Under Glass
Under Glass is a promenade production in which the performers are presented within glass containers.
At once a museum exhibit, art installation and medical laboratory, performers appear almost as human specimens: a woman in a jam jar; a couple negotiating their space in a bed-like Petri dish; a shy ‘wallflower’ pinned behind a glass panel; a man clock-watching in his office; a woman on the phone, in a test tube, observing the disintegration of village life.
Sound and light work together to guide the audience through a series of encounters, sometimes coming within inches of the performers.
The staging of Under Glass lifts people out of the hurly burly of everyday life and exquisitely frames their moments of solitude. We see human beings attempting, with varying success, to live within their limits.
Suzy Willson - Direction; Paul Clark - Music; Sarah Blenkinsop - Design; Hansjörg Schmidt - Lighting; Alice Oswald - Poetry; Manuel Vason - Photography
Produced in association with Fuel
Since 2007 Under Glass has been performed by:
Angela de Castro; François Testory; Leo Kay; Olwen Fouéré; Jason Thorpe; Joy Constantinides; Ragnhild Olsen; Ramona Nagabczynski; Sachi Kimura; Silvia Mercuriali, Elisabeth Schilling; Hayley Carmichael; Maëva Berthelot; Riccardo T.; Sachi Kimura; Sam Coren; Sarah Cameron; Silvia Mercuriali
Commissioned by Sadler’s Wells
Supported by Wellcome Trust; Arts Council England; British Council; Battersea Arts Centre
“The quality of the performance is astonishing and unforgettable.”
★★★★ The Scotsman
“‘Under Glass’ is inventive, brilliant, and beautifully haunting.”
★★★★★ What’s On
Winner of the 2009 Total Theatre Award: Physical and Visual Theatre
Nominated for the 2018 Manchester Theatre Award: Special Entertainment
Different iterations of ‘Under Glass’ have been performed at the following venues (all London unless stated)
May 2007- Battersea Arts Centre
September 2007 - ‘Back to Front Gala’, Sadler’s Wells
November 2007 - Wellcome Collection
February 2008 - The National Review of Live Art, Glasgow
March 2008 - Live Screen, Sadler’s Wells
March 2009 - ‘SPACE UK’ British Council Showcase, La Laboral, Gijon, Spain
May 2009 - Sadler’s Wells off-site at Village Underground
August 2009 - Edinburgh Festival Fringe, McEwan Hall Basement (part of the British Council’s Plats Du Jour)
February 2010 - British Dance Edition 2010, Stan’s Café
November 2010 - Bristol Old Vic
November 2010 - The Nuffield, Southampton
November 2010 - The Arts at Dartington
November 2010 - South East Dance at The Basement, Brighton
October 2017 - The Lowry, Salford
October 2017 - Sadler’s Wells presents at Hackney Showroom
November 2017 - Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, Brighton
November 2017 - Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
