Cow / Deer
Wind in tall trees. White sky. Rain soon. Hooves on earth. Twigs. Snap. Wait. Listen.
A new experiment in performance from Katie Mitchell, Nina Segal and Melanie Wilson. Using only sound and no words, a quartet of performers and Foley artists evoke the lives of two animals – a cow and a deer.
Cow | Deer is an invitation to enter the more-than-human world.
Co-created by Katie Mitchell (Bluets, Anatomy of a Suicide), Nina Segal (Shooting Hedda Gabler, Big Guns) and Melanie Wilson (Oracle Song, Opera for the Unknown Woman).
This edition was published to coincide with the National Theatre of Greece and Royal Court Theatre co-production in September 2025.
Nina Segal is a playwright and was the recipient of the 2022 Playwright’s Scheme Award and was shortlisted for the 2020 George Devine Award. She won a Rose D'Or award for her short film CAPTURE, made with the Financial Times. She is under commission to the RSC, Donmar Warehouse, Chichester Festival Theatre, Soho Theatre and ETT.
Katie Mitchell is an award-winning theatre and opera director with a career spanning 30 years and over 100 productions, in the UK and internationally. Her work has been staged at the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre and the Royal Court and she has been an Associate Director at all three organisations.
Melanie Wilson is a U.K. based inter-disciplinary performance maker. Her acclaimed work is founded on the dialogue between sound, experimental forms of composition, language, technology and live performance. Melanie’s work creates spaces for audiences to feel and think deeply through listening.