A large digital clock hangs overhead. This is a countdown duet for two 17 year-old boys tasked to report back on life in just 4 minutes.

Selected for Greenwich & Docklands International Festival 2023, the duet punches a great big hole through what youth dance looks and feels like. It requires moment-to-moment engagement with those watching and the courage to be seen. All against a backdrop of time running out.

They say the performer experience is
“tricky, physically risky, brilliant but we were shaking”

We say
“defies categorisation - like a radio that refuses to stay tuned to one station”

A Stacked Wonky Academy production


Devised & performed by
Stuart Pelling and Ernie Shorten

Artistic Direction Sarah Shorten

Sound Sebastian Tesouro

Design Angela Newbold

Touring Technician Tony Macriner

Video Dan Farberoff


  • “Among the most intense, magnetic and uncompromising 4 minutes of performance I've ever seen. Demands to be witnessed”

    Audience

  • “Young, gritty and ferocious”

    Audience

  • “They roll, leap, bounce, swagger, rest, lift, point, contort, slide, hide, confront, clamber, flip, despair, stare you out. And a part of you that’s lost somewhere wakes up”

    Audience

Tour Dates 2024

Out There Festival,
Great Yarmouth
2 pm, 4.45 pm & 7.30 pm

31 May

Out There Festival,
Great Yarmouth
2 pm, 4.45 pm & 7.30 pm

1 June

6 July

King’s Square Dance, Gloucester
1.50 pm, 2.45 pm & 3.45 pm


Suitable for all ages

Running time
15 minutes, allowing for arrival and departure


“Outstanding performance @ GDIF by far was Stacked Wonky. Fire. Banger. 10/10. Blew me away. 2 teenagers full of danger, daring, talent & energy”


EJ Benning
Co-Artistic Director, Strike A Light

Photos courtesy of Marcus Way and Andy Beeson, @ redManhattan and Aisling Magill