12am: Awake & Looking Down
Created 1993
Back to projectsIn 12 am: Awake & Looking Down, five silent performers endlessly reinvent their identities using stacks of cardboard signs with which they name themselves, and a store of jumble-sale clothing (coats, dresses, suits, anoraks, trousers, pyjamas) from which they dress and re-dress. This catalogue of names range from LOST LISA and VALENTINA TERESHKOVA to ELVIS PRESLEY (THE DEAD SINGER) and THE MAN WHO WENT TOO FAR. The piece lasts anywhere between 6 and 11 hours and — as in other durational works by the company — the audience are free to arrive, depart and return at any point.
12 am… is a physical and visual performance that explores the relation between object and label, image and text. 12 am… also functions as a kind of narrative kaleidoscope as the named figures, in different combinations, share space beneath the backdrop of electric stars. The piece plays on the growing exhaustion and inventiveness of its performers as they create new stories or juxtapositions between characters.
12 am: Awake & Looking Down was developed from material first used in the company’s theatre performance Emanuelle Enchanted (1992) and is the first durational work created by Forced Entertainment.
The complete list of characters/signs used in 12 am… is published in Certain Fragments.
6 to 11-hour durational performance.The audience are free to come and go as they please.
REACTIONS
"What 12am does - more than anything, I think - is encapsulate the reason anyone got into acting ever. You so want to join in. #12AMLIVE."@matttrueman
credits
Conceived and devised by the company
Performers Robin Arthur, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden, Terry O’Connor
Guest Performers Mark Etchells, Ben Neale, John Rowley
Direction Tim Etchells
Design Richard Lowdon
Lighting Design Nigel Edwards, Richard Lowdon
Soundtrack John Avery
12am: Awake & Looking Down is a Forced Entertainment production
Commissioned by National Review Of Live Art Glasgow
12am: Awake & Looking Down - PREVIOUS SHOWS
Festival d'Automne, Paris, France
18 Dec 2021
Festival d'Automne, Paris, France
15 Dec 2021 - 17 Dec 2021
SPIELART Festival, Munich, Germany
2 Nov 2019
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
28 May 2015
PACT Zollverein, Essen, Germany
1 Feb 2014
28 Mar 2003
Theater Neumarkt, Zurich, Switzerland
27 Mar 2003
Théâtre Arsenic, Lausanne, Switzerland
22 Mar 2003
Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
4 Jul 2002 - 5 Jul 2002
Meyerhold Theatre Centre, Moscow, Russia
3 Jun 2001
Dieppe Scène Nationale, Dieppe, France
20 May 2001
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
20 Jan 2001
De Beweeging Antwerp, Belgium
1 Nov 1999
Podewil, Berlin, Germany
25 Oct 1997
Festival Volterra Teatro, Pontedera, Italy
22 Jul 1997 - 22 Jul 1994
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
22 Oct 1993