Dreams Winter – Forced Ent.

During reading week the group was tasked with researching into a particular artist/performance company and presenting information based on a site specific performance they have created. The company I decided to research was Forced Entertainment and their piece entitled Dreams winter; an interesting site specific performance that took place in, and was inspired by, the Manchester Central Library.

The Library is a circular dome shaped building, much like the Pantheon in Rome, with bookshelves stacked in rows directing towards the centre of the room like spokes on a bike wheel. An article from The Independent newspaper says that the architecture of the domed ceiling allowed for sound to echo and travel in interesting and surprising ways, which is another aspect that is shared with the Pantheon in Rome. (For article see link at bottom.)

Dreams-06-PROJ

The performance itself was inspired from the books and stories surrounding the library. They took the library space and transformed it from a place of silence to a place of creation and sound. They took the architecture of the building and used it to their advantage by scaling the shelves and climbing up and across ledges and walkways within the room. Tim Etchells said himself in the same newspaper article:  ‘A library is where lovers meet and where spies exchange information.  We were drawn to the idea of animating the stories and secrets contained in all the books, as well as conjuring the ghosts of past library users, invoking the voices of authors and characters, as well as readers. There are lots of stimulating contradictions: it’s full of voice yet you’re supposed to be silent; a reader sits in one place yet this consciousness travels unfettered …’

INDEPENDENT ARTICLE: 

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-quiet-please-mayhem-in-progress-from-off-the-wall-to-off-the-shelf-forced-entertainments-1413545.html

Dreams Winter Project:

http://www.forcedentertainment.com/project/dreams-winter/

Performance DVD:

http://www.forcedentertainment.com/shop-product/dreams-winter-dvd/

 

 

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