My Bicycle Loves You is a day in the life of seven characters, all of whom live in the same apartment block. Like the films used in the production, this collection of characters is full of all manner of curiosities: Salima thinks she is a cat. Brian is almost certain he is growing bullhorns. Alice is a pugilist with a very distinctive fighting style. Laasko is a renowned hat designer and his wife Mimi, a milliner of rare skill. Hector is a loner who loves his old films and perhaps the most peculiar of all is Louisa who seems to have fallen out of time.
My Bicycle Loves You brings together a team of brilliant Australian musicians, acrobats, multimedia experts and theatre makers who will share the stage - and screen - with the fantastical, dream-like ghosts of a bygone era.
As we watch these people go about their daily lives we realise that notions of time and reason bare little resemblance to what we usually know. It is a surreal and enchanting world in which dreams begin at dawn, bodies defy gravity and death is conquered by love.
My Bicycle Loves You is a wildly imaginative, often surreal, modern day fantasy that pays homage to the spirit of vaudeville. With seven performers and four musicians, historic film, contemporary digital effects, vaudeville, acrobatics, flying, and a little magic, it will be “a most delightful entertainment” for a broad audience, driven by extraordinary physicality and enchanting visuals.
The starting point for My Bicycle Loves You is a treasure trove of films created at the turn of the last century. Recently restored by the National Film and Sound Archive, they were originally owned by the Corrick Family, who screened the films as part of their touring vaudeville act in the early 1900s. When the filmmakers made these films, they had no map in front of them. In 2010, Legs on the Wall is equipped with an arsenal of new technological tools – digital video processors, digital voice transformers, live feed cameras, complex lighting effects, sophisticated aerial rigging and trained and skilled bodies.
Like the original Corrick family shows, My Bicycle Loves You uses the form of vaudeville to tell its story. It is not a traditional narrative in which we start at A and make our way to B. It is a collection of scenes which by various means reveal the particular and peculiar qualities of the characters.
Central to this telling are the films. Their boldness, humour and inventiveness are a constant source of inspiration. Screened alone, the films would be relics, curiosities from a distant past, enchanting but nostalgic. Without the films, the performances on stage could become an expression of pure technological trickery. By revisiting the past creative moment that generated these films and making a new work in partnership with them – past and present, two and three dimensional space talking to each other – we have sought to create a new space in which virtuosity and fragility can coexist.
The creation of this new work involves Legs on the Wall and the National Film and Sound Archive, with support from the MFI, the Australia Council, and Perth and Sydney Festivals.
Creative Team
Director – Patrick Nolan
Story devised by Beatrix Christian, Patrick Nolan, Anna Tregloan and company
Composer – Ben Walsh
Designer– Anna Tregloan
Video – Mic Gruchy
AV interactive – Tim Gruchy
Lighting – Damien Cooper
Artistic Associate - Simone O’Brien
Performers
Alicia Battestini, Tom Flanagan, Alexandra Harrison, Aimee Horne, Kate Sherman, Matt Wilson, Emil Wolk
Musicians
Luke Dubber, Eden Ottignon, Matt Ottignon, Daniel Pliner, Mick Stuart, Ben Walsh
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