I came across this film whilst looking at the line-up for Bristol Old Vic’s programme of new works and ideas, Ferment. Dan Canham from Still House, creators of 30 Cecil Street, took the source material from the film and has adapted it for stage. I didn’t get to see the stage adaptation, but I really enjoyed the film.

Here’s the film:

Here’s the description:

30 Cecil Street is a short dance film, shot in the dilapidated premises of the old Theatre Royal in the Limerick Athenaeum building. With a history that stretches back over 150 years, the Royal has been closed to the public for the last 13 years, since it was last used as a venue for live music and performance. Engaging with the atmosphere and past of this near-derelict building and using a soundtrack made up of found sounds and interviews carried out with people associated with the Athenaeum, 30 Cecil Street explores the state of a building that was once a hub of cultural activity within Limerick and now lies empty and closed to the public.
From www.stillhouse.co.uk

For further details about Still House on here, visit: Still House, Info

To find out more about Still House’s projects, visit their website: www.stillhouse.co.uk

For more information about Bristol Old Vic’s Programme, including Ferment, visit: www.bristololdvic.org.uk

A few days ago I received an e-flyer about the forthcoming contemporary visual theatre festival, the London International Mime Festival. I hadn’t come across the festival before so I thought I’d look into it and I found this fantastic work by Les Antliaclastes. I’m no expert in this area so I won’t say any more about it, but I hope you enjoy the film.

Hilum part I (1+2) from franck littot on Vimeo.

Here is the description from the London International Mime Festival website:

“A micro comic-tragedy based on the cycles of the washing machine and set in the basement of a rundown museum of natural history. Orphaned and cut off from the ordered kingdom of curiosities upstairs, the cast of nursery rhyme characters, cartoon images, and mischievous urchins turn playtime into a theatre of cruelty. Whites mix with colours, delicates get hot washed, and a monstrous big toe devours holes in the socks.

Conceived and directed by Patrick Sims, formerly creative director of Buchinger’s Boot Marionettes whose Armature of the Absolute was a sold out hit at the Festival in 2009. Hilum – a miniature fantasy-land, distorting and disturbing, is his new company’s debut performance.”

If you like the video footage above, you can see the whole of the piece live at the festival from Sat 22nd – Wed 26th January at the ICA Theatre, London. For further details, please visit the festival website: http://www.mimefest.co.uk/antliaclastes-2011.html

If you would like to find out more about Les Antliaclastes and Patrick Sims, please visit the info page on this website: Sims, Patrick – Info

You can see more footage of Hilum on vimeo

As a final aside, whilst investigating the festival, I also came across a couple of other pieces on the programme that I think are worthy of note:

• Du Goudron et des Plumes – Compagnie MPTA / Mathurin Bolze: A photo slideshow of the piece is available to see on YouTube
• Tempesta – Anagoor: A preview is available for this piece, again, on YouTube (contains nudity)

London International Mime Festival runs from 15th-30th January, 2011.

During the summer 2010, Electric Hotel was presented at Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Brighton Festival, Bristol Mayfest, Sadler’s Wells and Stockton International Riverside Festival. I had the chance to see it in Bristol but missed it… and now I wish I hadn’t! Here’s why:

Electric Hotel from Ben Dowden on Vimeo.

Electric Hotel is a lonely, bizarre and beautiful outdoor spectacle; a uniquely designed, fly-by-night hotel brought to vivid life through dance and sound by the team of David Rosenberg (director and co-founder of Shunt) and Frauke Requardt (choreographer, Pictures from an Exhibition at Sadler’s Wells/Young Vic) with Borkur Jonsson (designer, Woyzeck at Barbican, Metamorphosis at Lyric Hammersmith).

Sitting on the outside looking in, the audience snatch glimpses of the do-not-disturb lives unfolding behind the floor to ceiling windows. Wearing headphones to eavesdrop on the internal spaces of the building they watch the residents in their private rooms: the natural habits, the unnatural fantasies and housekeeping of wildly varied quality. The privilege and thrill for the voyeur is seeing the bigger picture.
Arnolfini, Bristol (Arnolfini website)

Here are some of the reviews and views about the show:

London Theatre Blog Review
Guardian Review
The Independent Review
This Is London Review

Hopefully the show will be repeated…

For more information about David Rosenberg and Shunt, please visit the Shunt website.