Touch the Beast in London and Newcastle

Published: 5 March 2019
Reporter: Peter Lathan

Giacomo Pini and Dora Frankel Credit: Luke Waddington
Livia Massarelli, Giacomo Pini and Dora Frankel Credit: Luke Waddington
Giacomo Pini Credit: Luke Waddington

Newcastle-based choreographer Dora Frankel is to première a new work in London before bringing it to Alphabetti. Touch the Beast opens at Jackson’s Lane on 8 March and then comes to Newcastle on 15 March as part of the Curious Arts Fundraiser.

Touch The Beast is a filmed gothic romance seen through the lens of the 21st century, featuring three charismatic people caught in a moment of time.

Sensual, strange, gender-fluid and inspired by the tales of Edgar Allen Poe and Aubrey Beardsley, the dance film takes Poe's idea that the seeds of our own destruction lie in ourselves.

“The ‘Beast’ is our guilt at our sexual orientation, our age, race, gender, looks and our past actions. It is also our own genitalia,” says Dora Frankel. “The film works with this idea, drawing inspiration primarily from Poe’s short stories The Cask of Amontillado and The Oval Portrait.”

Working with Dora Frankel are filmmaker Andy Wood (Leeds International Film Festival, The Place Prize), composer Roma Yagnik (Universal and Tate Britain), lighting designer Kirk Sims (Celtic Connections) and costume designer Kate Collins (Royal Opera House, Northern Stage).

The dancers are Livia Massarelli, Giacomo Pini and Dora Frankel.

The Alphabetti Curious Arts Fundraiser is on 15 March at 8:00 and will be followed by a party lasting until midnight. Tickets are £10 and are on sale on the Tickets Ignite web site.

Curious Arts is a Newcastle Gateshead based not-for-profit organisation developing LGBTQ arts, artists and audiences across the North East of England.

Tickets for the Jackson’s Lane showing can be booked in the Jackson's Lane web site.

*Some links, including Amazon, Stageplays.com, ATG Tickets, LOVEtheatre, BTG Tickets, Ticketmaster, The Ticket Factory, LW Theatres and QuayTickets, are affiliate links for which BTG may earn a small fee at no extra cost to the purchaser.

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