A Treachery of Images

A new solo double bill by critically acclaimed dance theatre maker John-William Watson.

A duo of works heavily inspired by Watson’s love of silent film, physical comedy and absurdist humour, this new evening of dance is a journey through the life of two surreal characters and their absurd relationships with (seemingly) inanimate objects.

With Watson’s ever present interest in the line between tragedy and comedy the two works transform from seemingly mundane, melancholic environments, to slap-stick, dreamlike worlds hued by anything from the work of Buster Keaton, to the golden-age of cartoons.

Why This Chair Does Not Exist

An impossible space, an impossible chair, in an impossible time.

In Watson’s first ever solo work they imagine a Buster Keaton-esque tragically comedic character, existing in a world one surreal step removed from our own.

Inspired by the works of surrealist painter René Magritte, they lace a simple proposition, a person and a chair, with existential ideas of consciousness. Exploring the nonsensical nature of life and death, through a lens of
absurd, silent film-esque humour.

In their continued collaboration with composer and sound artist Adam Vincent Clarke, Watson and Clarke craft a theatrical, surreal and cinematic landscape hued by the works of Bach.

Rules for Safe Lifting

“Looks and sounds simple enough, and it is, once you’ve got used to it! Let’s run through it one more time to make sure…”

In Rules for Safe Lifting, Watson creates an imagined reality of a lonely figure trapped within the confines of an old, overlooked health and safety poster. With their existence brought to life in a dark basement room, concrete clad and damp, our protagonist searches for companionship.

Scored by a broken radio, their only connection with the outside world, the lonely figure navigates their relationship with isolation, monotony and what to do when faced with the greatest inevitability of all.

This surreal, darkly-comedic, character portrait is Watson’s first full length solo work, exploring the bizarre life of a person who’s entire existence is based upon executing one simple task.