Matti Braun with Henrietta Hale
07 - 08 Nov 2006
Matti Braun with Henrietta Hale
The Alien
7 & 8 November 2006 at 19.30hrs
Laban Theatre
Tickets available from Laban box office 020 8469 9500
The Showroom is one of London's most exciting east end galleries which has exhibited and commissioned cutting edge contemporary art at its home base for over twenty years. Now The Showroom is branching out, and is presenting in collaboration with Laban The Alien: a new cross disciplinary work by internationally renowned artist Matti Braun and leading British choreographer and dancer Henrietta Hale.
The Alien is a charming tale that takes its inspiration from an unrealised screen-play by the acclaimed Indian film director Satyajit Ray in which an extraterrestrial crash-lands its space ship into a lotus pond near a remote Bengali village. The story then follows the reactions of the villagers and in particular a little boy, Haba, who befriends the Alien. Ray was never able to realise the Alien as a film, even though he took the idea to Hollywood and came close to getting it produced with a cast that would have included Marlon Brando and Peter Sellers. Possibly the original inspiration for E.T., Ray's script has now been realised in a new form by Braun and Hale as a fully blown performance piece that includes theatrical tableaux, choreographed dance sequences, live musical score and set designed by the artist. For the London debut, costumes have been designed in collaboration with Hoxton Boutique, one of London's most creative and innovative venues for fashion.
Matti Braun lives and works in Cologne. He has exhibited widely across Europe in spaces such as the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, The Showroom, London, Kiasma, Helsinki, Tate Liverpool and Witte de With, Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam.
Henrietta Hale lives and works in London. Trained at the Rambert School and the Laban Centre, she has worked with many prestigious companies including the English National Opera and Yolande Snaith Theatredance. In addition to her own creative practice, she has also choreographed projects for contemporary artists which have been presented in venues that include Tate Modern.
The Alien is supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Foundation, Arts Council England Grants for Arts, Institut für Auslandsbezlehungen and the Goethe-Institut, London. The research and development phase of the project has been supported and presented by the visual art programmes of three Dutch theatre festivals; Festival a/d Werf, Utrecht, Theatrefestival Boulevard, 's-Hertogenbosch and Veenfabriek, Leiden, and by Project art centre, Dublin.
The Alien
7 & 8 November 2006 at 19.30hrs
Laban Theatre
Tickets available from Laban box office 020 8469 9500
The Showroom is one of London's most exciting east end galleries which has exhibited and commissioned cutting edge contemporary art at its home base for over twenty years. Now The Showroom is branching out, and is presenting in collaboration with Laban The Alien: a new cross disciplinary work by internationally renowned artist Matti Braun and leading British choreographer and dancer Henrietta Hale.
The Alien is a charming tale that takes its inspiration from an unrealised screen-play by the acclaimed Indian film director Satyajit Ray in which an extraterrestrial crash-lands its space ship into a lotus pond near a remote Bengali village. The story then follows the reactions of the villagers and in particular a little boy, Haba, who befriends the Alien. Ray was never able to realise the Alien as a film, even though he took the idea to Hollywood and came close to getting it produced with a cast that would have included Marlon Brando and Peter Sellers. Possibly the original inspiration for E.T., Ray's script has now been realised in a new form by Braun and Hale as a fully blown performance piece that includes theatrical tableaux, choreographed dance sequences, live musical score and set designed by the artist. For the London debut, costumes have been designed in collaboration with Hoxton Boutique, one of London's most creative and innovative venues for fashion.
Matti Braun lives and works in Cologne. He has exhibited widely across Europe in spaces such as the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, The Showroom, London, Kiasma, Helsinki, Tate Liverpool and Witte de With, Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam.
Henrietta Hale lives and works in London. Trained at the Rambert School and the Laban Centre, she has worked with many prestigious companies including the English National Opera and Yolande Snaith Theatredance. In addition to her own creative practice, she has also choreographed projects for contemporary artists which have been presented in venues that include Tate Modern.
The Alien is supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Foundation, Arts Council England Grants for Arts, Institut für Auslandsbezlehungen and the Goethe-Institut, London. The research and development phase of the project has been supported and presented by the visual art programmes of three Dutch theatre festivals; Festival a/d Werf, Utrecht, Theatrefestival Boulevard, 's-Hertogenbosch and Veenfabriek, Leiden, and by Project art centre, Dublin.