British Council, 18th International Theatre Festival "Varna Summer" and Sofia Theatre present

Hotel "Methuselah"

When: 7 June 2010, 1900
Where: 18th International Theatre Festival "Varna Summer", Drama Theatre "Stoyan Bachvarov", Second Stage

When: 9 June 2010, 1900
Where: Sofia Theatre

Staging
Hotel Methuselah is a performance that pushes at the boundaries of scenic design and digital technology to create a unique experience for spectators.

The action is viewed through a six metre letterbox-shaped gap, like cinema wide-screen, which only reveals the performers' bodies from knee to neck. A film is projected immediately behind the acting space, which the performers mirror with perfect timing. Working alongside Laura Hopkins' exquisitely designed interiors and costumes, Rodrigo Velasquez's digital cinematography creates Harry's amnesiac existence in astonishing detail. The film shows beautifully lit and composed close-ups of the characters' faces as well as scenes of the hotel's interior. As the walls and floors begin to move and perspectives shift, when the worlds of the stage and the screen are seen to pull apart, the disorientating psychic and physical experience of Harry's collapse is memorably brought to life.

Neil Boynton’s soundtrack, especially created for this production and produced in Surround Sound, places the spectator at the heart of Harry’s traumatic story. Referencing sources that vary from Shostakovich and popular French ballads, to motifs drawn from horror films and sampled sound, Boynton creates an audio landscape that viscerally captures Harry’s descent into his nightmarish world.

Story
Hotel Methuselah is a contemporary ghost story that explores our fears around mortality, sexuality and the terrifying sense of responsibility that comes with having children. In a stunning homage to post-war British cinema and the French new wave, imitating the dog create a unique and disturbingly immersive experience for the audience. Telling the story of night porter Harry’s search to uncover the forgotten truth of his past, Hotel Methuselah is a searing tale of the destructive power of love and the hell of personal disintegration. Fusing spectacular live action and video projection, this is stylish, cutting edge visual performance that places narrative, emotion and wit at its core.

Company Background
imitating the dog formed in Leeds in 1998. They have produced five major touring works including Hotel Methuselah: Einmal ist Kenimal (once is never) (1999), Ark (2000), Guilty Pleasures (2001) and Five Miles and Falling (2002/3) as well as numerous smaller works and educational projects. Their projects are regularly funded by Arts Council England, alongside commissions by the Nuffield Theatre and Leeds Metropolitan Studio Theatre.

imitating the dog make performance work that experiments with the role of story-telling and narrative in the contemporary theatrical experience. They make innovative use of digital media, design and physical performance to create off-kilter worlds within which public and private obsessions - identity, death, love and sexuality - are explored.