By Anna Furse / Athletes of the Heart
Conflating her roles as a theatre director, writer, and Professor, this unique event has Furse giving a vivid animated lecture on Anatomy, accompanied by haunting saw playing and illuminating video. The Anatomy Theatres of Renaissance Europe were the horror movies of their day – full of blood, guts, morality and human drama. The public gawped in fear and fascination at the criminal cadaver being doubly punished before their eyes. Furse takes this idea and runs with it, taking us on a journey of discovery to contemplate our bodies, dead or alive, as she segues from personal loss to the circulation of the blood, from Elizabeth 1 to Lady Gaga. This performance wants to make us think about the meaning of life, why we fear death, and invites us to spend a little time to reflect on our heart and souls – and assert exactly where our liver is.
After premiering at LIVE COLLISION INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL 2016 // SPECIAL EDITION, Live Collision will tour this brand new work from January 2018 throughout Ireland, UK and Europe.
THE ANATOMY ACT is funded by Arts Council England with a residency commission by Create – the national development agency for collaborative arts in Ireland and CAPP (Collaborative Art Partnership Programme) a transnational programme co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union with additional support from Live Collision. It is an Athletes of the Heart production with the Centre of the Body at Goldsmiths, University of London.
MORE ABOUT ATHLETES OF THE HEART
Athletes of the Heart was founded by Anna Furse in 2003 with an Impact Award from the Wellcome Trust. Devoted to transgressing artistic, cultural and geographical boundaries, the company collaborates and co-produces internationally. Each project responds to the specific conditions in which it is produced – seeking opportunities to connect process to production over time – evolving dramaturgy and event through research, attention to physicality and with an essential, poetic and vibrant scenography. The company has created works for hospitals, science centres as well as art centres and theatres, and used online tools innovatively for geographically dispersed international collaboration. The company’s work has performed in the UK, Serbia, Slovenia, Italy, Ireland, Greece and The Lebanon.
Most recent work includes When We Were Birds (Cantieri Cultural Zisa, Palermo and Live Collision Festival 2014) and Other People’s Shoes (Michael Cakoyiannis Centre, Athens, 2016).
MORE ABOUT ANNA FURSE HERE