About

Martha Pailing is a northern born spoken word and performance artist.

Her performances (usually) blend personal material with fictional characters to create absurd and tender narratives. MP’s work considers what it is to remain empathetic and soft in a brutal, emotionally temperamental world.

MP talks about the tiny things that make up an hour, a week, our entire lives. It is the small and seemingly insignificant moments that often determine the improbably huge events. From this perspective, her work interrogates everyday actions, points fingers at supposed cultural norms and brushes shoulders with the political. MP uses bodies and spaces that are sharp, refined and decisive in their design / her content is often unruly, messy and generous.

MP is a former artist in residence at the Roundhouse (London) and The Old Electric (Blackpool). Her past work includes commissions for The Royal Court, Essex Book Festival, METAL, hAb and Penned In The Margins. She has performed across the UK including the Roundhouse, Soho Theatre, The Royal Court, the Barbican Centre, LADA, People’s Palace, Curve Theatre, Camden People’s Theatre, The Grand Theatre, Burnley Mechanics & Contact Theatre. She has also performed in some dingy pubs. They were no less extraordinary.

MP studied Drama at Queen Mary University of London.