AFTER by Liv O’Donoghue, premiering as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2018 at Project Arts Centre this September
Basically we’re all f*cked.
This is it. It’s over. The end of days. Humanity and the world as we know it are ending. Exploring the stages of a post-apocalyptic breakdown, Irish-Norwegian dance artist Liv O’Donoghue is creating AFTER, a show that allows us to see what it really looks and feels like to know that the end is near. Coming together with filmmaker José Miguel Jiménez, Liv has created a documentary film charting the fallout of the end of the world through the eyes of two subjects: Kip and Clara.Together on stage, the performers react to the footage of their final days, evidence of the world that once was. Through them, the audience witness how these two individuals have coped – and failed to cope – and how their relationship evolves and mutates under the most heightened of circumstances: the end of days.
AFTER premieres at Dublin Fringe Festival 2018 on the 8th September with performances at Project Arts Centre from the 7th – 15th September.
Combining physicality and performance with documentary footage and live feed video, AFTER features a cast of international dancers, physical actors and a filmmaker from Ireland, Norway, Chile, and the UK.
AFTER has been created through several creative residencies in remote locations in southern Austria and Arctic Norway, barren locations cut off from the rest of the world and ideal for cultivating the tone of the work. The first of these residencies was in November when Liv brought the cast to spend three weeks on an island 600km above the Arctic Circle. During this period, the sun never came up and those involved reported that it really did feel like the end of the world.
Liv says, “I’m creating this piece for our unprecedented now, a time where politically, environmentally and socially the world really seems to be falling apart. Starting out, I tapped into a strange collective feeling that I was beginning to sense around me, and realised that I wanted to make a show that reflected how we are experiencing our world right now. This collective feeling was fear, but combined with the apathy of being overwhelmed, struggling to operate in a culture of fake news and the need for instant gratification, not sure where to start or how to make things better. It really seems to me like the end is inevitable, and making AFTER is a way for me to confront this feeling, with the creative process serving as an antidote to the very real kernel of fear in the pit of my stomach. Having said all that, and despite AFTER being about the end of the world, it’s certainly not all going to be doom and gloom, it’s important that there’s plenty of humour and lightness too. It’s human to find the comedy in these moments. And of course, there’ll be dinosaurs too.”
CREDITS
Created and devised by Liv O’Donoghue in collaboration with the cast.
Performers Kip Johnson, Clara Simpson, José Miguel Jiménez, Liv O’Donoghue
Creative Team José Miguel Jiménez (Filmmaker), Kevin Gleeson (Sound Designer), Eugenia Genunchi (Set Designer), Sarah Jane Shiels (Lighting Designer).
AFTER is funded by The Arts Council, and supported by Dublin City Council, Dance Ireland, Dansearena Nord (Norway), D.ID Dance Identity (Austria), Fringe LAB and Dublin Dance Festival, in association with Project Arts Centre. Liv O’Donoghue is a recipient of an Arts Council Next Generation Award.
Venue
Project Arts Centre – Space Upstairs.
39 Essex St E, Temple Bar, Dublin 2
Performance Dates & Times
*Premiere: Saturday 8th September 6.15pm* then Monday 10th – Friday 14th September at 6.15pm, & Saturday 15th September at 3.30pm.
Preview: Friday 7th September 6.15pm
Tickets
€16 / €14 (concession) / €11 (preview)
Fringe Box Office
All photos © José Miguel Jiménez
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