An Anatomie in Four Quarters is a promenade performance in which the audience cut a path through the auditorium of a large theatre, changing their viewing positions for each movement, until they find themselves on stage.
Featuring an exceptional cast of 38 dancers and musicians, An Anatomie is a spectacular visual poem about human beings’ insatiable desire to get closer to things and a celebration of the theatre building itself. It explores our perception of the human form, the physical structure of the bodies we inhabit and the ways we attempt to see, define, contain, name and value them.
Nominated for the 2017 Manchester Theatre Award: Special Entertainment
“[An Anatomie in Four Quarters] presents big ideas more tantalising than it’s beguilingly various components.”
★★★★ Sunday Times (Culture Magazine)
“Clod Ensemble’s fascinating new work should blast away any memories of dull anatomy lessons. I’d advise any student of anatomy, or anyone interested in the functions of human physicality, to see this work.”
The Guardian
“The beauty of Clod Ensemble’s promenade dance piece is that it manages to simultaneously be all about that theatre, all about theatre, all about the individual and all about the human race. It seems an impossibly grand achievement for a show lasting about an hour performed by fewer than 20 dancers, but it’s all very cleverly constructed, from the restricted audience of 200 to the final curtain fall … As the huge stage doors are opened and we blinkingly exit, there is a feeling of having been involved in something with genuine meaning.”
Islington Tribune
Audience reviews on Twitter:
“Anatomie in 4 Quarters by clod ensemble absolutely delightful, strange, beautiful & surprising. What more could you wish for?”
“Clod Ensemble – An Anatomies in Four Quarters. WOW!”
“What can I say? An Anatomie in Four Quarters- inspirational and moving. Sadler’s Wells stripped to it’s core and rebuilt again.”
“Clod Ensemble at Sadler’s Wells most amazing, moving audience & cast each act, altering perspectives & ending with audience on stage, wow”
Direction & Choreography Suzy Willson
Music Paul Clark
Costume Sarah Blenkinsop
Lighting Hansjörg Schmidt
Produced in association with Fuel
Cast:
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.
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 Chorus Legs Helena Astridge, Emma Lansley, Yukiko Masui, Tia Liana Ogilvie, Anna Kirakowska, Ursula Kelly, Chiara Barassi
A Sadler’s Wells commission.
Research supported by Jerwood Studio at Sadler’s Wells.
Supported by a Wellcome Trust Large Arts Award and Arts Council England.
First presented as part of Clod Ensemble’s Performing Medicine Anatomy Season 2011 at Sadler’s Wells.
Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, November 2013
The Lowry, Salford, March 2016