Artist Statement
Sapphic pain poems to fall into bed with.
Pillow Talk was written, rehearsed, and performed in bed on Wurundjeri and Kaurna land.
Pillow Talk invites the audience into bed with creator and performer Jamila Main for a series of poems charting the flare up of pain both emotional and physical. The work is vulnerable, candid, and uninhibited in an intimate one-on-one format between the pre-recorded performer and the live audience member.
Under the covers, Jamila shares the joys and agonies of sapphic yearning bound within a disabled, chronically ill, queer body in chronic pain. Pillow Talk takes place in the online space so often inhabited by disabled, queer people as they love, find solidarity, and connect. This precious haven is shared with the present audience member through the familiar gaze of the video call, revealing a raw, rarely seen landscape of disabled intimacy.
In the world of Pillow Talk, the bed is the island from which we live, make art, and love. Bed is a site, the stage, the office. You are invited into bed for some pillow talk.
Biography
Jamila Main is an actor and playwright who makes candid, tender work infused with the survivalist humour of living in a queer, disabled, chronically ill body in chronic pain. Jamila has been writing and performing for the stage, screen, and livestream since 2016, and has worked with Sydney Theatre Company, Adelaide Festival, Malthouse Theatre Company, Darlinghurst Theatre Company, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Vitalstatistix, Midsumma Festival, ActNow Theatre, First Draft Gallery, Embrace Festival, Alter State, Feast Festival, and Carclew.
Notable roles include Phoebe in the development of Curiosity (dir. Shari Sebbens, Sydney Theatre Company, 2021); Milla in Blutterfly Kicks (dir. Mary Angley, Rumpus 2021); and Sita in Shadow (Back to Back Productions, 2020). Jamila created and performed sell out seasons of Benched (4 stars Time Out Sydney) at FELTspace, Carclew for SALA Festival, Headspace Berri, Midsumma Festival, and Darlinghurst Theatre Company. Jamila played Karin in the development of Set Piece by Nat Randall and Anna Breckon (Vitalstatistix, 2019). Pillow Talk, an online video work originally commissioned for exhibition at First Draft Gallery, was also presented in the 2022 Meeting Place program in Alter State Festival. Jamila is continuing to explore different platforms of presenting Pillow Talk with combined live and prerecorded performance.
Jamila was a writer for Peps Talks (Hey Lemonade) alongside nationally acclaimed writers such as Benjamin Law and Virginia Gay. During Lockdown Jamila was a commissioned writer for the Ruby award-winning Decameron 2.0 (STCSA and ActNow Theatre). Jamila’s play Butterfly Kicks was a finalist in the Queer Playwriting Awards (Midsumma Festival, 2020) and winner of the Queer Short Story Award (Feast Festival, Writers SA, 2018); winning again in 2019 for Queer Utopia is on the Roof of a Westfield. STCSA has awarded Jamila’s plays Immaculate and How to Eat Rabbit, with Griffin Theatre Company also awarding How to Eat Rabbit.