Julia Bardsley (UK)
ALMOST THE SAME (feral rehearsals for violent acts of culture)
A figure lurks in a dark place of collapse,
a theatre of dirt, an ark of humiliation.
Beneath the pelt it growls, licks, pants, bites back…
Following from the success of Trans-Acts, Julia Bardsley presents her new solo show. Created with a sound score by composer Andrew Poppy, the piece examines notions of terror, fear, violence & the beast. The performer is split into two distinctly oppositional aspects; the live ‘animal’ persona, caged, confined & tethered within the performance space and the other ‘civilised’ manipulator, a 4th wall video projected persona. What ensues is a battle of wills, a type of war enacted between two facets of the same woman.
Julia has worked as a film-maker, visual artist, performer and theatre director. As a free-lancer, she has directed new works in opera, dance and theatre. From 1991-4 she was joint Artistic Director of the Leicester Haymarket and Young Vic Theatres. Installations include Punishment & Ice-cream, The Error Display, Field and the 12/stages Projects. Julia’s films have been screened in London, Scotland, Spain, USA, Holland, Armenia. Her solo project, Trans-Acts was presented at the NRLA, TROUBLE Festival, Brussels & SPILL 2007. Julia is an Artsadmin Associate Artist.
www.juliabardsley.net
Andrew Poppy was a student of Goldsmith College and John Cage, and was composer/pianist with The Lost Jockey performing pulse based minimal music in the early 1980s. He has an eclectic body of work including piano, orchestral and electronic music. His first CD includes performances of 32 Frames for Orchestra and the sampled based Listening In. Collaboration has been an important part of an unusual body of work from Impact Theatre, Psychic TV, Erasure to many projects with Julia Bardsley since 1989.
www.myspace.com/andrewpoppy
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Chelsea Theatre is an Almost The Same Commissioning Partner.