On a Wolf Moon evening, sometime in the new millennium, two star-crossed lovers argue about the beginning of things, the end of things and all things in between…
Choreographer, dance artist, theatre and film-maker Quang Kien Van comes to the Albany, Deptford – where he has been an associate artist since 2022 – to give the UK premiere of his latest work, Babylon, a fearless story of love and timeless romance, from 18 to 20 October.
Featuring four outstanding multi-disciplinary performers and made using a life-affirming Yes Manifesto, Babylon explores the creation and destruction found in nature and human lives. Set in a cosmic landscape, it smashes together dance, song, music and spoken word – with a side dish of polemics.
Dancers Yu-Chien Chang and Laura Lorenzi play out the epic drama of their mythical love affair, splicing together relaxed grounded hip-hop, contemporary dance and disco, oscillating through frenetic, slo-mo and tightly-close duets. Musicians Femi Oriogun-Williams (also the show’s musical director) and Bianca Fung sing and play a pop/funk/folk score live on stage, illuminating the lovers’ inner lives, asking questions, talking politics and plunging into wild streams of consciousness over insistent guitars and electronics.
The Yes Manifesto was created in response to choreographer and performer Yvonne Rainer’s 1964 No Manifesto, which rejected the prevailing dance aesthetics of the time. It says: “Yes to spectacle. Yes to virtuosity. Yes to transformations and magic and make-believe. Yes to the glamour and transcendency of the star image. Yes to the heroic. Yes to the anti-heroic. Yes to trash imagery. Yes to involvement of performer or spectator. Yes to style. Yes to camp. Yes to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the performer. Yes to eccentricity. Yes to moving or being moved.”
Set and costume design is by Rosalind Noctor.
The Albany, Deptford, Douglas Way, London SE8 4AG. Wednesday 18 to Friday 20 October at 7.30pm. Admission: £12/£10 concessions.
Booking: 020 8692 4446 – https://www.thealbany.org.uk/shows/babylon-quang-kien-van/
