The Crocodile of Sadness is an imaginative, visually striking performance about grief, care and the pressure of carrying things alone.
The show blends storytelling, digital projection and unexpected moments of disruption to create an intimate and shifting live experience. Adapted from an original graphic novel by John Powell Jones and presented at Lowry for the first time, the performance moves between folklore, speculative storytelling and performance lecture as the narrative gradually begins to unravel.
Set in the fictional world of Durt, the story follows Drock, a crocodile entrusted with carrying the sadness of the Skyn Forest in delicate, egg-like vessels. As the forest’s inhabitants grow increasingly dependent on this system, the emotional cost of placing so much responsibility on a single figure slowly comes into focus.
The journey is guided by The Maddock, a ceremonial storyteller, and The Rollop, a scholarly interpreter of myth. Along the way, the narrative is periodically interrupted by Skrud, a mysterious and hostile transmitting presence that disrupts the story and reshapes how it is understood.
Blending the visual language of sci-fi, graphic novels and folklore, The Crocodile of Sadness invites audiences into a world of ambiguity and atmosphere, gently asking how grief is shared, who is expected to hold it, and what happens when collective care begins to fracture.
Names and biographies of key cast members:
John Powell-Jones is a UK-based artist whose work spans sculpture, animation, print and installation. Drawing on horror, folklore and the visual language of videogames, he creates speculative worlds populated by mutated beings and unstable technologies. His practice examines how power, ideology and myth shape perceptions of the body, the other and the future.
John has exhibited widely across the UK and Europe, presenting projects that merge countercultural aesthetics with experimental storytelling, including Tate Liverpool, Full of Noises (Barrow-in-Furness), Seventeen Gallery (London), Supernormal Festival (Oxfordshire), IMT Gallery (London), and Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester).
Aliyah Hussain’s practice approaches themes found within feminist science fiction literature, in particular the possibilities of co-sharing space in domestic or social settings. She works with abstract forms and uses these to construct narratives in order to explore different modes of communication and miscommunication. With a background in performance and an interest in process and material, her work moves across sound, ceramic sculpture, drawing and collage.
John Newton uses traditional making and construction methods to explore folklore and sustainability. This takes the form of home brewed wine using foraged local ingredients, served in home made ceramic structures. He also works as a technical demonstrator in book making and graphic design at the University of Salford.
Alex Wilson is a multi-disciplinary artist and performer forging multiple collaborations as musical projects often around themes of loss, grief and anger. He has toured extensively across the UK, Europe and America.
