PRESS RELEASE: KASSYS AT SADLERS WELLS

[Jan McNulty]

Kassys Cadavre Exquis

 

UK Premiere

Lilian Baylis Studio, EC1R

Thursday 13 & Friday 14 September 2012

Performances at 8pm

Tickets: £15

Ticket office: 0844 412 4300 / www.sadlerswells.com

 

 

On Thursday 13 and Friday 14 September, Kassys Theatre Company bring the UK Premiere of Cadavre Exquis to the Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadler’s Wells.

A cadavre exquis is a poem written by several poets, without knowing what the others have written. The first writer composes a line of poetry on a piece of paper. They then fold the paper so that only the last word is visible. The second writer continues, guided by that last word. The third writer follows and so on.

For this performance, four theatre companies have come together to create a live cadavre exquis on stage. Each company created a 15 minute section that starts with the last image of the previous part, without knowing what has taken place previously. This innovative international project is being led by Kassys (Holland) alongside Nature Theater of Oklahoma (US), Tim Crouch (UK) and Nicole Beutler (Germany / Holland).

Kassys is a theatre initiative founded in 1999 by Liesbeth Gritter and Mette van der Sijs. Kassys make shows using theatre performance and film alongside each other, balancing the thin line between imagination, fiction and (acted) reality.

New York based company, Nature Theater of Oklahoma creates work that blurs the line between theatre, dance and multimedia. Their past work includes Poetics: a ballet brut, a wordless dance piece; No Dice, which received a critically acclaimed sell-out run at New York’s SoHo Rep Theater; and an original interpretation of Romeo & Juliet.

UK theatre artist, Tim Crouch, has been creating his own work since 2003, after working as an actor. He has worked with a number of organizations – through commissions or co-productions – including the Royal Court Theatre, the Traverse Theatre, the British Council, Brighton Festival, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.

Nicole Beutler is a choreographer, curator and performer. Her work sits between dance, performance and visual arts. She has worked with choreographer Paz Rojo for many years in a variety of roles and has worked on several projects by David Weber-Krebs, Hooman Sharifi and has been a permenant cast member in Jerome Bel’s The Show Must Go On, which was presented at Sadler’s Wells in 2008.

Free post-show talk for ticket holders: Friday 14 September 2012

 

Notes to Editors:

Cast and creatives

Directors: Liesbeth Gritter (Kassys)

Pavol Liška & Kelly Copper (Nature Theater of Oklahoma)

Tim Crouch

Nicole Beutler (nbprojects)

Performers: Esther Snelder (Kassys)

Hannah Ringham (Tim Crouch)

Jarid Rychtarik (Nature Theater of Oklahoma)

Bas van Rijnsoever (Nicole Beutler)

About Cadavre Exquis:

• Cadavre Exquis is made as a relay.

• Four theater companies participated.

• Each company made one part of maximal 15 minutes.

• As a starting point each company only saw the last 60 seconds of the previous part.

• Each company brought in one performer.

• With these four performers each company worked 2 weeks.

• Everything was permitted: the set could be changed or even destroyed, extras could be added, a dance performance could suddenly become a film or the other way around and the story could go either way. As long as there was a reaction (or not) on the last minute of the previous part.

• During the rehearsal period the performers had a ‘pledge of secrecy’ about the previous parts.

• Cadavre Exquis has 5 parts; shown in the order they are made.

Kassys (NL), Nature Theater of Oklahoma (US), Tim Crouch (UK), Nicole Beutler (DE/NL), Kassys (NL)