Heavy Metal (2026)

Heavy Metal is a double bill of two solo performances that excavate our human entanglement with metal and the ways it shapes our bodies, movements and lived realities. Developed and performed by Alan Parker and Gavin Krastin, the works offer two contrasting yet interconnected vantage points: one rooted in an able-bodied experience and the other informed by disability and the presence of metal inside the spine. Together they create a dynamic and nuanced dialogue about weight, lift, support and the fragile negotiations between vulnerability and resilience.

Only Krastin’s performance is offered here:

Krastin approaches metal from a disabled perspective. His surgically implanted rods and screws become both burden and armour. Through a series of vignettes, his performance unfolds through slow, ritualised gestures that explore support, weight and endurance. The stage becomes a shifting metallurgical terrain where body, object and light press against one another.

Heavy Metal was presented at POPArt Performing Arts Centre (Johannesburg, South Africa).

Created and performed by Gavin Krastin

Production management by Langa Mathuthu

Projection consultation by Jim O’Gorman

Writing for Gavin Krastin by Kirsten Harris

Special thanks to the National Arts Council of South Africa, POPArt Performing Arts Centre and the University of Pretoria’s School of the Arts.

Press:

Lessons in Anger: Heavy Metal by Gavin Krastin and Alan Parker | My View | Robyn Sassen