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FCA Performance presents

Pigeon

Directed by Deborah Pollard

Devised in collaboration with 1st year performance students

Inspired by Patrick Süskind’s novella, The Pigeon, director Deborah Pollard set first year students the task of devising a movement-based performance work. The outcome is Pigeon, a practical exercise in dance-theatre for non-dancers.

Described as tense and disturbing, Patrick Süskind’s novella The Pigeon, tells the story of a day in the meticulously ordered life of bank security guard, Jonathan Noel, who undergoes an existential crisis when a pigeon roosts in front of his one-room apartment's front door.

Pollard says,

Our version of The Pigeon is not so much a retelling of Süskind’s tale but a response to a very human story of fear, obsession and tiny epiphanies. Students draw upon their own experiences to devise and choreograph a portrait of modern day maladies.

As part of the research process students were exposed to notions of task based devising, composition and choreographic strategies and story telling.

Pina Bausch and DV8 physical theatre influence the style of the work. It also draws upon contemporary staging strategies by Belgium companies Ballet C de la B and The Need Company.

Deborah Pollard is a performer, artist and director whose work focuses on collaborations with a variety of arts and non-arts practitioners. Since graduating from the Faculty of Creative Arts where she trained in theatre as a performer and director, Deborah’s practice has shifted over the past fifteen years to a hybrid form between performance and visual arts.

Deborah was the recipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship in 2000 and awarded the Rex Cramphorn Fellowship in 2001. She was a New Media Arts Board Fellow in 2002/3. As a contemporary performance practitioner, she pursues collaborations that disrupt and challenge her notions of performance, theatre and the artistic process. Deborah also works as a freelance director, dramaturge and performer. She has worked extensively with Urban Theatre Projects, Performance Space and Version 1.0.

The Faculty of Creative Arts is delighted to welcome Deborah back to the Faculty to work with current performance students.

Season: Thursday 24 – Saturday 26 September @ 8pm
Saturday matinee @ 2pm
Bookings: 02 4221 4889
Tickets: $20 full, $12 concession, $10 FCA students
Performance Space: 25.168, Faculty of Creative Arts

Pigeon Program >