A new full-length work by Eva Recacha, The Picnic presents a large group of young humans enjoying themselves in a surreal blend of parading, celebrating, indulging and co-operating activities, all emerging from a dreamlike picnic scenario. The work, co-created with a group of collaborators and a cast of professionals and participants, explores themes of utopia and it is inspired by the painting ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ by H. Bosch, which presents many human figures in a terrestrial paradise, indulging in worldly pleasures.
At The Picnic, a self-made feast, we create moments of visibility and dignity – for ourselves and others-, moments of recognition, of freedom, of care, alongside moments of desire, pleasure, joy, and revel.
The tone is that of a dream; filled with strange scenarios of strong visual and aural textures that invite our senses to indulge into physical sensations and our minds to follow surreal invitations. As the dream unfolds The Picnic world turns more graspable and quotidian, imbued with human endeavours and hopes, and gearing towards a collective celebratory moment.
Co-commissioned by Sadler’s Wells and South East Dance, with support from London Contemporary Dance School. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
The Picnic will premiere at the Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadler’s Wells on the 27th November 2024.
R&D
The 2023 R&D period of The Picnic was supported by London Contemporary Dance School and supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. It focused on interaction with props and costumes, exploring design led structuring ideas. The main topic of this research was cooperation.
The 2021 R&D period of The Picnic was supported by Sadler’s Wells and using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. It involved the band The Yonis, long standing collaborator Alberto Ruiz Soler, and a group of LCDS alumni. It focused on exploring notions of synchronicity, togetherness, parading and picnicking. The topics explored back then were patriarchy and misogyny..
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Direction & Choreography: Eva Recacha
Performance and devising: Charlotte Mclean. Alicja Nauman, Scilla Rajalin & London Contemporary Dance School Students
Sound: Alberto Ruiz Soler
Scenography: Kate Lane
Lighting Design: Jackie Shemesh
Associate Lighting Designer: Joe Hornsby
Text: Devised by the Creative Team and throughout R&D periods
Rehearsal Director/Assistant choreographer: Scilla Rajalin
Production Manager: Ben Moon
Costume Supervisor: Sophie Donaldson
Costume Assistants: Francis Morris and Emma Lyth
Promotional Images: Rocio Chacón
Trailer: Genevieve Reeves
More about The Picnic.
The work development started in 2021, and several research and outreach periods were undertaken prior to the creation period in Autumn 2024. Throughout this time The Picnic operated as a community creative dance project exploring togetherness through movement practice and the building of surreal scenarios through playful use of props to create surreal feast/picnic environments.
During the creation period the choreographic fabric evolved strongly linked with the design created by Kate Lane, as all props and costumes were devised – informed by research periods – before commencing rehearsals. This generated a strong co-creation dynamic between the scenographic and choreographic elements in the work, and a particular attention to expressions of materiality across human bodies and design elements.
In The Picnic, the choreographic material explores notions of viscerality and indulgence, connectivity and synchronicity, care and playfulness, giving rise to moments of cooperation, action, support and celebration.
The specially composed sound by Alberto Ruiz Soler situates The Picnic in a world fluctuating between a blissful dream and a hardcore rave. The score explores the materiality of sound through textures creating oneiric, at times harmonic, at times dystopian spaces that hold love, care, fear and anger.
Working texts July 2024– these are texts that try to capture some of the themes of the work. They are not meant to be a script, but they provide points of reflection and documentation along the journey,
Text 1
I want to cultivate my vulnerability.
Our errors, our misconceptions, our weird thoughts, our secret desires, our not so good ideas, allowed to breathe and co-exist with that part of ourselves that we think it’s our better self.
Text 2
Fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fuuuuuun.
Fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fuuuuuun.
I want to be fun. I want to be fun. I want to be fun. I want to be fun.
Text 3
If you could see what I see.
If you could come here and stare, filling your eyes till they no longer see, distinguish, or identify. Hearing till you can no longer make the words, the songs, the messages, the codes, all sound turned into shrill and cacophony. Feel the multitude of touches, skin surrounded by skin, melted, joined up, glued together into a giant mass of human epidermis, all encompassing, filling the space, filling the void, spreading and shrinking, pulsating, beating alive rivers of hidden blood. Cool blood boiling in the depths of the body, our bodies, my body. Blood, pump, heart. Blood, pump, heart. Blood, pump, heart.
Text 4
Respect my privacy. Don’t diagnose. Don’t justify. Don’t understand.
Text 5 – Free
I bleed
Sometimes
I bleed
Not always
Let me bleed in peace
Let me disappear
I go numb
Your attention is not needed
I ride free on my unicorn
Free of fear
Free of numbness
Free of scrutiny
Free of terror
I am free
I am not yours.
Text 6 – The bone
The bone, the skin, the blood, the hair
The core, the meat, the heart, the shell.
Beneath the skin the bone
Beneath the shell the core.
Inside out the heart beats
Proclaiming victory
Arranging
Manufacturing
Classifying
Assembling
Beating Beats of consciousness
Beats of love
Beats of loud, lived fragments.
Forgotten
Obliterated
Wasted
In the big mess of sinking.
Text 7 – An encounter
An encounter
In the presence of
A genesis with production line efficiency.
The Zero waste system is full of
Appreciation of the parts and
Complication in the assemblage
lines
Lining up
Lining down
Orderly lines
Full of loudness
Not Quiet
One after another after another after another after
Forever_neverending_allatonce_subreptitiously
Not quiet
Not quiet
A loud secret, unfolding, unyielding,
cruising the vast space between worlds,
between us,
Between you and I,
between them,
between all.
All here
all present
All lined
All loud
All clear
All in all
after all
in the end
at the end of the line
another.
Appreciation
Appreciation of the complex arrangement
Collection
Assemblage
Genesis of form
The logic of attachment
The Physics of entanglement
Tied
Sewed
Stitched to eachother
like we are the same
Like we are the same
Our bodies beating in sync
Pulsating together
Our bodies in arranged composition
Travelling together
Pulling, placing, parting, parading
Arranging
Arranging
An array
A disarray
An array
A disarray
An array
A disarray
Text 8 – I feel
I want to walk into the night
Run into the dark
Fly into the unknown
I feel excited
I feel
Text 9 – This one…
This one came alone
This one came with a friend
This one came late from work
This one is looking for work
This one is a particularly bright student
This one is still undecided
This one is very tired from a late shift last night and this one is full of energy and excitement after a lot of sex last night
This one is unsure
This one wishes to mix with others
This one prefers to be left alone.
This one has good ideas for how to be together.
This one is shy and wants to be apart for a while
This one loves heat, pulsating blood, proximity
This one loves the buzz of the night
This one doesn’t like the fuss tonight
This one loves the crowd
This one loves the attention
This one needs attention
This one has a bad memoryThis one prefers not to say
This one prefers to dream
This one prefers to forget
This one remembers
This one wants to speak
(silence)
This one has something to say
(silence)
This one has something to share
(silence)
This one will ride a unicorn tonight
This one will wear loose hair tonight
This one will wear no shoes tonight
This one will lay low tonight
This one will fly high tonightArray
Disarray
Text 10-Inviting death
If Inviting death wasn’t so real
If inviting death wasn’t so normal
If inviting death wasn’t your fault
If inviting death wasn’t the end
If inviting death
Inviting
Death
Text 11 – Cracked open
Countless, endless, speechless,
Numb
Terrified
Frozen
Cracked open
Left to bleed
Left to cry
In silence
Text 12 – Decent and dull
Decent and dull
Nice, nice, just bloody nice
Decent and nice, and kind, and very dull.
It’s asphyxiating
Settling down
Resigning
Self-conscious
Sex conscious
making an effort
putting a good face
carrying a burden.
Text 13 – I am grasping out for wholeness
I am grasping out for wholeness.