Detailed Content and
Sensory Guide
This guide contains spoilers.
If you would prefer a more general overview of the themes and sensory elements of the show, you can navigate back here.
Why do we have this guide?
By its very nature, sideshow has an inherent element of risk - dangerous stunts are what makes witnessing a sideshow act such a unique and exhilarating experience! The Resume Gap presents sideshow acts as a format to explore themes of empowerment, exploitation, dehumanisation, and the complexities of surviving within the neoliberal hellscape of late-stage capitalism.
By the nature of the themes engaged, and of the very genre of sideshow itself, we recognise that The Resume Gap contains content that audience members may find confronting, sensorially intense, or triggering. Our aim is for our audiences to feel as well-prepared as possible if they have concerns about what to expect from the show, both in terms of thematic and sensory content.
How do I use it?
The guide below allows you to know when specific thematic and sensory elements are present, broken down scene by scene. If you are ok with spoilers and would prefer to be able to avoid exposure to certain content, or be specifically prepared for when it will arise, this may be the best option. If you would prefer a more general guide, you can navigate back to a thematic overview here.
1 - Opening
Themes: Elle Diablo sits at a table applying for jobs.
Danger/stunts: N/A
Content Description
Elle Diablo sends multiple emails applying for jobs. She is desperate, so this includes climate criminal companies like BP. Eventually she is successful and is granted a job interview
Sensory notes
Typing sounds
2 - Job Interview
Themes: presenting the job-friendly version of yourself
Danger/stunts: N/A
Content Description
Elle Diablo tries to get a job.
Sensory notes
Talking
3 - Gap in Your Resume
Themes: drugs, eating disorder mention, assault mention, weapons mention
Danger/stunts: knife tricks and balance
Content Description
Elle Diablo tells the story of what was happening during the gap in her resume and how she was introduced to stripping.
Sensory notes
Music: Aphex Twin, sad harmonica, phone ringing
Handling of plastic bags, large knife, mock drugs
4 - “Her”
Themes: stripping, sexy dancing, desire
Danger/stunts: pole dance, audience interaction (marked seats)
Content Description
Elle Diablo talks about becoming a stripper and enacts her first experience at the strip club.
Sensory notes
Music: Low - Flo Rida
5 - Job interview continues
Themes: being caught in a lie, relief
Danger/stunts: N/A
Content Description
The interviewer discovers Elle was a stripper but it goes better than expected. Elle Talks about the lessons she learned as a stripper.
Sensory notes
N/A
6 - Whips
Themes: strength, manipulation, empowerment
Danger/stunts: Whip cracks
Content Description
Elle Diablo cracks whips around herself and at targets that she holds. She speaks about learning to manipulate men, and becoming more resistant to manipulation herself.
Sensory notes
Loud whip cracks
Music: CAKE
7 - Born Again Bianca
Themes: injury, religion, genitals
Danger/stunts: N/A
Content Description
Elle tells the story of a stripper who injured her crotch during a fire act, and the way she was able to take advantage of her injury.
Sensory notes
Choral music, bright torch
8 - Boom and Bust
Themes: victory, financial hardship, assault, whorephobia, implied incest mention
Danger/stunts: N/A
Content Description
Elle discusses stripping through the global financial crisis. She also talks about the variety of men (good, bad, and terrible) that come through strip clubs.
Sensory notes
Footage of a shark
9 - Elle Diablo’s Guide to Stripper Burn out
Themes: burnout, drug and alcohol mention
Danger/stunts: N/A
Content Description
Elle Diablo guides us through how to identify stripper burn out.
Sensory notes
One loud “ugh” of disgust at the very end
10 - Swamp Thing 2.0
Themes: unsettling, haunting, nudity, violence against sex workers
Danger/stunts: pole dance
Content Description
Elle Diablo performs as the Swamp Thing - the spirit of murdered sex workers. She rises from the swamp to dance, then returns back from where she came.
Sensory notes
Loud unsettling audio including static, overlapping sounds,Intense visual projections including glitching and static
Flashing light but no strobe
Unsettling movements
Partial nudity
12 - Meditation
Themes: relaxation, abandonment, murder, the evils of bureaucracy
Danger/stunts: N/A
Content Description
The corporate AI Chloe runs a guided meditation. It starts out relatively normal but gradually turns sinister.
Sensory notes
Music building in intensity
13 - Chloe’s Crash-out
Themes: coercion, takeover, blackmail, handing ourselves over to technology, evil AI
Danger/stunts: N/A
Content Description
Elle Diablo is instructed to participate in some invasive biometric data harvesting. When she pushes back, Chloe blackmails her to continue, then when she is safely in control, reveals her true plan.
Sensory notes
Physically struggling against a machine
14 - Takeover
Themes: struggle, submission
Danger/stunts: Sword swallow (with a light saber)
Content Description
Chloe puppets Elle’s body and is able to seize control.
Sensory notes
Glitching audio, multiple voices speaking at once, whispering
Music: Bug
1 5 - Credits
Themes: unsettling, complicity
Danger/stunts: N/A
Content Description
Elle Diablo is trapped within the machine and Chloe has taken control over her body. She thanks you for your participation.
Sensory notes
Music: gentle piano