Red Ladies
Photos: Red Ladies Paparazzi
Who are these women? And what do they want?
Red Ladies is an ongoing performance piece featuring a group of identically dressed women.
Red Ladies keep an eye on things. They observe. They witness. They gather evidence. They place sites of political importance and key landmarks under surveillance. They watch the watchers.
"Brilliantly powerful; at once angry, funny, defiant and euphoric.
The Red Ladies are a gorgeous enigma"The Guardian
"Choreographed with military precision and pulled off with admirable panache"Metro
"'The Clod Ensemble's witty new work, Red Ladies, is not plot driven so much as post modern mosaic... a reference strewn meditation on the crowd or dramatic chorus"Time Out
Credits
Directed by Suzy Willson
Music by Paul Clark
Designed by Sarah Blenkinsop
Lit by Hansjorg Schmidt
Film edited by Helen Marshall
The Red Ladies are
Red Ladies Spring 2008
Nadia Albina, Emma Bonnici, Zoe Bywater, Irene Hardy, Kazuko Hohki, Lucy Joy, Sachi Kimura, Daniella Marshall, Greta Mendez,Silvia Mercuriali, Victoria Moseley, Eve Pearce, Ramona Nagabczynski, Sabina Netherclift, Leisa Rea, Heidi Rustgaard, Calina de la Mare, Karen Hutt
Red Ladies Spring 2006
Sarah Belcher, Sachi Kimura, Catrin Osbourne, Moss Beynon Juckes, Syreeta Kumar, Simone Saunders, Christine Collins, Silvia Mercuriali, Leisa Rea, Kazuko Hohki, Victoria Moseley, Hannah Ringham, Tamera Howard, Emily Mytton, Mel Wilson, Karen Hutt, Gaynor James, Janina Kopinska, Nicole Lyons, Calina de la Mare, Natalie Rozario, Kathryn Symon
Red Ladies Trafalgar 2005
Zoe Bywater, Sarah Cameron, Ann-Marie Cavanagh, Sarah Corbett, Victoria Daniels, Efi Dementi, Vanessa Earl, Jane Guernier, Li Leng, Steffi Mueller, Sabina Netherclift, Adura Onashile, Cindy Oswin, Ruth Ross, Kate Goldsmith, Selina Leleu, Fiona Mclean, Bethan Ecclestone, Ruth Woodhams, Jennifer Parkinson, Audrey Albert
Red Ladies Paparazzi
Manuel Vason, Helen Marshall, Peter Arnold, Carlotto Destro, Calina de la Mare, Natalie Jones, Tanya Leal, Andrew Ormerod, Tim Payne, Neil Scotten, Karim Secker, Emma Stenning, Adam Weymouth, Katherine Williams, Jessica Jordan Wrench
Red Ladies on Tour
2008 Operation Saudades
Missions in Porto and at the Serralves Museum , Portugal
2008 Operation Goldfinch
Missions on the Mall. Theatrical Demonstration at the Institutute of Contemporary Arts
2008 Operation Isis
Missions in Oxford. Theatrical Demonstration at the Old Fire Station
2007 Operation Unicorn
LCACE Conference London
2006 Operation Jungle Gardinia
PSI Conference: Performing Rights at Queen Mary , University of London
2006 Operation Riverrat: Westminster
With headquarters at the Bullion Room, Hackney Empire
2006 Operation Godiva
Missions in Coventry with headquarters at Warwick Arts Centre
2005 Operation Dragonfly
Trafalgar Square: British Architecture Week
Red Ladies started its life in 2005 at The National Theatre Studio.
Supported by
The Arts Council, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, The Hackney Empire, Fierce Festival, Warwick Arts Centre, Awards for All, the Hinrichesen Foundation and the PRS foundation. Developed at the National Theatre Studio
Produced by Fuel in association with the Onassis Progamme
Red Ladies has two elements:
Outside ‘missions’ Sequences
of performance that take place in the streets and buildings of a city
Indoor Performances - a one hour theatrical demonstration in five movements in a theatre
or performance space within the city.
The Outdoor Interventions
Each mission is a unique response to the architecture and the people of the city.
"It was the kind of absurd, inspired happening that makes the city come alive. Keep an eye out."The Guardian
When the Red Ladies arrive in a city, they transform it, appearing on rooftops and in doorways, in places of political or architectural interest, commandeering their own limousines, their own brass band, once even their own helicopter.
"A sense of excitement hangs in the air. Mysterious women in red head scarves and sunglasses dot the landscape and breathe life into London’s East End." Metro
The Indoor Performance
The audience are invited into the Red Ladies temporary HQ, where they witness an hour-long work, which unfolds as a mosaic of images. They place world events - war, floods, violence in the context of the everyday: they knit, they eat, they wait. Their movements echo the patterns of a flock of birds, a herd of bison, a swarm of bees.
"Despite the inspirational political rhetoric piped in the background - the action does not culminate in self-satisfied, post-feminist celebratory mode: the wit and realism of the piece means that the Red Ladies escape from the underworld not to preach their manifesto, but to enunciate their recipe for red onion tart… it may well be that companies such as the Clod Ensemble have found that one way to understand our communality in a world of fractured, virtual communication is to view our behaviour from afar and to present it for what it is - orchestrated crowds who come together much more frequently than we generally realize."Dance Theatre Journal
See What's On for upcoming performances.
© Clod Ensemble 2007