RED LADIES AT THE V&A
11:30, 14:00 and 15:30 – each 25 minutes duration
Saturday 20 April 2024
Raphael Court (Ground Floor)
Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL
Admission free and unticketed
“The kind of absurd, inspired happening that makes the city come alive” The Guardian
The iconic Red Ladies will be returning for their first theatrical demonstration in almost 10 years.
On Saturday 20th April 2024, these identically-dressed women will appear at the V&A as part of the museum’s Performance Festival: Remastered to re-map the architecture, histories, objects and narratives of the V&A.
Red Ladies features a chorus of women dressed in red headscarves, red stilettos, black trench coats and sunglasses. They sit, they wait, they play the harmonica; they observe, they lament, they map, they change, they remember. They count surveillance cameras; they watch the watchers.
The V&A’s Raphael Court will become the Red Ladies’ temporary HQ and the stage for reassembled fragments of their celebrated ‘theatrical demonstrations’. Additional reconnaissance missions will take place throughout the building.
Image Credit: Jessica Jordan Wrench Whenever and wherever they gather, Red Ladies is a startling piece of non-narrative performance – a visual poem that invites the audience to watch and listen as if observing a shifting landscape, weather system or rare species of wildlife. Once described by the Guardian as “the kind of absurd, inspired happening that makes the city come alive”, the Red Ladies re-emerge almost two decades on from their first London appearance into a world transformed.
Celebrating 100 years of the V&A’s Theatre and Performance collection, this year’s Performance Festival will explore the theme ‘remastered’. Other artists in this year’s programme include Thick & Tight, Ada Campe and Adam Smith.
Red Ladies is part of Choreozone, Clod Ensemble’s multi-year project supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Choreozone focuses on the sharing and reinterpretation of Clod Ensemble’s rich multimedia archive.
