Martin del Amo & Big Muscles Sad Heart Premieres New Works at PACT
July 10 – 13
PACT Centre for Emerging Artists’ Generations program returns in 2019 to premiere exciting new performance works from Big Muscles Sad Heart and Martin del Amo in collaboration with Anton from July 10th to 13th.
PACT’s Generations program features work by an early career artist presented alongside a work by an established artist. Generations encourages greater dialogue between generations of artists and contextualises work by early career artists within a broader framework.
Emerging performance collective Big Muscles Sad Heart will bring to the stage Olympia Olympia!, a look into the dark, competitive heart of professional sport. The work examines the absurdity of ordinary bodies imitating god-like athletes and features never-before-seen contests, rituals and synchronised choreography more precise than Roger Federer’s Rolex. Part theatre, part tournament of the absurd, this funny and twisted show tears the fast-beating, competitive heart of capitalism out of the barrel-chest of sports and holds it up to the bright lights of the stadium. Theatre collective Big Muscles Sad Heart (JobReady, Knowledge Acquisition, Variety Night) turn the sporting spectacle on its head and turn their three ordinary bodies into athletic machines for the full length of a half-game.
Producer and performer Sarah Easterman said, “In this show, we delve into darkest aspects of sport – that ruthless, quasi-nationalistic dynamic that drives the whole spectacle – but we’ve also leaned into the absurdity of our imperfect bodies imitating these god-like athletic figures.”
Following Olympia Olympia! comes the premiere of Arena from award-winning choreographer Martin del Amo, who joins forces with performance powerhouse Anton to create a compelling one-man show.
In Arena, a flamboyant gossip, a laconic cleaner and a highly-strung director, battle it out in a series of interlinking stories. Combining idiosyncratic movement and intimate storytelling, Arena conjures a diverse cast of oddball characters and draws them into a frenzied world of make-believe.
Choreographer del Amo said, “I’ve always been interested in integrating spoken text with movement and therefore Arena is an especially exciting project. Anton is the ideal collaborator for this work; he is one of the nation’s greatest dance-theatre performers and has an extraordinary knack for delivering text.”
