Press Release: Provoking conversations on women's visibility: Eva Recacha's Aftermath

[Jan McNulty]

Wednesday 4 March 2020

Eva Recacha
Aftermath
Lilian Baylis Studio, EC1R 4TN
Thursday 28 & Friday 29 May 2020
Performances: 8pm
Tickets: £17
Ticket Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com

 

“The pair heat up to a giddy, edge-of-madness energy reminiscent of early French and Saunders." - The Guardian

Eva Recacha returns to the Lilian Baylis Studio with the revival of Aftermath, on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 May 2020.

An absurd and humorous ode to pointlessness, Aftermath is a duet set in limbo, where two women suffer from lack of acknowledgement and eternal boredom. 

 

First commissioned and premiered in 2018, as part of Sadler’s Wells’ 20th anniversary celebrations, Aftermath emerged from Recacha’s own experience of motherhood and the social isolation that can come with it. 

Recacha comments:

 

“I am thrilled to be bringing Aftermath back to the Lilian Baylis Studio this year. For this occasion, I will be performing myself alongside Charlotte McLean, who was on the original cast and part of the creation process. I am most excited about crossing the line from looking at my work from the outside to being inside it, giving a new life to the character that [previous performer] Eleanor Sikorski built so intelligently.”

 

“The work is not about motherhood, but it was made in response to questions about gender identity and consequent social expectations, springing from my experience of becoming a mother. There is a different taste and weight to my character on stage, and the relationship with McLean’s character is no longer one of sisterhood, as with Sikorski, but one that has a fracture in it; a bridge that has not been crossed, an experience that has not been shared between them.

 

“Aftermath has provoked many conversations about women’s visibility, and I am excited to now literally face the audience myself on-stage.”

 

Post-show talk: Thursday 28 May 

About Sadler’s Wells 

Sadler’s Wells is a world-leading creative organisation dedicated to dance in all its forms. With a rich theatrical heritage of over three centuries, it offers a year-round programme of performances and learning activities. Our mission is to make and share dance that inspires us all. Our vision is to create, through dance, a depth of connection beyond borders, cultures and languages, so we see ourselves in each other. 

Audiences of over half a million come to Sadler’s Wells’ three London theatres each year, with many more enjoying our touring productions at venues across the UK and around the world and accessing our content through digital channels. Sadler's Wells commissions, produces and presents more dance than any other theatre in the world, embracing the popular and the unknown. Since 2005, we have helped to bring over 170 new dance works to the stage, many of them involving our 16 Associate Artists, three Resident Companies and four Associate Companies – the most exciting talents working in dance today. 

 

Sadler’s Wells nurtures the next generation of talent through a range of artist development initiatives and reaches over 30,000 annually through our learning and engagement programmes.

 

Located in Islington, north London, Sadler’s Wells’ current building is the sixth to have stood on site since entrepreneur Richard Sadler first established the theatre in 1683. The venue has played an illustrious role in the history of theatre ever since, with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera having all started at Sadler's Wells.

 

Sadler’s Wells is to open an additional mid-scale venue in east London in 2022. The new space will be at the heart of the East Bank project, a new cultural and education district in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, which will also include BBC, UAL’s London College of Fashion, UCL and the V&A in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. As well as a 550-seat auditorium, our new venue will include a choreographic centre and a hip hop theatre academy, the first of their kind in the world to be run by a theatre.

www.sadlerswells.com
 

About Eva Recacha

Eva Recacha is a choreographer who lives and works in London. She is a graduate of Sadler’s Wells’ Summer University (2015-2018), and has been an Associate Artist at The Place. She began her choreographic career in the UK in 2010, with a break between 2015 and 2017 when she became a mother.

 

She has been commissioned to make work for the stage by Sadler’s Wells, The Place, Festival Santa Susana (Spain), EDge, and LCDS, as well as site-specific work for DanceXchange, Bloomberg SPACE, Opera Estate Festival Veneto, (Italy) and Fundació LaCaixa and Festival Trayectos (Spain).

 

Easy Rider premiered in 2014 at The Place’s Spring Loaded and was performed at Rui Horta’s Black Box in Portugal. The Wishing Well, a Place Prize Commission, was performed in 2012 at The Place, Lilian Baylis Studio and Greenwich Dance, London; The Axis Centre, Manchester; Arc for Dance Festival and Municipal Theatre of Kalamaria, Greece.

 

Eva Recacha was a Place Prize Finalist in 2013 for The Wishing Well, which won the public prize on three occasions, and in 2011 for Begin to Begin: A Piece about Dead Ends. She has been a recipient of the Marion North Mentoring Award (2014) and was subsequently mentored by Portuguese choreographer Rui Horta.

 

Recacha’s work has appeared in Time Out’s Best of the Year and has been presented across the UK and at various festivals in Europe.