| A Western is a performance for a bar. Within the space we locate our valley, our saloon, our empty street. We find our audience and together we make A Western. The audience cheat at cards, beg our hero to love them and then shoot him down. We apply the ketchup blood. We wear the cowboy hats. We want the scene where our Hero walks into a bar and everyone stops talking. We want the scene where the whore begs to be loved. We want the scene where our hero dies a long and drawn out death.
A Western collides the immediacy and intimacy of live performance with the epic emotional experience of the cinematic blockbuster, a celebration of a failure to capture the true size and majesty of the Wild West. It is an experiment with the relationship between an audience and an event, a re-imagining of everyday landscapes that helps uncover the beauty that already exists in the actual environments we inhabit.
A Western is a site responsive piece. When touring, the work is re- made for each venue, according to the specifics of that space.
It was funded by Arts Council England in its development and UK tour. |
