Archive
A brief overview of Lost Dog’s early works.
Discombobulator (2010)
In 2009, Co-founder of Lost Dog, Ben Duke attended ‘The Electric Body’, a 12 day ‘Creative Campus’, organised by The European Network of Performing Arts (ENPARTS) to run alongside the Venice Biennale’s International Festival of Contemporary Music. During the workshop he collaborated on ‘Discombobulator’, a short multi-media work, featuring video projection, live electronic composition and computer generated imagery. Having premiered in Venice as part of the music festival, the piece was selected to feature in the Dance Umbrella festival 2010.
Discombobulator formed part of Dance Umbrella’s 2010 Brief Encounters series, in which short works by talented new choreographers or established artists are performed prior to main stage shows. It was performed in The Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room before performances of a Trisha Brown Repertory Evening.
“Discombobulator provides yet another positive step for Duke on his steady passage to the UK choreographers ‘A’ List.” (Ballet.co.uk)
Conceived by Ben Duke, Will Duke, Dario Palermo and Zoe Svendsen. Choreographed and Performed by Ben Duke. Video Design and Projection by Will Duke. Composition by Dario Palermo. Dramaturgy by Zoe Svendsen. Lighting Design by Jackie Shemesh
Watch Discombobulator.
Salvage (2010)
Produced and Commissioned by the Corn Exchange Newbury.
Salvage tells the story of a group of friends who gather to remember the moment 5 years ago when they lost one of their friends to the sea. They re-live the moment trying to understand what they need to retrieve in order to move forward.
“Salvage is moving and funny” The Guardian
Dramaturgy by Stephen Brown. Performed by Seke Chimutengwende, Kath Duggan, Ben Duke, Anna Finkel, Raquel Meseguer, Jamie McCarthy. Music by Jamie McCarthy. Lighting Design by Jackie Shemesh. Design & Projection Design by Will Duke. Production Manager, Guy Dickens
The Rain Parade (2009)
Commissioned by Dance Digital with support from the University of Hertfordshire, Take Art and the Place.
A man and a woman in a strange room are under the impression they are the last people left alive. They are being watched by something else and they are part of an experiment that keeps erasing their memory. It makes moving forward difficult.
Performed by Ben Duke, Raquel Meseguer, Jamie McCarthy. Music by Jamie McCarthy. Lighting Design by Jackie Shemesh. Design & Video Design by Will Duke
Hungry Ghosts (2007-8)
Commissioned by the Place through the Robin Howard Foundation. Research period supported by the Battersea Arts Centre and Arts Council England. Tour supported by Arts Council England.
Hungry Ghosts tells the story of a man’s journey through a tragically theatrical act of terrorism. As the sole survivor he is haunted by the stories of those who didn’t make it and is desperate to find sense in this nonsensical act.
Performed by Donatella Cabras, Seke Chimutengwende, Ben Duke, Delphine Gaborit, Raquel Meseguer. Music arranged and performed by Jim de Zoete. Lighting Design by Jackie Shemesh. Costume Design by Katherina Radeva.
Touring Cast: Donatella Cabras, Sarah Dowling, Ben Duke, Leo Kay, Eva Recacha/Laura Wheatley. Music: composed and performed by Jamie McCarthy
The Drowner (2005-6)
Created with support from Windsor Arts Centre. Tour supported by Arts Council England.
A man runs on a beach, desperate to call the emergency services after discovering a woman washed up by the sea. Told in rapid, alternating flashbacks on an atmospheric, pebble strewn stage, the young man’s story unravels as the audience is forced to question their assumptions. What was, what could have been and what should have been twist into a single memory.
The Drowner was nominated for a Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Fringe 2005.
“Rarely has the treadmill of everyday life been jammed so forcibly and with such genuine emotion. Stylistically, it is as much dance as it is theatre – as much theatre as it is dance. Words are used when they are needed and when the body can tell the story more effectively, it does.” Total Theatre Magazine
Directed, conceived and performed by Raquel Meseguer and Ben Duke. Music by Jim de Zoete. Lighting Design by Sally Ferguson. Costume & Set Design by Gilly Dawson.
The Overhead Project (2005)
Created for the Place’s White Christmas season in 2005.
This duet examines the performer’s paranoia and the often self punishing nature of performance. It is inspired by our own experiences of stepping on stage and the disproportionate sense of fear this invokes.