needlessalleycollective:

Photos from The Cabaret Voltaire at the King’s Head Theatre, January 2013

Concept

To present new work in response to the ideas of Dada-creation of material and to give our own approach to previously published Dada poems.
This time, as we are doing it in a theatre-setting, we created more of a “cabaret” feel to it, which allowed for the show to re-shape every day and the presentation of different work each time we did it. Some nights, we concept and mood of the show was more of a jolly one, others more of a “dissapointed with the world” one.

What happened

- The creation of a musical score based on colour, by Rutter and Bennet. This score was created every night with indication and participation from the audience. The score would then be performed by the musicians as the grand-finale of the show

- The reciting of poems and manifestos written by Alex Walker, Bobby Hirston and Xavier de Sousa

- Karine Rathle spent most of the shows attaching strings to the performers and giving their other end to members of the audience. As the action developed, the audience played with the performers as if they were puppets and/or preventing them to complete their tasks.

- On different shows, Xavier de Sousa wrote poems as the show developed, in front of the audience, subsequently performing them or reading them out.

- The collective walked/ran/climbed through the audience with pints full of water, creating chaos in the seating areas and tangling everyone’s strings around the audience members.

- Nihaarika Negi spent the shows producing poems out of newspaper cuttings which were glued to a sheet of lining paper on the right side of the audience and read out as they were produced.

- Alex Thomas was in a special masked suit, producing sounds with a either a microphone hanging over a small amp, rhythmic howls and primitive noise. Alex also performed some of his sound poetry and the Dada manifesto.

- Michael Neo (piano) and Cordelia Howard (violin) improvised music throughout the show, in response to what was happening at any given time.

- Cordelia Howard performed some poetry by Emmy Hennings, surrounded by tea lights and the sound of her violin.

- Karine Rathle performed a “surreal-cabaret whore” piece, improvising contemporary dance movements to an improvised piece of music by Michael Neo and Cordelia Howard

- The presentation of two physical theatre/mask/clown pieces devised by Kristoffer Huball and performed by John, Frode & Edward.

- The “break up of the relationship” with the audience.

- Giving a minute or two, the spotlight onto a member of the audience.

- Nihaarika read her final poem/lament as Karine became a purer version of her character and Xavier attempted to destroy it.

Artists present throughout the run:

Cordelia Howard, Xavier de Sousa, Alex Walker & Alex Thomas of Uru Ana, Karine Rathle, Bobby Hirston, Kristopher Huball, Nihaarika Negi, Michael Neo, Rutter & Bennet, Frode Gjerlow, John Holt Roberts, Edward Day