Josh InVain is a gentle soul. We enter their domain of pink-green light, candles across the floor. Seats arranged in invitation. Rainbow nails, rainbow minds.
InVain is a quietly compelling host who has an innate sense of how to hold a space. Armed only with dice stolen from a hen do and the power of the mind, an hour goes by in what seems like a moment.
It becomes clear that we’re here to create a community, a collaborative. ‘A cult,’ InVain says. Our evening is comprised of a series of offerings that we cultivate together. How should our group move? Should we have a slogan or poem? Can we share tales of feeling misunderstood, together?
The hour is peppered with occasional anecdotes from InVain’s life. It shouldn’t work, with so much of our time together being about the group energy, but it somehow does. We leave feeling like we’ve caught sight of someone we’d like to know. A would-be friend. Is this the real InVain, or an apparition? Who can say? Best not look too closely, in case they disappear.
This performance is at a work-in-progress stage. There’s a sense that, save for this review, what we create together will never be seen or spoken of again. Maybe that’s okay?
Affirmation is an abstract, intimate and gently surreal experience – show isn’t quite an adequate word, here – that will leave a mark on your mind and your spirit.
Reviewed on 16 November 2025.
