SPILL 15 – Debbie Guinnane: The Machinist, Circa 1986

7 November: 4pm.
8 November: 2pm.

£10 or part of the SPILL All-Seeing Pass, SPILL Week 2 Pass or National Theatre Studio Daytime Pass. 

To purchase as part of the SPILL All-Seeing Pass or SPILL Week 2 Pass please call box office on 020 7650 2350.

A space where the body is held in a ‘suspension of disbelief.’ triggering thoughts on control; over which an artist hungers. In preparation for the film The Machinist, Christian Bale dropped 63 lbs in the space of four months. His act mimics the hunger artists who starved themselves for public exhibition around North America and Europe, between the 18th and 20th centuries.

The Machinist, circa 1986 considers the construction of subjecthood and resistance alongside concerns over body dysmorphia and eating disorders, concepts used by Guinnane as metaphorical processes for performance making.

Duration: 102 mins. 

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