Political Mother

Political Mother brims with Shechter’s emotional and gritty complexity as an ever more surreal chain of images makes our existence seem more impossible than the events taking place in front of us. A Chinese puzzle of encounters leads to amusing, sad and shocking events that
confuse our values and challenge our perceptions of what is normal.
Political Mother is performed by 10 dancers of the Hofesh Shechter Company and accompanied by Shechter’s cinematic score performed by a band of live musicians. Political Mother promises to draw audiences back to Shechter’s world whose astonishing unisons, percussive grooves and a raw and honest physicality mark him as one of the most exciting artists to emerge in recent years.

Première: 20th May 2010, Brighton Festival

Original cast: Leon Baugh, Maëva Berthelot, Winifred Burnet-Smith, Chien-Ming Chang, Katherine Cowie, Christopher Evans, Bruno Karim Guillore, Philip Hulford, Jason Jacobs, Sita Ostheimer, Hannah Shepherd

Musicians: Joseph Ashwin, Yaron Engler, Joel Harries, Edward Hoare, Norman Jankowski, James Keane, Vincenzo Lamagna, Andrew Maddick

Lighting Design: Lee Curran
Costume Design: Merle Hensel
Sound Design: Tony Birch

Political Mother is commissioned by Brighton Dome and Festival, Sadler’s Wells and Movimentos – Festwochen der Autostadt in Wolfsburg. The work is co-commissioned by Biennale de la Danse de Lyon, Théâtre de la Ville, Romaeuropa and Mercat de les Flors.

Produced in collaboration with Theatre Royal, Plymouth and with support from DanceXchange, Birmingham.

The score for Political Mother was created in collaboration with the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and barbicanbite09; with research supported by Jerwood Studio at Sadler’s Wells.

Collaboration with FOS supported by Outset.

A teacher’s resource pack to accompany Political Mother is available to download here