action hero news

After our hugely postive experience of forest fringe last year in Edinburgh, we’re returning again this year for 6 nights. From the 24th August – 29th August we’ll be performing ‘A Western’ at Forest Fringe at 10:15pm. Get there early and enjoy a drink at the bar,  its a limited capacity.

‘A Western’ is presented as part of the British Council Showcase.

We’ll be performing ‘Watch Me Fall’ at the INNMotion festival at CCCB in Barcelona on 3rd and 4th July at 10pm.

we’ll be performing ‘A Western’ in Chester as part of Soapbox on 11th June at 8pm, venue TBC, keep an eye on the website for details!

‘Watch Me Fall’ will be showing at The Arches in Glasgow on the 16th May at 7pm. (follow the link to book tickets).

we will also be running a workshop at The Arches from 11am on the 16th May for emerging artists and its FREE.

then we make the long trip south to BAC in London where  we’ll be showing ‘Watch Me Fall’ as part of Burst on 20th May at 7:30pm.

Book your tickets now!

We’ll be performing ‘Watch Me Fall’ at The Arches in Glasgow on May 16th followed swiftly by BAC, London on May 20th.

Keep an eye on our website for times and Box Office details or join our facebook group to keep up to date

Action Hero – Watch Me Fall, Arnolfini

21^st Feb 2009

On the morning after watching Watch Me Fall I wake and still feel something of that event with me, over me. Something about your grip has lingered. The epicness, the savagery, the dream like fantasy of it remains. Your hair, Gemma, coke stained and dishevelled, the sweat falling from James’ hair and face. The ordeal of it all.

It remains in my memory so visceral, like the pages of Rolling Stone or the pictures of some infamous rock gig.

These cold acts of care, the hug, the helping hand and then the sad and continuous kicking of the head. Gemma, the power and menace of your frilly dainty figure. An audience not knowing who to side with, feeling like you would both bite the hands that feed you and as you turn on each other you would turn on us.

We stood along that long stretch and enjoyed the use of that strip, up and down the runway, similar to a boxing ring on a fight night. How you invited a hesitant crowd to get ugly, to become a disturbance.

Your seduction of the crowd was not as subtle as I imagined your hype hyperbole in itself. You were not so likeable and I enjoyed your bravery over this. I was not sure whether I would root for you James, you thinly guised misogynist. And yet I did, as you kicked and pulled and tormented each other with such mutual complicity and a deep rooted sadness in your willing self exploitation.

We did root for you like a good and willing baying mob and you delivered your dare devil deeds, these small acts of glory and sacrifice and maybe this is why I awake with fragmented memory and unattributed guilt like the morning after the night before.

WATCH ME FALL
Arnolfini Fri 20th Feb 7pm
(as part of a double bill with Neil Callaghan & Simone Kenyon)
tickets are £8/£6
Box office: 0117 9172300

www.actionhero.org.uk

In April 2008 we re-enacted Evel Knievel’s 1967 Caesar’s Palace motorcycle jump at Arnolfini, Bristol. We landed just short (like the original), but in our version we didn’t spend 29 days in a coma afterwards. Since then, we have continued to make such attempts and developed an event for an audience. On February 20th we are returning to Arnolfini to attempt a jump once again…..only this time we’re going further.

*Watch Me Fall* is an intimate yet epic live performance- an experiment with the relationship between an audience and an event; a celebration of futility and danger. It is An Arnolfini We Live Here commission, supported by The ShowRoom University of Chichester, developed at Forest Fringe, Shunt and Residence, and it is funded by Arts Council England.

If at any point you see me on fire, don’t try and help. Just stand well back and wait until my own people can be there.

“an ecstatic atmosphere” Metro
if you want to know more about the process of making ‘Watch Me Fall’ scroll down our news page to the ‘Shunt Fun’ post. For images of the show visit/join our facebook group

We will be performing a work-in-progress of ‘Watch Me Fall’ at Showroom, Chichester university on Wednesday January 21st then the ‘finished version will be at Arnolfini in Bristol, on Friday 20th February. Its part of a double bill with another South West company Neil and Simone and it kicks off at 7:00pm.

Arnolfini will be the first time it will be presented as a ‘finished’ piece. Hope you can make it x

Also we are performing ‘A Western’ at Teatro de Laboral in Spain as part of SPACEUK on March 7th. Which is a British Council Showcase for international promoters, for work that inhabits non-theatre spaces.

Wednesday January 21st – Watch Me Fall - Showroom, Chichester Univesity.

Friday February 20th – Watch Me Fall – Arnolfini, Bristol.

Saturday March 7th – A Western – Teatro de Laboral, Spain.

Here is a link to an interview we did for the Theatre Bristol website. TB interview

It also contains some images taken of the work-in-progress of ‘Watch Me Fall’ we did at Shunt. They were taken by a photographer called Sandy Danbury (Elliott Rebellious and Dave Treacle) and we rather like them.

We’ll be performing at approx 9:30pm thursday, friday and saturday. We are in a small room, through a door, off the long corridor. Our room has its own bar that will be selling whisky and beer all night, so get in early to avoid the queues and relax with a drink.

See you there.