Acorn, Switchers

10 July, 2021
– 14 August, 2021
Thursday – Saturday, 12-5pm
LUX
Waterlow Park Centre, Dartmouth Park Hill, London N19 5JF
Acorn, Switchers, 2021

Opening: Saturday 10 July, 5 – 8pm with an opening performance. No booking required.


Acorn (2021) is a new moving image work taking its inspiration from the world and characters in Octavia Butler’s prescient science fiction novel Parable of The Talents, which describes the utopian community of Acorn under siege in a dystopian future dominated by far-right religious populism. Rather than adapting Butler’s story this film utilises the ‘world’ of Parable of the Talents, its conditions and characters to develop new narratives and meanings.
Drawing on tools from Stanislavski’s acting method; his notion of ‘Perezhivanie’ or lived emotional experience; and the methodology of ‘playworlds’, adopted from Vygotskian pedagogy, in which imaginary spaces for improvisation and exchange are created, Acorn is a unique work of ‘event-cinema’, maintaining the liveness of a theatre production through participants’ emotional focus in real time. The resulting collectively produced work explores scenes set in a near future rural Wales, as a group of people living together in a small rural community struggles to survive within a world of economic and ecological breakdown and authoritarianism. It attempts to imagine new forms of collective life and the challenges of creating a utopian community within a dystopian world. 
Acorn was devised and performed by Switchers, a theatre/film group and collaborative framework composed of a network of young people from London and Mid Powys, Wales. Its members are Jamie Baker, Merlyn Hawthorne, Ellis Holt, Ruth Oshunkoya, Prince Owusu, Mary Yekini and Caitlin Williams. It was directed by Emanuel Almborg the group’s facilitator and filmed in Mid Powys, Wales and at Chats Palace, Hackney, London.
The script was co-written with Melissa Dunne, Set design and costume: Ksenia Pedan, DOP: Ben Marshall. Camera operators: Alex Shipman and Laura Seward, Sound recordist: Jack Cook, Technician: Jordan Wilkes, DOP in Wales: Tom Hall, Production: Pundersons Gardens, Colourist: John Alexander Lowe, Sound design: David Gülich, Music: Hans Appelqvist, Graphic Design: Mia Frostner, Actor training: Lavinia Hollands.
Produced with funding and support from: Kungl. Konsthögskolan, The Elephant Trust and P.G. Film.
Switchers originally developed out of a youth theatre exchange initiated in 2018 by artist Emanuel Almborg. Previous projects include The Nth Degree (2018) a film commissioned by Cell Project Space, and Switch (2018) a play performed at Mid Powys Youth Theatre, Llandrindod Wells, Wales.
The exhibition is presented in collaboration with Almanac Projects who will present the next iteration of the project in Autumn 2021.


The film is 41 minutes and screenings start on the hour between 12 – 5pm. Check the screening schedule below. No booking required

Screening Schedule: 

12.00 | 13.00 (with captions) | 14.00 | 15.00 (with captions) | 16.00


Safety Information:

  • No booking is required but the gallery operates under a strict capacity limit of 12 people. 
  • All visitors and staff are asked to wear a face mask unless they are exempt from this requirement. We will have disposable masks available at the reception.
  • Scan the QR code via your NHS Test and Trace app upon arrival.
  • Use the hand sanitiser provided on the entry to the building.
  • Please adhere to social distancing to ensure the safety of visitors and staff.
  • Please stay home if you feel unwell.

If you have special access needs to attend our events please contact us at +44(0)20 3141 2960 or [email protected].

 

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