For ten years, Rotozaza has explored the use of instructions given live to unrehearsed performers. This gave rise to their Autoteatro strategy (pioneered by 'Etiquette') wherein participants find themselves exchanging audience and performer roles by simply following instructions, often heard via headphones.
GuruGuru takes this further - five participants instead of two, led by a sixth, on-screen, animated character whose twin roles of marketing and spiritual Guru are confused by his reliance on untested and accident-prone technologies. The overproduced, digital sheen of our focus-group world cracks open into a colourful volcano of boiling absurdity. A hilarious chaos develops, exposing today's consumer-mad inability to distinguish between what we want, and what we need.
FURTHER NOTES & PROGRAMME INFO HERE (nb - spoilers - for best results, read afterwards)
GuruGuru (round-and-round in Japanese) is created by Ant Hampton together with two long-time collaborators -
Isambard Khroustaliov (Sam Britton) has been involved in nine theatre productions with Ant Hampton since 1993. Rotozaza’s first show with instructions to an unrehearsed performer, BLOKE, was a collaboration between Ant and Sam in Paris,1999. An internationally renowned and pioneering composer of electro-acoustic / contemporary classical music, Sam trained at IRCAM in Paris and is one half of the group ICARUS.
Icarus , Not Applicable and Isambard's own site
Joji Koyama
Born in Tokyo and now based in London, Joji Koyama is an award-winning film-maker, animator and graphic artist. He is the director of the short films 'From Nose to Mouth' (Arts Council of England), 'Watermelon Love' (Channel 4, NESTA), and most recently 'First Place' (Animasivo).
His films have been widely screened at international film festivals, galleries and museums. He is also known for his work directing music videos under the alias Woof Wan-Bau for the likes of Four tet, Mogwai and Coldcut.
see Joji Koyama.com
