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the moment I saw you I knew I could love you

Curious

© Hugo Glendinning
2009 – 2010

A piece about gut feelings; fight, flight and freeze reactions; impulse, love and undefended moments. Set in the belly of a whale.

Film and live action merge with sampled sound and siren song as the audience is cast adrift in life-rafts with only stories and half-remembered truths to sustain them. The Curious quest is autobiological; to expose from the inside truth and lies, biography and mythology; to probe how we compile and edit the stories of our “selves”.  

A performance installation made in collaboration with film-maker Andrew Kötting, composer Graeme Miller and performer-chanteuse Claudia Barton with guest appearances by two octogenarians, Geoff and Rene, still in love.

Commissioned by Chelsea Theatre for SACRED 2009, Colchester Arts Centre, and New Moves International for The National Review of Live Art 2010. Developed in collaboration with scientists at the Wingate Institute of Neurogastroenterology. Supported by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award and Arts Council England.

**** “Film and live performance, soundscape and installation combine in this love story to offer glimpses of an endless horizon as well as intimate close-ups….There is something immensely wistful about a piece that demonstrates that we are merely chemical compounds, and yet also shows us how to discover equilibrium.”

The Guardian (read full review)

“There are a thousand beautiful moments: my favourites include a film of a woman floating adrift at sea projected onto a tiny Sealegs packet and a harrowing story of a childhood terrorised by a sword- swallower’s accident. It’s a rich and rewarding experience being immersed in this watery world.”

Total Theatre

“There are some compelling performances. Claudia Barton has a voice as richly seductive as ladlefuls of melted chocolate while company founders, Leslie Hill and Helen Paris sure know how to spin a yarn, whether that means holding court with a mic or whispering right there in the life raft with you.”

Mayfest Review

Date Title Venue City
11–13 January 2013 the moment I saw you I knew I could love you Sydney Festival Sydney
15 November 2012 – 15 November 2013 the moment I saw you I knew I could love you : Online Gesture Online
6–7 October 2012 the moment I saw you I knew I could love you City of Women Festival Ljubljana
22–27 August 2011 the moment I saw you I knew I could love you BAC at Summerhall Edinburgh
4–5 June 2011 the moment I saw you I knew I could love you Performance Space 122 New York
3–5 March 2011 the moment I saw you I knew I could love you Nitery Theater, The Old Union, Stanford University Palo Alto, California
10–11 December 2010 the moment I saw you I knew I could love you Mitchell & Helmsley Theatres Wisconsin
© Hugo Glendinning
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