In aD, Earthfall used an all male ensemble to investigate the relationship between father and son. Influenced by Blake Morrison’s novel And When Did You Last See Your Father, Tony Parson’s Man and Boy, the films of the Scottish director Bill Douglas and Dylan Thomas’ poem to his father, Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night, the crucial content of the work came from the performers’ autobiographical accounts of their own relationships with their fathers.
The work was set in a sparse space of a fragmented room with a large cinema screen playing out the testimonies of the performers, with scenes taking place on the Severn Bridge and the South Wales Valleys. The choreography was derived from a contact improvisational exploration and explored the physicalities of a child, an adolescent, an adult and an old man.
The important mix of humour, involving sibling rivalry and favouritism, including a father trying to teach his sons some John Travolta moves, alongside an intimate exploration of male relations dominated this work.
aD toured the throughout the UK and mainland Europe.
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