Eventide was an exciting choreographic process that took six months of planning and over three months of creation to bring to performance. Drawing together a cast and crew of over seventy people, the project included, an international team of professional performers, and five groups of local community dancers and volunteers. The final performance took place across the ancient medieval town of Higham Ferrers; responding to the English Heritage site of Chichele College and Bede House. The final work was presented as a series of torch-lit, promenade performances in April 2015, setting contemporary pieces against the glittering backdrop of stone and leaded glass. Eventide transformed the town’s historic buildings as part of a cyclical theatrical experience and utilised both its ancient gardens and interior spaces. The performances also tied in with Higham Ferrers' 600 year, celebration of the political maverick and Archbishop, Henry Chichele, who was born in the town and became the architect of many of the medieval buildings we see there today.

Eventide is the first collaboration between Two Thirds Sky and producing partner The Castle, and was supported by Arts Council England, Northamptonshire Community Foundation, Dance4, Higham Ferrers Tourism Business and Community Partnership, English Heritage, the St. Mary’s church community, The Ferrers School and students from University of Bedfordshire.

Artistic Director’s Note

“My interest in early European painting, from the late Medieval period to the early Renaissance has been a twenty year fascination. The worlds of Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel the Elder and later the works of Matthias Grünewald - with his twisted medieval style, have influenced both my understanding of art and my process as a dance maker. Movement in a sense, for me is like a painterly experience; scribing images in space and thinking about how each stroke or gesture can shift a work’s energy or meaning. So making this piece in a medieval town has allowed me to pick up on how (in this case) an ancient building functions, both historically but also symbolically - and it has fascinated me how certain images transcend time across 600 years.

When Archbishop Henry Chichele commissioned many of the spaces in Higham Ferrers in the 15th Century there was a very direct connection between church, state and people’s everyday lives. In response, this piece sometimes closely reflects certain stories or past events that have happened here, but in other places the atmosphere and resonance of the building itself becomes inspiration and backdrop to a new reality. More immediate references are in the monastic and scholarly functions of Chichele College – you will see the picking of Saffron as a recurring image as it was grown in the gardens by the monks for an income. However later the building was also used as a Tavern and a farm building.

In Bede House the work touches upon the turbulent relationships between 15th Century France and England. There is a figure of Catherine de Valois of France, who married Henry V; a marriage that was brokered by the town’s famous Archbishop, in an attempt to bring peace. But I wanted to also critique the feudal and religious dynamics of the time – we send up the 13th Century book of manners (The Book of the Civilized Man by Daniel of Beccles) which tells the reader how a ‘gentleman’ should behave. There are other more extreme ideologies though, that for me are brought starkly into relief by the historical context of the buildings, such as the treatment of women at the time. We reference the lone ‘Bedes Woman’, who was supposed to humbly look after twelve ‘men of prayer’ in Bede House, as well as the use of ducking stools in Canterbury - a macabre test to see if women were witches. Equally, heretics or those who spoke out against the religious status quo were often burnt at the stake – a chilling parallel with today’s religious or intellectual intolerance. The soundscape has come from a catalogue of pieces that I have wanted to work with for many years, from ensembles that recite work by ‘New Historicist’ composers. Eventide has allowed me to bring these pieces together. You will hear musical references to religious meditation, pilgrimage or imminent battle; sound-images that punctuate and inspire separate choreographic vignettes.”

Artistic Director

Lisa Risdale

Credits:

Professional Cast

Andrew Holmes - Performer

Effie McGuire-Ward - Performer

Kamila Domańska - Lead artist /performer

Laura Gibson - Assistant choreographer /performer

Louise Gibbs - Rehearsal assistant /performer

Marta Masiero - Performer

Collaborators

Gareth Risdale - Production Manager / Lighting Design

Natalie Lloyd - Costume

Amy Gale - Lead artist for The Ferrers school

Alex Leonard - The Castle, Participation and Engagement Manager

Theresa Haworth - Media and Documentation

Alex Jarrett - Technician

Jamie Russell - Pyro-Technician

Community Cast

Adult group

Anna Burnham

Danielle Lambert

Gabriella Lombardi

Liz Major

Lucca Catoggio

Luke Todd

Natalie Lloyd

Sophie Hall

Castle Youth Dance

Elizabeth Coles

Emily Draper

Emily Hayhoe

Jasmine Lily Bayes

Leila Nardone

Lola Minney

Megan Jansen

Megan Rickard

Mercedes Buley

Stevie-Leigh Scroxton

William Moverley

Dance2 (Foundations)

Alissa Granada

Emily Pritchett

Katherine Sarney

Lucian Tumani

Lucy Tapster

Maddie Bierton

Matilda Shaw

Molly Tapster

The Ferrers School

Abbie Prigmore

Ashleigh Baker

Chelsea Moms

Elyse Giddens

Emily Pearson

Erin Gabbitas

Jessica Harper

Kitty Denton

Olivia Taylor

Penny Jones-Mackay

Dance2 (Advanced Company)

Abbie Clarke

Ashleigh Lines

Bethany Evans

Charlotte Burns

Lauren Ash

Lola Minney

Lucy Rogers

Maisie Aveston

Regan Webb

Sophie Britton

Volunteers

Briony Risdale

Christine Gibbons

Debbie Wren

Emma Sarney

Stage Management and Front of House team

Kitty Benford, Alex Levene, Kate McBlain

Xanthia Ncube, Jack Lake, Jadene Giltrow and Baris Timur

With additional thanks to the voluntary staff of Higham Ferrers Tourism, Business and Community Partnership, Rolton Engineering, English Heritage, staff at The Castle Theatre and Mike Carter (Writer, Lecturer at the University of Bedfordshire).