People Show 124: Fallout

People Show make their first return to Glasgow in almost ten years to create a new inter disciplinary work in collaboration with visual artist Rob Kennedy. People Show 124: Fallout examines themes of isolation, media induced fear, mass extinction and football post game discussion using performance, film, sound, live music and light.

People Show began in 1966 when John Darling, Laura Gilbert, Mark Long, Jeff Nuttall and Sid Palmer performed a work entitled People Show in the basement of Better Books in Charing Cross Road. A leading pioneer of the development of experimental theatre in the UK, they went on to perform at cutting edge venues such as Arts Lab and UFO, La Mama in NYC and The Mickery in Amsterdam amongst many others. They first visited Scotland in 1967 to perform at the Traverse, the first of many appearances there.

Over the next 48 years People Show has continued to make shows not only in theatres but in telephone boxes, streets, boats, even on water. Hard to define in conventional theatrical terms, the People Show’s strength remains in their ability to defy definition and challenge the audience. Its members have always been from a variety of backgrounds; performers, musicians, artists, dancers and work together in a non-hierarchical way. It has always been said that each People Show is the sum of the imaginations of the people in the room when it was made.

Rob Kennedy lives and works in Glasgow. He makes videos, sounds and objects on his own and often in collaboration with other artists, musicians and performers. His work tends to focus on the unreliability of language and the difficulties of succinct communication. Recent projects include: Do Actors Speak Louder Than Words?, The Teley, Leeds (2014); Is there anything to do here, is there anything to see?, CCA, Glasgow (2012); What are we doing here?, Transmission Gallery, ReMap3, Athens (2011). Previous work has been exhibited at Venice Biennale, Tate Britain, BBC Scotland and the British Council.

There will be a post-show talk on Tue 17 & Wed 18 June with company and People Show founder Mark Long.