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 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 and two fabulous soloists; Harry Alexander (Michael Clark Company) and Vidya Patel (BBC Young Dancer South Asian Finalist).

This evening consists of 3 short works and 1 longer work.

The line-up:

Pink Narcissus (7mins)

Barbara Cartland (1901-2000), the prolific romantic novelist and stubborn vision in pink, charms us with her wholesome views.

Performed by: Daniel Hay-Gordon & Eleanor Perry

Designed by: Tim Spooner

Music by: Barbara Cartland with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Originally created for 12 students at Edge Hill University and performed at LEAP festival 2019

Andy Warhol (working title) (10 mins)

Performed by: Harry Alexander

Designed by: Tim Spooner

Music by: Les Rita Mitsouko, Grace Jones, Lou Reed

Empire Strikes Back (7 mins)

Winston Churchill (1874-1965), the English wartime hero, led campaigns within 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.

Performed by: Vidya Patel

Designed by: Tim Spooner

Music by: The Prodigy, Brian Easdale, Karaharapriya-Athi, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

Thanks to: Sarah Archdeacon, Bethan Kendrick, Veneshia Bailey & Alsev Karoz

Gay Gardens (40 mins)

British film maverick Derek Jarman (1942-1994) meets French literary icon Marcel Proust (1871- 1922), 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.

Performed by: Daniel Hay-Gordon, Eleanor Perry & Tim Spooner

Designed by: Tim Spooner (with faun costume by Pam Tait)

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

Film by: Daniel Hay-Gordon & Eleanor Perry, with Thatcher image by Hannah Hoch

Thanks to: London International Mime Festival, The Place, Laban, Sheila Hay, Julie Cunningham & Carl Harrison

Photo by Darren Evans.

Co-commissioned by London International Mime Festival and Edge Hill University & MDI as part of LEAP 2019. Supported by Arts Council England, Sadler’s Wells, The Place and Laban.