Thursday 17 November 2005

World Premiere
Pacitti Company presents - Civil
Performed by Richard Eton

"A seamless flow of beautifully crafted, intelligent images" Live Art Magazine

In 1996 Robert Pacitti travelled to New York to meet and spend time with the author, raconteur and professional homosexual Quentin Crisp. Pacitti's ambition was to produce a new theatre work that took Crisp's infamous autobiography The Naked Civil Servant as its' starting point.

CIVIL premiered in Manchester in 1996, opening the Queer Up North Festival for that year. A cast of five performed the work. Almost three months later Pacitti performed the work again, overhauled and reworked as a solo piece for the Institute Of Contemporary Arts in London.

Since the sad demise of Quentin CIVIL has only been seen once. Undeniably the emphasis of the work has now shifted, and a work that set out to explore shared aspirations and joint activism now reads as a series of images and ideas placed in relation to notions of legacy.

In order to take on this new reading, Robert has chosen to pass on this solo performance constructed around his own body, experiences and beliefs to another performer. The work explores notions of lineage, and becomes a process about letting go - of ownership, of origin, and ultimately of Quentin.