A pop-cultural collision of working-class and queer expression: the duo BULLYACHE uses vocabulary from circus, ballet, acrobatics, pop, and TikTok to create an exceptionally original and radical variation of contemporary dance theater. “We are Pina Bausch cosplaying as Dua Lipa performing albums as theater works,” say Courtney Deyn and Jacob Samuel about themselves.
Their latest work A Good Man is Hard to Find premiered at the Biennale di Venezia and is inspired by the 2008 financial crisis and the “Cremation of Care” ceremony—an annual ritual ceremony of the private club Bohemian Grove, where the global elite symbolically banish their guilt. The precise choreography deals with the absurd world of financial capitalism, management and its power games, hierarchies, toxic masculinity, humiliations, austerity and scapegoating mechanisms. In a dark and fucked-up scenario, an office party at the end of the world unfolds: New compositions by the duo are interwoven with Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony in C minor—and elitist bankers act out their emotional devastation without regard for the consequences, ultimately culminating in a dramatic sacrificial ritual worthy of a Greek tragedy.
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Direction, choreography: BULLYACHE (Courtney Deyn & Jacob Samuel)Music: BULLYACHEInterpolation of Frank Schubert’s Ave MariaChamber Symphony, music by Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110. arranged by Rudolf BarshaiThe use of the music is given by permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers LimitedProducer: Flo TriouxProduction management: Andy DownieRehearsal direction: Lewis WalkerArt direction: SinisiaCostume: Bianca PeruzziSet design: TOR StudioSet build: HS Design StudioPerformance: Courtney Deyn, Sam Dilkes, Oscar Jinghu Li, Giacomo Luci, Pierre Morrillon, Frank YangLive music: Asher Allen, Jacob Samuel (off-stage)Mentor: Katie MitchellOpera coach: Sarah TynanHypnotherapist: Michele OccelliPyrotechnician: Alex PodgerPiano & Arrangement: Asher Allen (Ave Maria, Franz Schubert)Outside Eye: Alastair CurtisAccess Coordination: CompanyZeProducing & Touring assistant: Cali NiceTouring production/Stage management: Colin EverittTourix LX Management/Relighter: Alfie SissonsSpecial Thanks: Sir Wayne McGregor
A production by BULLYACHE in co-production with Unlimited, Sadlers Wells Theatre, La Biennale di Venezia, Les Brigittines and Playhouse for Movement – Brussels. With support by Attenborough Centre of Creative Arts, Fiona Garratt and Kamila Serkebaeva. Never Work—International Performance Festival is a festival by Sophiensæle, supported by the Capital Cultural Fund (HKF). Sophiensæle is supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. Media partners: Berlin Art Link, Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz.