Returning from their exhilarating escapades to the shores of Greenwich, Dead-Eye Parry and the Blindfold Cat disembark in Hammersmith for another of their adventurous explorations in movement and space. Having previously abandoned the means of common visual perception, they nowadays make use of alternative modes of orientation and communication guiding them on their hunt for a handful of prized objects particular to each adventure. As witnesses have reported, their camaraderie discloses the sort of behavioural patterns and performance-related challenges that one may expect from this pair of free-spirited explorers.

Music & Words: Ellan Parry and Catherine Koontz

Ellan Parry designs and devises for theatre and live art.  She was the 2005 winner of the Jocelyn Herbert Award for stage design, and was shortlisted for the Linbury Prize the same year.  Recent projects include Wuthering Heights (Kazuko Hohki and Colin Carmichael, Battersea Arts Centre and national tour), The Race (Gecko, London International Mime Festival, and international tour – Total Theatre Award Winner), Incipient Impediment (Lady Inert, National Review of Live Art, Glasgow), Mie (new experimental orchestral work by Catherine Kontz, The Space), Rituals Before The End of Time (Lundahl & Seitl Co-Laboratory, The Place, Resolutions Season), Dr Ox and Billy Holiday (Brian, Battersea Arts Centre), After Haggerty  (dir. Kirsty Housley, The Finborough), The Body-snatcher and The Gift (Metal & Bone, The Old Operating Theatre)Sudden Silence (Penny Black and Ellen Hughes, The Arcola), Jacques & His Master (Time Out Critic’s Choice) and Hell is Empty (Allgood Theatre, The White Bear and The Space) and Falling Angel Rising Ape (Imagina Dance Theatre, Edinburgh – Fringe Review Best Dance Award). Ellan was a founder member of The Society of Wonders; projects with the Society include The State of Mind of Ghosts (Chelsea Theatre, Live 05 Season), Sap (The Nightingale Theatre, Brighton Visions Festival), Bellerophon (Carn Marth Quarry, Cornwall) and Pig Man Joe (The Marlborough Theatre, Brighton).  In 2005 she was artist in residence at the Tou Scene arts centre in Stavanger, Norway.  Ellan trained at Wimbledon School of Art. 
www.ellanparry.co.uk

Catherine Kontz (b. 1976) is a freelance composer, working and collaborating with musicians and visual artists in London and abroad. She has recently written music for Rhodri Davies, Ebba Erikzon, Henri Växby and BJ Cole. As part of her PhD in Composition at Goldsmiths College, University of London, she produced and directed her new large-scale music theatre work, MiE, for a set of six sold-out performances at The Space, London in November 2006. Written for 8 mimes/acrobats and 39 musicians, MiE incorporates Deleuzian theories into its narrative textures and musical material, resulting in strong visual statements within the context of experimental contemporary music.

Catherine has recently been commissioned for new works by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Banque centrale de Luxembourg.

As a pianist and cellist, Catherine regularly performs within the contemporary music and free improvisation scene in London with appearances at Interlace, the Music We'd Like To Hear concert series, Happenings at the Space and Musenight at Rivington Gallery. She records and performs regularly with her band Cartridge, she is a member of ‘une cartouche’ and she has done session work for Icons of Elegance, Mika Sellens, The Wedding Present and The Bays.

www.catherinekontz.com