“A visual metaphor exposing levels, tiers, hierarchies and centres of control. Paris is spot on.”
- Total Theatre magazine, December 2004

Family Hold Back

Family Hold Back is a highly visual, darkly comic and very well mannered performance airing the perversities of politeness of the English dinner table where no one mentions politics and everyone knows that Trotterscliffe is pronounced Trosley. It is about being shut up, talked over and con… const… constantly interrupted. Over the three courses of the evening, a leakage of repressed bad manners begins to soak the corners of the pristine white tourniquet napkins as Paris struggles to confront what really lies underneath the perfectly laid table.

Beneath the damask, codes of Englishness are exposed as weapons of mass destruction, as is the ubiquitous silver service canteen. Paris stains, soils and sullies the preserves and codes of the white middle-class, breaking down cultural barriers and mechanisms of polite imprisonment from the inside.

Presented by British Council Shanghai
Created and performed by Helen Paris （Curious）
Directed by Leslie Hill （Curious）
Producer: Cheryl Pierce, Artsadmin
Lighting Designer: Margie Medlin
Production Manager: Steve Wald

Date: 16:00 & 19:00, 9 January, 2010
Venue: Ke Center for the Comtemporary Arts, Shanghai (613 Kaixuan Rd. near Yan’an Xi Rd.)

Free Performance in English with Chinese subtitles. Phone/Email Registration in advance is essential.

Tel：+86 021 61313498, 61313499
Email：ke@kecenter.org.cn

Performance will be followed by an artist talk by Curious, the performance artists.

More information please contact British Council Shanghai arts.assistant@britishcouncil.org.cn

The artists:

Curious was formed in 1996 by Leslie Hill and Helen Paris. Since then, the company has developed a reputation for its edgy, humorous interrogations of contemporary culture, work that has been called as smart as it is seductive. Curious have produced nearly 40 projects in a range of media including live performance, installation, publication and film. Each project starts with a question and the subsequent investigation involves intimate, personal journeys alongside public research and enquiry. They call their company "curious" because they believe what drives them as artists is an intense curiosity about the world in which they live.

Curious are：Helen Paris directs the Contemporary Performance Making MA at Brunel University. This innovative MA provides students with the space to nurture their creativity through the practical and critical exploration of contemporary multimedia performance. The course offers specialisation in directing, solo-performance and performance writing. Leslie Hill co-directs the practice based PhD programme at the SMARTlab, University of East London. The SMARTlab Digital Media Institute supports a highly selective group of PhD researchers working in the performing arts, visual arts and technology.

Their recent publications are Essences of London (DVD), Lost & Found (DVD), (Be)longing (DVD), and The Guerilla Guide To Performance Art : How To Make A Living As An Artist (BOOK) and Performance & Place (BOOK)

Curious first visited Shanghai in 2005 as residency artist and performed their famous piece ‘on the Scent’ in a local apartment, supported by British Council/Arts Council England. Some of their Shanghai experience is in their other project ‘Lost & Found’.

www.placelessness.com