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Just as we are shaped and influenced by where we live, and what it is that we call ‘home’, Semi-detached (poss. 2nd bdrm) is the result of architectural and spatial constraints. The design and movement for this work were conceived and workshopped in a small two bedroom semi-detached house in Prahran, Melbourne. Two performers, both calling New Zealand ‘home’, and yet one absolutely familiar with the rehearsal space, the other completely unfamiliar, began to ask questions of what the space (and in essence ‘home’) meant to them as individuals and as a moving partnership. How does the familiarity and architecture of our home impact on our lives, and on the way in which we negotiate our relationships? Do homes possess memories? When we become attuned to our past and its ghosts, what possibilities are we afforded in the present?
Semi-detached (Poss. 2nd bdrm.) premièred 17 - 21 November 1999 as part of co.motion’s Bloodwood season at Gasworks Theatre in Melbourne.
Development, choreography & performance: Kathleen Skipp & Simon Ellis
Sound Design: Gary Skinner
Design & photography: Elizabeth Boyce
Lighting: 2B, Daniel Zika
Music: Neil Young, Kristen Hersh, Dead Can Dance and Eric Serra
The development and performance of Semi-detached (poss. 2nd bdrm) was assisted by Montastory, Hume Management, Gladys Eastwood and 2B.
Photographs courtesy of Elizabeth Boyce.
Two people … roam through a landscape that is at once real, a house that may or may not be familiar, and a place from another time, a memory recollected. Corners of rooms, window ledges echo another time which constantly intrudes into the present moment creating an uneasy emotional space through which the couple drift.
– Vicki Fairfax (The Age, Tuesday 23 November 1999)
