Featuring spoken text and a unique detailed physicality, ShowReal is a humorous, witty and clever work, based on an exploration of our understanding of films and cinema culture. Structured as a choreographed game, the work invites the audience to witness the unfolding of a performative puzzle. In a playful and engaging way, it tells overlapping stories through filmic moments, it builds on new cinematic plots and scenarios, and comments on celebrity culture as it appears in Oscar-award ceremonies.

Concept/Choreography: Efrosini Protopapa in collaboration with the performers
Performers: Pano Masti, Susanne Mayer, Hester Montgomery-Campbell, Jarkko Partanen/Marc Dodi, Giorgos Pispinis, Elena Prapidi, Susanna Recchia
Dramaturgical advice: Michael Pinchbeck
Texts by: Pano Masti, Hester Montgomery-Campbell, Michael Pinchbeck, Danae Theodoridou, in collaboration with the group

Co-commissioned by Dance4 and Laban, with the support of Arts Council England, and The Place through Choreodrome.

To be presented at:

• The Place, London, 29 September 2009, as part of ‘Touch Wood’
• The Showroom, University of Chichester, 1 October 2009, as part of ‘Formations’
• Laban Theatre, London, 14 and 15 October 2009
• The Michaelis Theatre, Roehampton University, London, 21 October 2009, as part of ‘Dance Diary’
• Djanogly Theatre, Lakeside, University of Nottingham, 25 October 2009, as part of ‘nottdance09’, organised by Dance4

Audiences’ feedback from the Sharing at Dance4, Nottingham, August 2009
‘Thrilling, thought-provoking, engaging’.
‘Gave me a real sense of play’.
‘Made my eyes work’.

Marking a long-term collaboration between Efrosini Protopapa and Susanna Recchia, this solo piece revisits our 2004 work Umm… I… and uh…, in an attempt to explore the embodiment of thought through processes of translating past memory into present action. Alongside our continuing interest in game-like structures and performative situations that are semi-set / semi-improvised, in this work we incorporate the use of maps and movement scores to guide and support the performer’s process of remembering and translating. The audience is invited to witness the unfolding of a staged puzzle, as the performer reveals fragmentary recollections that oscillate between the anecdotal and the personal.

Conceived and choreographed by: Efrosini Protopapa
Created with and performed by: Susanna Recchia
Recorded monologues: Lucy May Constantini, Meghan Flanigan, Sarah Shorten, Amy Voris
Sound editing, costume and lighting: Efrosini Protopapa
Dramaturgical advice: Cath Willmore

Supported by Dance4, Laban and Roehampton University.

Presented at:

• Sandfield Theatre, Nottingham, March 2008, as part of the ‘Sharing Platform 2008’, organised by Dance4
• The Michaelis Theatre, Roehampton University, London, June 2008, as part of ‘Climbing Babel: Performance and perfection in translation’, a School of Arts research festival
• Tanzfabrik, Berlin, October 2008, as part of ‘Freistil: The Art of Improvisation’, curated by Gabriele Reuter
• Theater Kikker, Utrecht, April 2009, as part of ‘Europe in Motion / Springdance festival’
• The Michaelis Theatre, Roehampton University, London, April 2009, as part of ‘Dance Diary’