As part of The Lowry’s The Empty Auditorium programme, we are visiting our 2011 production An Anatomie in Four Quarters. In this short film by Hugo Glendinning, we reflect on the ways the production brought the whole theatre and its internal structures to life, and explore its resonance now – at a time when theatres across the country have been reimagining themselves during the pandemic. Including footage from the original production, stills and interviews with Clod Ensemble Co-Artistic Directors Suzy Willson and Paul Clark.
An Anatomie in Four Quarters is a promenade performance commissioned by Sadler’s Wells in 2011 and presented at The Lowry in 2016.
Featuring a cast of 38 dancers and musicians, an audience of 200 people cuts a path through the vast auditorium, changing their viewing positions for each movement, until they find themselves on stage. It invites audiences to experience familiar theatre spaces from different angles, consider our changing places within them, and explore how these shifts in perspective can radically alter what we see and hear.
Watch the short film:
Contributors: Suzy Willson Paul Clark Emma Gladstone Eckhard Thiemann Silvia Mercuriali Rakhi Singh Researcher: Lotte Allan Filmed & Edited by Hugo Glendinning Produced by Clod Ensemble Featuring footage filmed and edited by Lisa Cazzato Vieyra, and stills by Hugo Glendinning from the original production commissioned by Sadler’s Wells in 2011. Direction & Choreography Suzy Willson Music Paul Clark Costume Sarah Blenkinsop Lighting Hansjörg Schmidt Performers: Zoe Bywater, Mariana Camiloti, Valentina Golfieri, Laura de Vos, Silvia Mercuriali, Matthew Morris, Pari Naderi, Ramona Nagabczynska, Yuyu Rau, Ino Riga, Owen Ridley-DeMonick, Alessandra Ruggeri, Sarah Cameron, Jason Thorpe, Helena Astridge, Emma Lansley, Yukiko Masui, Tia Liana Ogilvie, Anna Kirakowska, Ursula Kelly, Chiara Barassi Musicians: James Keane, Nuno Silva, Galen Nikolov, Catherine Ring, Natalia Bonner, Calina de la Mare, Alison Dods, Tom Piggott-Smith, Kate Robinson, Sarah Malcolm, Rebekah Allan, Chris Pitsillides, Chris Allan, Desmond Neysmith, Natalie Raybould Research supported by Jerwood Studio at Sadler’s Wells and Wellcome Trust Produced in association with Fuel Extracts and poems taken from “Vasko Popa: Complete Poems 1953-1987” Translated by Anne Pennington & Francies R. Jones Published by Anvil Press Poetry in 2011-12-13 X Ray studies of the joint movements By Russell John Reynolds (1948) courtesy of Wellcome Library, London