obama and Bernie Sanders to her pivotal support in passing gay marriage legislation. This deeply personal odyssey is told through real audio recordings and scripted fiction from within a specially designed vitrine where we witness the total transformation of a young male actor into the artist’s Mother.

From theatre director and visual artist Than Hussein Clark (Centre Pompidou, Art Basel, Frieze Art Fair), Mother Has Arrived presents actors Benedict Wishart, Lewis Blomfield and prosthetics artist Aurora Beadle in an intricately detailed six-and-a-half-hour durational performance.

Mother Has Arrived makes its world premiere at Corvi-Mora Gallery in London for a strictly limited 5 week run from 4 September until 3 October. This unmissable play can be watched in its entirety or in part.

Mother Has Arrived is produced by The Director’s Theatre Writer’s Theatre, the resident company of London Performance Studios.

Each show ticket will be an artwork edition designed by Than Hussein Clark. Mother has arrived is part of two person exhibition alongside German conceptual artist David Lieske (1979) who is exhibiting a new suite of artworks in the gallery during the performance run. 

On stage:

Exeter - Lewis Blomfield

Essex - Benedict Wishart

Prosthetics Makeup Artist - Aurora Beadle

Creative:

Director - Than Hussein Clark

Designer - Than Hussein Clark

Writer - Than Hussein Clark

Assistant Director and Stage Manager- Giaele Mattioli

Original Sound Design - Jamie Neville

Dramaturg - Laura Schuller

Voice Specialist - Joe Windley

Movement Director - Luis Odriozola

Wardrobe Supervisor and Costume Technician- Scout Kauffman

Casting Support - Nadine Rennie

Producer - Andy McCredie

Design and Fabrication Manager - Gethin Jones

For The Director’s Theatre Writer’s Theatre:

Artistic Director - Than Hussein Clark

Executive Director - Andy McCredie

General Manager - Giaele Mattioli

Design and Fabrication Manager - Gethin Jones

Dramaturg - Laura Schuller

About Than Hussein Clark

Than Hussein Clark (b. 1981, New Hampshire, USA) is a visual artist and theatre director based in London and Glasgow. His work explores economies and histories taken from architecture, the

decorative arts, and theatre to explore new trajectories for queer objects and subjectivities in the present. Over the last decade, his work has been seen in major public institutions in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States, including Centre Pompidou, Art Basel, Frieze Art Fair, MIT Lisk Centre, Boston, Swiss Institute NYC, Art Basel Parcours, Schwankhalle Bremen, and Flagey, Brussels.

In addition to his solo practice, Clark was a founding member of Villa Design Group (2012-2016). In 2012, he co-founded Montez Press (London/Hamburg), where he currently acts as editor-at-large. He also sits on the Board of Montez Press Radio (New York). In 2013, Clark then founded and is the Artist Director of The Directors Theatre Writer's Theatre, an international performance ensemble which has created scripted performances in museums, galleries, theatres, and site-specific locations in the UK, Europe, and the US, for the past 12 years. Most recently, in 2019, he founded London Performance Studios in South East London, where he curates the Associate Artist Programme.

He holds an MA in Theatre Directing from Royal Holloway, University of London, an MFA in Time Based media from Hochschule für bildende Künste, Hamburg, a BA in Art Practice from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a BA in History of Art from the University of Edinburgh.