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One of Welsh theatre company Earthfall’s best loved shows, At Swim, Two Boys, has been transformed into a new film |
One of Welsh theatre company Earthfall’s best loved shows, At Swim, Two Boys, has been transformed into a new film entitled Pal O’ Me Heart and is being shown within the innovative “Dance Dome” platform across Wales this summer. The project’s portable 360º cinema will be appearing at various sites across the country showcasing three specially commissioned films that all feature the work of Wales-based dance companies. The novel At Swim, Two Boys by Irish writer Jamie O'Neill won huge critical acclaim when released in 2001 before being made into a highly-successful stage production by Cardiff-based Earthfall in 2004. The story tells of the developing love between two teenage boys set against the backdrop of the Easter Uprising in Ireland. The production was staged in a slowly-filling pool in front of a waterfall, with episodes from the book woven together through a fusion of extreme physicality, original live music and film. Staged entirely in water this tender and beautiful production toured to sell-out audiences in Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland and mainland Europe. Set in 1916, At Swim, Two Boys juxtaposes this love affair with the political turmoil in Ireland and the slaughter on the Western Front, contrasting with the dream of national liberation and the search for personal freedom. Cardiff-based multimedia company 4 Pi Productions were commissioned by Wales’ dance development organisation Coreo Cymru, to apply their pioneering film work to transform the live performance of this well-known work into a 360º film. The resulting fulldome film is shown within 4 Pi Productions’ own portable dome as well as in planetariums around the world. Last year Coreo Cymru worked with 4 Pi Productions on two films in collaboration with Taikabox & Harnish Lacey Dance Theatre which were seen by more than 1,200 people inside the Dance Dome at festivals in Cardiff and Swansea. Carole Blade, Creative producer of Coreo Cymru, said; “I was keen to further explore this new medium which lends itself perfectly to dance and physical theatre. Working with Earthfall’s pre-existing dance production was an obvious way forward, allowing us to dig deeper and to show the richness of the productions highly physical movement vocabulary to new audiences. The project which is supported by the Arts Council of Wales aims to be accessible to a diverse range of audiences through open-air and town centre street festivals and to planetariums and Dome theatres across the world.” Pal O’ Me Heart was filmed on location in Pembrokeshire, Cardiff, Newport and in a hangar at St Athan with performers Daniel Connor and Murilo Leite. Matt Wright, co-director of 4 Pi Productions alongside Janire Najera, said, “We are on the edge of performance and technology coming together. It is a steep learning curve with a lot of trial and error so we are discovering as we go along what is possible with this exciting new medium. It is a complex discipline, unlike any other form of cinema; it is all about enveloping an audience within the environment and narrative of the piece. Developing the Dance Dome project and its immersive content has provided many technical and creative challenges but we are proud of having produced something truly unique and are excited to see how home audiences react, here in Wales’. Earthfall co-artistic director Jim Ennis said: “It has been a fantastic experience taking something we have toured extensively to sell out audiences and having the opportunity of transforming it into a different medium. We have filmed on the beach in Pembrokeshire and that has been wonderful to move out of the performance environment to a locality environment, and reset it outside of a theatre setting. This is a very different medium and it is unlike any filming I have been involved with. Unlike filming for a flat screen you have to take into account everything around you. We have not just reproduced the live work into a film, rather we have reconfigured some of the choreography to an extent that makes the narrative journey clearer and also in a shorter work. So if someone has read the book or seen the performance they will get something new out of it including how we have re represented it for this format. But even if they haven’t the film will stand in its own right.” Earthfall co-artistic director Jessica Cohen added, “We are truly delighted to be part of what is an extraordinary and exciting project. Everyone is on a huge learning curve as the 360° format is a brand new medium for dance. Our stage show was acclaimed by audiences across the UK and Europe and we hope we can transfer the magic from the live performance into the film.” Pal O’ Me Heart was premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before screening in San Francisco and a recent two week tour in Macau, China. Its Welsh tour includes installs in Cardiff at Wales Millennium Centre as part of Big Dance on July 5, 6; at Harlech Castle in collaboration with Theatr Harlech on July 25, 26 and 27 July; as part of Brecon’s Streets Alive Festival on August 9; Aberystwyth Arts Centre on August 22 and 23 and Newport’s Riverfront Theatre on November 7 and 8. For more information regarding the tour, please visit: www.thedancedome.com |
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Wednesday, July 2, 2014 |
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