• ROMCOM WILL BE SHOWING AT THE SHUNT LOUNGE FOR THREE NIGHTS ONLY - 24, 25, 26 JANUARY
• WATCH OUT FOR TIMES AND GUEST PERFORMERS, YET TO BE CONFIRMED > CHECK SHUNT LOUNGE SITE HERE

< Lars Rudolph and Caroline Peters

text: Glen Neath

concept / direction: Ant Hampton

video: Britt Hatzius

Premiered at the 291 Gallery, London, March 2003 [see next page]
with Finlay Robertson & Amber Sealey
and David Rosenberg & Gemma Brockis [shunt]

then > ARCHES theatre festival, Glasgow, April 2004

GARAGE festival, Stralsund, Germany, August 2004 [with Linde Engelhardt and Jens Bohnsack]

PLATEAUX festival, Frankfurt, Germany, October 13-14 2004

- with Jerry Killick [Forced Entertainment] + Elyce Semenec and Lars Rudolph + Caroline Peters [all photos on this page]

LIVE BRITS festival, HEBBEL AM UFER, BERLIN, January 2005

- with Bastian Trost [Gob Squad] and Bettina Grahs

EXETER PHOENIX - May 2005 - with Katie Beswick and Marcus Bartlett

BETHNAL GREEN WORKING MEN'S CLUB - May 2005 > with Sophie Okonedo and Greg McLaren

Following some experiments in late 2002, Ant Hampton and Glen Neath created "ROMCOM". Two performers meet on stage before an audience and enact the story of a relationship. The "story" is pre-recorded onto 2 cds and is relayed to them, for the first time, through a set of headphones. The performers, different for every performance, agree in advance to do the show, but have absolutely no idea what is expected of them; they simply turn up and put on a set of headphones through which their instructions are given to them. It's important they haven't been told anything about the show's contents beforehand.

"Every night, a different man and woman say what they are told to say and do what they are told to do."

The two CD's - one for each performer - are started simultaneously with a third disc, a DVD, containing both the music for the show and the images projected as backdrops to the action. All three discs then run on for 50 minutes without any human intervention; the entire stage business of this production - blackouts, titles for scenes, sound cues, music, lighting - is automated, using very simple means. The structure then is TOTALLY AUTOMATIC and "closed", thereby foregrounding the variable, human process of negotiating and carrying out the instructions.

THE OUTGOING MAN, Glen Neath's “surreal and wickedly funny debut novel” (The Times) was published by Portobello Books in September 2005.

	"look at her, look at the audience, blink your eyes as if it’s a tic, flicker your cheek as if it’s a tic, flicker your eyebrows, blink your eyes rapidly as if it’s a tic, try and wiggle your ears, sniff, subtly pick your nose, lick your lips, take one deep breath, clean your front teeth with your tongue, scratch your bum, sniff twice, look around, look at your shoes, rub your right shoe on the back of your left leg as if you’re polishing it, put your hands behind your back, put your hands in your pockets, take one deep breath, run your fingers through your hair, put your hands on your hips, no, cross your arms, turn and look at her, turn back and look at the audience"
			"Resembles one of Godard's 1960's movies, full of jump-cut montages between close-ups of blankeyed lovers and excursions into heavily captioned symbolism. And, as well as comedy, it's a complex study of compatibility and communication" GLASGOW HERALD, APRIL 2004

MORE PHOTOS OF ROMCOM

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