Thursday 13 December 2012

Anatomiser


My enthusiasm for Live Art and Performances Beyond Definition does not stop just because it is Christmas. Before I decide to celebrate the end of the world with Red Note, I'll be taking one last glance at Scotland's alternative theatre thanks to Anatomy, who are now offering their third edition.
Anatomy has based itself around similar ideas to the old National Review of Live Art: the vagueness of the genre allows anything to be included. There are films as well as performances, a spot of musical entertainment. There's a few familiar voices from the poetry scene and nearly half of the performers have been on my radio show at some point.
Here's the line-up, with added Vile commentary. 
Walk (Oli Benton)
Benton splits his time between making short, playful films and working on fashion and portrait photography. This one features a familiar journey from club to bar, with added cross country foot pain.

I’ll Be Home for Christmas: A Suicide Note (Victoria Bianchi)
Last seen at Arches Live promising to make a better go of it, Bianchi is worried about the end of the world and has decided to go first. Given that she recently admitted that she can't stick at anything, there's no need to worry that she'll be achieving her aim, but she might leave behind something that veers towards stand-up comedy.

The Snow Queen (Eddy Dreadnought)
Fresh from sharing a writing gig with other red headed artists, Dreadnought will sing a number from his pantomime, The Snow Queen. Expect something like the end of The Pavilion Pantomime, with more death and less Jim Davidson.

The Blood that Binds (Laura Edwards and Calum MacAskill, with Janine Fern)
Loop Theatre's Edwards and Fern team up with Radio Show regular, and sometime Faustus, MacAskill for a three way look at writhing and departure, reconnection and home. Insert gag about my usual Saturday night here.
Both Edwards and Fearn specialise in outreach through physical theatre, while MacAskill likes wearing big masks and horns. 



Scheduling Spontaneity (Rebecca Green)
Stole this from her website: rather like the sound of it. "She maintains a diverse practice, which is intimate and universal... a mixture of improvised surreal intentions, extraterrestrial dreaming pathos, willfully alluring insistent humour and a collision of empathic bewilderment amid a searing focus illuminating the natures of individual human interactions and relationships.  Scheduling Spontaneity seeks to establish connectivity through tokens of love, instinct and sentiment."


Walk the Line The Deadwood Stage (Charlie Murphy and friends)
A whole new breed of pantomime pony – to perform a series of guerilla dressage acts. Responding to formal equestrian disciplines and traditional British pageantry, these eccentric, home-made ponies turn some playful tricks and turns in some unusual places.

The Man in the Dress and The Principal Female Boy(Greg Sinclair)
Sinclair's recent Sonata For A Man and Boy was both charming and a fine example of how experimental music needn't involve boring boffins tweaking computer settings. A song, a laugh and an original take on the gender confusion of the English pantomime (because Scottish pantos don't have as much cross-dressing as I'd like).  Doubtless includes some hot cello rocking action.

Uranus
(Moreno Solinas)
Oh yes. Click on the link and some math rock kicks in. Solinas has worked with DV8 and promises "love and sex, need and fear, spirit and fluid." Sounds promising, but that title and that photo are not a good juxtaposition.  

Opul (JL Williams and James Iremonger)
Great former guests of the Radio Hour: it's poetry with added electronica. See - electronic music doesn't have to be all about boring old men twiddling with their knobs. Poetry with an edge, electronica with lyricism... sometimes rough and sometimes smooth but always experimental.

To Elucidate(Jamie Wardrop and Rebecca Morris)
They begged me not to give away what they have planned. I won't, but it is spectacular. 


There we have it: an afternoon of research and the best I could come up with is a pun about bums. However, Anatomy will be better than this... 



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