Thick and Tight: Romancing The Apocalypse

Award-winning duo Thick & Tight present a programme of works combining dance, mime, queer culture and outsider art.

Apparitions of infamous and remarkable characters take shape throughout the evening; Derek Jarman, Marcel Proust, Winston Churchill, Andy Warhol, Queen Elizabeth I and a two-headed Barbara Cartland. Thick & Tight unveil these lives in new, explosive and challenging ways; an entertaining and raucous evening with an underlying desire to reveal our shared humanity.

Thick & Tight’s Daniel Hay-Gordon and Eleanor Perry are joined by artist/designer Tim Spooner, students from Edge Hill University and three fabulous soloists; Vidya Patel (BBC Young Dancer South Asian Finalist), Harry Alexander (Michael Clark Company) and Gary Clarke (Gary Clarke Company)

This evening consists of 4 short works and 1 longer work.

The line-up:

Pink Narcissus

Barbara Cartland (1901-2000)

“I’ll keep going till my face falls off”

Stubborn vision in pink and writer of 723 romantic novels, Barbara charms us with her wholesome views.

Barbara Cartland Daniel Hay-Gordon & Eleanor Perry, with students from Edge Hill University: Maisie Aveston, Melissa Bewsher, Tia Burton, Kaitlin Cameron, Emily Fairhurst, Megan Griffin, Megan Kilmurray, Maria Mortimer, Scarlett Primrose, Jade Sparke, Janelle Stockwell, Ciaran Turley

Design Tim Spooner and Dawn Summerlin

Music Barbara Cartland with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Empire

Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

“Are we to saddle ourselves with colour problems in the UK?”

Icon of wartime Britain, Churchill led campaigns in the British Empire which caused immense suffering in India, Wales, Ireland and beyond. We consider how past and present immigration and foreign policies continue to affect those home and abroad in devastating ways.

Winston Churchill Vidya Patel

Music The Prodigy, Brahma Sri Tiruchendur Appadurai Aiyengar

Soup

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)

“I am a deeply superficial person”

As Warhol grows from a sickly child into a Pop Art superstar, Studio 54 regular and celebrity phenomenon, his mother continues to serve him soup.

Andy Warhol Harry Alexander

Music Grace Jones, Lou Reed, Les Rita Mitsouko

Wig Made by Harry Alexander, styled by Darren Evans

Pomp

Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)

“Be gone now, or I will make you shorter by the head!”

Thrones. Fanfare. Smallpox. Armada. Executions. Wigs. Spies. Tower of London. Ermine. Pageants. Rebellion. Alchemy. Our Liz.

Queen Elizabeth I Gary Clarke

Music Francesco Filidei, Henry VIII

– Interval –

Gay Gardens

Derek Jarman (1942-1994) & Marcel Proust (1871-1922)

British film maverick Derek Jarman meets French literary icon Marcel Proust, author of the 7 volume novel In Search of Lost Time. Through the mass of writings, films, journals, paintings and gardens they left us with, we seek to reveal the enigmatic genius of these two artists and their queer lives, unveiled within the scene of our modern nature, a nature now filled with loss, longing and extinction.

Derek Jarman Daniel Hay-Gordon

Marcel Proust Eleanor Perry

Celeste/HB Tim Spooner

Music Reynaldo Hahn, Brian Eno, Gustav Mahler, Oskar Sala, Daniel Teruggi, The Four Freshmen, Brian Easdale, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Claude Debussy, Francesco Filidei, Kaija Saariaho, Georg Friedrich Haas

Film Daniel Hay-Gordon & Eleanor Perry, with Thatcher image by Peter Thompson

Faun costume Pam Tait

Costume & set design Tim Spooner

Wigs & make-up Darren Evans

Lighting design Lucy Hansom

Production stage manager Carly Hook

Assistant stage manager Henri T

Supported by Arts Council England, London International Mime Festival, The Place through Choreodrome, and Edge Hill University & MDI for LEAP 2019

With thanks to London International Mime Festival, Sadler’s Wells, The Place, Trinity Laban, Merseyside Dance Initiative, students and staff at Edge Hill University, Sheila Hay, Julie Cunningham, Kath Duggan, Carl Harrison, Patience Tomlinson, Henri T Art, Ryan Ormonde, Sarah Archdeacon, Bethan Kendrick, Veneshia Bailey, Alsev Karoz, Lucy Sharratt, Nico Vendange, Duckie, Posh Club, Darren Evans, Jan Winter and Patricia Langa.

Photo by Darren Evans