"I knew that my forte was to make theater, so I placed a piece of theater inside a gallery," Crouch said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "So England' is a story told by two performers in a gallery space, and it's the idea of placing the art of theater inside the container of a gallery that prompted the story narrative of a heart transplant."
Crouch said that the space in which he performs is an inspiration.
"Every gallery, of course, has a different architecture and, also, every gallery has a different culture in a way, so we address that," Crouch said. "We always put in our play the louder themes of the works on the wall to influence and affect the play as it is performed."
Crouch performs in the play with Hannah Ringham, both actors in the role of the same heart transplant survivor. They take turns speaking, but share a narrative voice.
"There is a character that is transplanted back and forth between me and her, so it's never known if the character is male or female because we share it," Crouch said. "We share the lines and speak as one, so you'll never be able to decide what gender that character is. So again, it's that idea of transplanting, and I'm excited about that."
The audience moved throughout the performance, following the actors through the Hood Museum. Initially waiting in the Lathrop gallery, the 40-person audience, which was largely of professors and Hanover residents, was told to mingle among the modern paintings and sculptures. They waited with confusion and some overt discomfort for the actors to begin the show.
Crouch and Ringham appeared silently and began their dialogue in the middle of the gallery as the audience circled around them.
As the story unfolds, the character learns that he (or she) will die if he (or she) cannot receive a new heart.
The audience members were then ushered downstairs to the Kim gallery, where Ringham and Crouch acted out an emotionally charged scene in which the character, who has now received a new heart, travels to a foreign country to thank the widow of his (or her) donor.
Communicating via a translator, who was played by both actors at different instances, the character begins to shout after learning that the widow is not overjoyed by the gift of an expensive painting.
The implication is that the values of human life and art are not objectively quantifiable.
"I want the audience to think, and I want them feel," Crouch said in the interview. "The audience is absolutely implicated into the ethical ideas of the play, so I want them to feel their way through those."
