De-Generator
IN A POST-APOCALYPTIC FUTURE, THE WORLD IS UNREGONISABLE. STRUNG UP AND GUTTED; A ROTTING CARCASS OF THE PARADISE ONCE KNOWN. THE WARNING SIGNS WERE ALL THERE, BUT WE CHOSE TO IGNORE THEM. WE TURNED THE VOLUME UP TO MUTE THE CRIES. WE TURNED A BLIND EYE. NOW IT'S ETERNAL DARKNESS, WHERE MISTAKES AND MEMORIES LINGER.
"The audience is very involved in this show.... We are part of the performance choreographed as the negative of what the dancers are doing. Are we playing the roles of bewildered sheep-like victims of the apocalypse? Or mavbe we are ghosts - I thought I saw one, but it was probably an audience member in the gloom."
— RIDGWAY XS ENTERTAINMENT
"De-generator seeks out our innermost fears in an attempt to observe anxiety over events in which we have little control. Despite this, in the act of sharing her anxiety and having the dancers complete the work hand-in-hand. Nerida Matthaei aims perhaps to bring us all together."
— YOUDELL REALTIME
"Matthaei is an exciting talent and her vast experience across both contemporary dance and dramatic theatre works pays dividends here. Her choreography is entrancing, but it's the strength of story and cohesion of design that make for a truly fulfilling dance-theatre experience. It's an introspective work that scratches and snares, leaving us contemplating our own personal end-of-days and praying that we get there before the world does."
— BRUNES SCENE MAGAZINE
AVAILABLE FOR TOUR NOW
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AVAILABLE FOR TOUR NOW 〰️
ABOUT
History is littered with doomsdays that have come and gone. The end of humanity seems to hold a morbid curiosity for people; a combination of grim excitement about how civilisation might die out, and thoughts of our personal demise.
The existential crisis is no longer a mere distraction but a looming threat. We grasp to understand and preempt the myriad scientific speculations that human existence will end; it is just a matter of how and when.
Enter the world of de-generator. You share this world with our storytellers, who find themselves alone, destitute and desperate to find meaning in their own post-apocalyptic nightmares. Hunting through their personal histories and stories, they battle to find solace in a world stripped of everything they had once appreciated, loved and desired.
This original dance installation places the audience at the centre of a black hole, with the dance action taking place around and through them. It holds a mirror to our fascination with the macabre, with throwbacks to the Adam and Eve story and the notion of re-beginnings. It asks audiences to activate their fear - of the future, the unknown, the end - and consider their accountability to the disintegration.
credits
Choreographer: Nerida Matthaei
Performers: Alexander Baden Bryce and Lucy Ingham (Amelia Stokes 2014 cast)
Lighting and Production management: Keith Clark
Sound Design: Andrew Milz
Costume Design: Nerida Matthaei
Set and Costume: Lisa Fa’alafi
Producer and communications: Nerida Matthaei
Producer: Phluxus2 Dance Collective & Cluster Arts