“Why Rush?” Take Two at Temple.Works.Leeds, September 12.
Three short showcases of experimental and frequently outrageous physical theatre and sound performance: Julius Ebreo’s collaborative “BARE”, Anna Frisch’s Irreverent Sideshows’ “Reservoir Ducks” and “Duck and Cover”, and iVeL Goverda’s “Exile and “Urban Geisha”.
What brings together award-winning South-east Asian dancers and choreographers, a Hong Kong drag artist, a London opera singer and two young Leeds broadcasters?
“BARE” is the brainchild of Leeds-based Julius Ebreo. A site-specific multi-media piece with two live dancers, one opera singer and three other performers projected in from abroad, it takes the audience from the night time atmosphere of Temple.Works.Leeds’ Joiners Bar to the filmed vast skylit Main Space, examining our most mundane activities in the morning and at night, when guards are down… when we are sure nobody’s watching, allowing ourselves to be our most natural.
Julius has been touring internationally for years in theatre and film, and is a noted choreographer, teaching in three schools of dance and running his own agency BE Artisan_. He has assembled an international cast of collaborators from dance, performance, opera, drag-artistry, film and broadcast. Julius, dancer Sam Vaherlehto (Phoenix Dance and “Finland’s most popular dancer”), and opera singer Karlene Moreno-Hayworth (Opera de Bauge) will perform live on September 12 in TWL’s Joiners Bar, with projected background sequences.
Appearing virtually from Sydney and Hong Kong: drag artist RYE Bautista/ La Chiquitta’s newest media gig is as host for RTHK3’s only English LGBT radio show, The Gaybourhood. Choreographer Novy Bereber’s work was recently chosen as the Grande Finale for Sydney’s Mardi Gras. Dancer and choreographer Jethro Pioquinto currently works for Disney HK. The two young filmmakers/broadcasters are Leeds-based Jay Keeley and Thierry Ngutegure, who run their own online showcase dance broadcasting company.
“Music makes me tick… theatre is what I do”
Anna Frisch’s Irreverent Sideshows brings two short shows to Temple.Works.Leeds on September 12: “Reservoir Ducks”, which ruffles the feathers of Tarantino’s chauvinistic tipping scene (from his film Reservoir Dogs); and ”Duck and Cover”, inspired by the 1951 American Civil Defence movie of the same title.. Anna has been involved with the Temple.Works.Leeds project since 2008, returning in 2012 with her unforgettable pole-dancing Mouse during TWL’s first festival of experimental performance “Why Rush?” in 2012.
“I started working on theatre productions in the 80’s, first in Berlin then in New York. Moved to London in 1990 and what followed was an entire decade without any theatre work. Since 2001 I have more or less continuously made work, most consistently during the Shunt Lounge between 2006 and 2010, when Shunt commissioned me regularly to produce work. After the Shunt Lounge shut its doors for good, I guess it was a mixture of circumstance and ‘what makes me tick’ that led to the first of these kind of performances, which was ’My polar Disorder’, a pole dancing Mickey Mouse, with two live guitarists. Tho I haven’t worked with live music since (only because it does complicate things), the sound design is still half the show. Irreverent Sideshows is an attempt to bring some of the energy that emanates from a rock gig onto the theatre stage. I guess that is what I meant when I said ‘what makes me tick’ – music makes me tick. Theatre is what I do.
From grave-robbing to being an Urban Geisha
Young Ukrainian-born Russian, Newcastle-based iveL Goverda also performed at “Why Rush?” with her cast, a location-based play for TWL “Matryoshka” – a chilling, infamous and true grave robber tale. She comes in two guises: a single one-off sound piece…and also as unforgettable DJ Urban Geisha. Like Anna, she has a Shunt background.
Other work includes a “Katharsis” with Katerina Brunclikova, using extreme sonic frequencies, and a radio drama for three voices by Peter Rose performed and edited by IveL, “The Gift”, that has been described as a “highly original piece of absurdity, reminiscent of Lewis Carroll, with a dash of Beckett”.
IveL returns to Temple.Works.Leeds with “Exile”: a ritualistic audio-visual performance (currently under wraps) in the Open Loading Bay, and as Urban Geisha, the enthralling DJ.
Details: September 12, 7 pm to midnight. Temple.Work.Leeds, Marshall Street, Holbeck, Leeds LS11 9YJ., www.templeworksleeds.com. Over 18’s only. £5.00 tickets at door. Drink and food. Call 07710418219 for enquiries.
Attributions: Image 1 “Reservoir Ducks” and Image 5 “Duck and Cover” by Pascal Ancel Bartholdi. Images 2 and 4 by BARE. Images 6 and 7 by Si Voodoo.