curious

This is how I dream it. This is how it feels. And I am not a sailor. I cannot steer a craft. I cannot tie a reef knot. I cannot swim. But still this is how it ends. I am out here with the lost mariners, the castaways, the ship wrecked and the sea swallowed.

the moment I saw you I knew I could love you is the new performance by Leslie Hill and Helen Paris made in collaboration with film-maker Andrew Kötting, composer and sound designer Graeme Miller and performers Claudia Barton and Joseph Young. The piece is about ‘gut feelings’; fight, flight and freeze reactions; impulse, love and undefended moments. Designed for life-raft sized groups of audience members at a time, the performance is set in the belly of a whale.

"There are a thousand beautiful moments: my favourites include a film of a woman floating adrift at sea projected onto a tiny Sealegs packet and a harrowing story of a childhood terrorised by a sword-swallower’s accident. It’s a rich and rewarding experience being immersed in this watery world." Total Theatre

"Film and live performance, soundscape and installation combine in this love story to offer glimpses of an endless horizon as well as intimate close-ups.... There is something immensely wistful about a piece that demonstrates that we are merely chemical compounds, and yet also shows us how to discover equilibrium." The Guardian (4 stars)

"Skillfully blending intimate live action with vintage-looking film and a gorgeously evocative soundtrack, Curious weave together wonderful stories about imperfect characters" Mayfest (5 stars)

The UK tour included: London, Crewe, Glasgow, Liverpool, Cambridge, Lancaster, Bristol, Brighton, Colchester and Exeter.

the moment I saw you I knew I could love you is commissioned by Chelsea Theatre for SACRED 2009, Colchester Arts Centre and New Moves International for The National Review of Live Art 2010. It has been made with the support of a Wellcome Trust Arts Award, the National Lottery through Arts Council England, Brunel University, a residency at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Hosking Houses Trust and collaboration with scientists at the Wingate Institute of Neurogastroenterology.

Date: Fri 10 Dec 2010 - Thu 1 Jan 1970

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