New Show Takes Audiences on Tour of Dales

A new site-specific show will take audiences on a “walking exploration” of the waterways, mountains, valleys and caves of the Yorkshire Dales.

Running from 20 to 22 May 2011, Fissure has been created by performance maker Louise Ann Wilson, who has collaborated with a diverse team of artists and scientists in and around Ingleborough, at the heart of the Dales.

The play takes as its starting point the death of a much-loved young woman from a brain tumour. This deeply personal story will serve as the foundation of a new legend for the landscapes in which Fissure is situated, a tale that “fuses neurological and geological mapping with archetypal, universally shared tellings of life, death, the underworld and rebirth”.

The show runs as part of The Re-Enchantment, a national arts project exploring our relationships to place (see www.artevents.info for more information).

Fissure’s award-winning artistic team includes poet Elisabeth Burns, choreographer Nigel Stewart and composer Jocelyn Pook who will be creating a new full-length choral piece for the performance.
 

Also involved are leading neuroscientists Dr Michael Brada and Chris Clark, and a range of earth and environmental scientists. According to press material, “the people from the area – farmers, fell runners, cavers, choirs and potters – are sharing their stories, skills and resources as well as participating in Fissure.”

Louise Ann Wilson creates site-specific work made in collaboration with artists and experts from fields not usually associated with performance work. From 1997 to 2008 she was co-artistic director of acclaimed theatre company wilson + wilson, whose productions included House, Mulgrave and Mapping the Edge.