2401 Objects is a performance based on the life of Henry Molaison, a patient who in the early 50s emerged from experimental brain surgery without any recollection of the last two years of his life or the ability to form new memories. From the opening moments of the performance the audience is placed within a still […]
Writings
Zecora Ura / Persis Jade Maravala: Hotel Medea
August 7th, 2011 by Dorothy Max PriorWhat is your heart’s desire? What do you dream of doing? What is the strangest thing you’ve ever done? Is your heart a stone or a feather? From the very start, Hotel Medea (a collaboration between Brazilian company Zecora Ura and UK artist Jade Persis Maravala) asks its audience to do more than watch and […]
Traverse Theatre Company / Mark Ravenhill / Conor Mitchell: Ten Plagues
August 7th, 2011 by Dorothy Max PriorIn London the plague came in 1665: ‘one hundred thousand dead but I alive’. This is not the opening line from Ten Plagues but the ending, the epilogue, a joyful ‘I will survive’ statement from our protagonist, who has worked his way though fear, disgust, panic, loneliness, isolation, superiority, and humility to reach this point of liberation. […]
Roland Schimmelpfennig: The Golden Dragon
August 7th, 2011 by Dorothy Max Prior‘Take care not to tread on the props,’ says the usher as we enter the space – an empty space save for a row of tawdry everyday objects and accessories placed at the front-row audience members’ feet. There’s a few plastic toys, a pair of spectacles, a walking stick, a wok. Some green Lycra leggings, […]
Gandini Juggling: Smashed! / Blotched
August 6th, 2011 by Gemma BergomiBringing circus, theatre and dance together the Gandinis, a juggling troupe led by Kati Yla-Hokkala and Sean Gandini, made their way to the National Theatre’s Watch This Space over the weekend. Given the fact that their two headline shows, Smashed! and Blotched, were both commissioned by Watch This Space – Smashed! for last year’s festival,Blotched for this year’s – it was […]