Strangers &Others

Key Theatre, October 26

The innovative new immersive piece, Strangers & Others, is a performance without performers from the award-winning maverick choreographer duo H2 DANCE. The performing pair are Hanna Gillgren and Heidi Rustgaard, who will invite the audience to don headphones and receive live instructions. The audience will be let through choreographed meetings with permission to look, touch, assume and judge - and the performers’ trademark humour is never far away. The audience are protagonists in a show that asks how we come together to co-exist and create empathy between social groups and cultures. At a time when global events seem to lead to increasingly fractured and isolationist societies, community and integration seem more important than ever. Each staging will be unique as, alone in their own headphone-controlled world yet moving within a group of strangers, each individual is free to choose how they respond. Appearance, physicality and behaviour will be their sole guides as they cooperate in silence. As the audience moves they will form a constantlychanging landscape of shapes and patterns, each becoming part of the visual theatre. Immersed in light and sound, this is an experience of being alone and together at the same time. Who takes responsibility and when do actions have consequences? “We wanted to explore socialisation, tolerance, autonomy and exposure and freedom of choice’” said Heidi. Hanna added that the show helps

“to see how a group of strangers follow the social codes and play their part”. Formed in 1999, H2 DANCE produce provocative shows that address politics with humour and emotion. Open to everyone aged 14+, the unique experience visits Peterborough on October 26, with performances at 3 pm, 5 pm and 7:45 pm.