An award-winning performance company will bring their latest production to Preston as part of an exclusive tour.
CLOD ENSEMBLE’s show, Placebo, will also be performed in Salford and Brighton, before a two-week run in London.
Founded over 20-years ago by co-Artistic Directors, Suzy Willson and Paul Clark, CLOD ENSEMBLE works at the intersection of theatre, dance, music and visual art.
Placebo, which is directed by Willson, features original music by Clark and costumes by London-based non-binary fashion brand ART SCHOOL.
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The production follows seven performers through a series of experiments, some performed with the help of the audience, as they reckon with the placebo effect and explore what makes us feel better, and what is fake and what is real.
A statement from the tour promoters said: “Sequences of both abstract and everyday movement are repackaged, distorted, repeated and abandoned in ways that inevitably affect the audiences’ perceptions of what they see and hear.
“Paul Clark has created an incredible score that sweeps through euphoric club tracks to classical fugues, which drive the action and – depending on our expectations and suggestibility – make us question what we see and how we see it.
“Sometimes playful, sometimes brutal, Placebo revels in the fact that even something considered to be ‘fake’ can have very real consequences.”
Placebo, Clod Ensemble – Derelict from Derelict on Vimeo.
Co-Artistic Director Suzy Willson said: “I’ve been fascinated by the research that shows how the colour of a pill can affect the efficiency of a drug, or that someone’s health might be improved after ‘fake’ surgery.
“But perhaps it’s not that surprising – after all, in the theatre, we are constantly playing with people’s perceptions and affecting how they feel. Our new piece Placebo plays with some of these ideas.”
The Preston dates are being put on by DERELICT at UCLan’s Media Factory. The performances will start at 7.30pm on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 October. More information is available on the DERELICT website, and tickets can be booked via Ticket Source.
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Will you be going to see Placebo? Let us know in the comments below.