Did you really start with nothing? / So none of this stuff was here when you started?

There was a rope and some stakes to mark out the 5 x 6m space, but aside from that we had nothing - no food, no clothes, no bedding, no objects, no shelter.

From the beginning, the process of developing Deliverance as a concept has always been characterised by reduction, by taking away. Slowly we realised that by ‘nothing’ we had to come as close as possible to nothing at all - not ‘not much,’ or ‘nothing, except for basic clothing and bedding,’ or ‘nothing, except for food.’ This also meant that when we started looking for a space in Adelaide we realised it had to be outdoors, and that it couldn’t be ‘nothing, except for a marquee,’ or ‘nothing, except for flooring.’ What we have ended up with is a space marked out on the grass in Rymill Park.

So there is grass, of course, there is sunlight, and shade from a nearby tree, there is the outdoor venue Gluttony, the organisational infrastructure of the Adelaide Fringe, and we have two friends committed to check on our welfare every afternoon, but at least as far as material affects go, we started with nothing at all.

[Deliverance at the Adelaide Fringe, March 2012]