I WANNA TAKE A RIDE ON YOUR CANDY STICK

The Christmas Belles will take you kicking and screaming into the festive season with a sickly sweet pole dance... HORSEPLAY @ Proud Galleries Camden 14th December 7:30pm-Late £5 on the door

A durational work
Devised by Lizzie West
Make up by Olivia Brown
Performed by Lizzie West, Olivia Brown and Jill Raymond

People You May Know

A Participation Game 30/10/2010

Co-produced with Takeover @ York Theatre Royal

THERE is a party, the best party you are likely to attend, you are invited but you don't know where it is, everyone you know is going but they don't know where it is either. Over the course of one hour you will learn more about the location and how to get there. However the people you may know will need to help and will need your help too.

THIS is a game about helping the people you may know to meet, to go to the same party and spend time together. However you will have to meet online first to discover how to get there.

THE game plays itself out across the city of York and will culminate in the best party you are ever likely to attend, we just need to get you and the people you may know there first.

Director (Rob Drummer)

I am performing in Other Pieces this week...

Other Pieces

Performance
(60 mins)

Thursday 7 October, 5pm & 7pm
in Clean Rehearsal Room at Central School of Speech and Drama as part of the Collisions PHD festival.

‘The art of jigsaw puzzling begins with wooden puzzles cut by hand, whose maker undertakes to ask himself all the questions the player will have to solve, and, instead of allowing chance to cover his tracks, aims to replace it with cunning, trickery, and subterfuge … despite appearances, puzzling is not a solitary game: every move the puzzler makes, every piece the puzzler picks up … every combination he tries … every blunder and every insight, each hope and each discouragement have all been designed, calculated, and decided by another.’
Georges Perec – Life: A User’s Manual

Other Pieces is a game for two across time and space. As scenes from the lives of various strangers unravel and entangle themselves, audience members must complete a jigsaw puzzle laid out before them. Whole moments and memories are recreated for the individual with real urgency before the jigsaw image is solved and boxed, placed on a shelf and perhaps forgotten.

Directed by Rob Drummer
Dramaturgy: Luis Manuel-Campos
Scenography: Lauren Irving

A Short Walk in the Country

'It makes me think about the way I am'



18th-20th August at Forest Fringe Edinburgh. A collaboration between Nick Wood, Venla Hatakka, Jonathan Gavaghan and Elizabeth West.

It's a good job I love it.

Struggling through the tube station arms filled with peacock feathers.
Slowly stuffing a plastic horse head with bin bags.
Spending 4 hours desperately searching for Australian merchandise.

Panicking about not owning a pair silver hot pants.
Panicing about not owning purple leggings.
Panicing about not owning the correct coloured corset.
Learning to play the toy accordion.
Buying carpet tape for nipple tassels as it holds it on better.
Painstakingly gluing glitter onto 23 masks.

Drawing various fat naked ladies with large muffs.
Turning a Dorethy Perkins snake skin top into a desert snake.
Running around exotically with loo roll.
Buying 8 boxes of 15 denier tights and wondering about the thickness as they will be worn over a naked body.
Argueing over character shoes.
Eating a crisp off the sole of a dirty flip flop.

Vomiting due to the fact I have squirted a whole can of cream into my mouth.
Being a sexually confused zebra.
Growing my pubic hair.
Jumping in a water fountain in January.

Working out the correct mixture of household liquids to create the most realistic sexual fluid-like substance.
Cleaning a stinking club toilet.
Falling off a chair over 40 times.

Regurgitating food.
Having a penis slapped accross my face.
Sorting through hundreds of postcards.
Making Adam and Eve costumes.
Comparing fake moustaches.

Doing a Kate Bush interpretation so frantically that I feel like my brains fallen out.
Being repetedly slapped accross the face.
Rubbing a dead pheasant in my face.
Dancing around half naked in Leeds city centre.
Jumping into a chocolate cake.

Downing pints of beer.
Dancing for 5 hours with no break.
Worrying about kangeroos.
Getting too much fake hair in my eyes.

Sticking fake eyeballs into apples.
Crafting a prop out of raw meat.
Sticking a banana in Hilary Benns face.

Hello World, this is me.

Drowning (working title) - Projection recording

I had the pleasure of working with Riki Kim on her dissertation project 'For pain without words we can Understand'

I had to work with a specific stimulus:

Do you ever feel like sometimes you are drowning in other poeple's words?

You are drowning in other peoples’ words and your own words are being lost. You are at a point where you feel as if you are mute, for you cannot express yourself with words tainted deeply by others. You are drowning, unable to communicate.

The movement was improvised and inspired by Butoh performance.

http://www.ateralas.net/pain/notes.html

Whose Cloud is it Anyway? - New Website

Please check out Debunked's new project website and book online for our next show!

Whose Cloud is it Anyway?
28th-29th July at The Peoples Show in Bethnal Green.

www.whosecloudisitanyway.com

Sitting at my computer, looking like a tramp,
I ain't got a boyfriend, got a youtube account.

Happiness is like a butterfly

Happiness is like a butterfly... The more you chase it the more it will elude you... But if you turn your attention to other things it will come quietly and sit on your shoulder.

I will be collaborating with make up artist Grace McComisky on the performance work 'Happiness is like a butterfly' which will be shown at The Horseplay Arts Club at Proud Galleries in Camden on Wednesday 19th May. The work will be durational starting at 8pm and continuing for the rest of the night. Come along... "It's only a fiver like pet"

Lizzie&Phoebe Latest Performance

On the 21st April we created a performance event for the arts club night HORSEPLAY at the Proud Galleries in Camden. The work was an offshoot to our latest piece 'Did you ever know that you're my hero?'. In this work the audience get the chance to be our 'heroes' for three to four minutes.
Audience as Neil Armstrong
Audience as Superman
Audience as Paula Radcliffe
Audience as Rolf Harris

Volvo Volcano

From off stage the car horns blared. The setting was twilight, with the street lights just starting to think about turning on. A car on bus standoff had unraveled centre stage. The W3 bus which travels from Finsbury Park to Wood Green was nose to nose with a silver Volvo C30. Due to parked cars either side of the street neither car nor bus could get by, one had to give in, but neither were budging.
Of course the Volvo is in the wrong the audience thought. You always give way to buses. Everybody knows that.

Cars were piled up for miles.

Passengers on the bus were furious. "We need to get home to our wives and children, eat our tea and watch Eastenders! We have had a HARD DAY"

The bus driver let the passengers off.

"KNOB"
"Fucking prick"
"Arse hole"
"Who the fuck do you think you are?"
"Donkey dick" Said the passengers as they walked past the Volvo and off stage.

20 minutes passed, the tension was getting higher and higher. Finally the Volvo nipped into a parking space to the left of the bus. The audience breathing a sigh of relief. Had he given up? No. He jumped out of the Volvo and started kicking the door of the bus. Like a mad man he kicked, punched and screamed. "My fucking right of way. Me. Mine. MY right! TWAT!" The bus driver turned on his alarm and for a moment the audience believed that Mr Volvo was trapped and his out break would cost him... But he squeezed himself out and frightened by the alarm it would appear turned around and sped off in the opposite direction. The audience broke into applause. Good triumphed over evil.

"Well that was better than Grand Designs" I said as I left my front room window and sat back down on the sofa. My beetroot bake was cold though. Never mind.

HORSEPLAY

The next Horseplay is Wednesday April 21st and starts at 7.30pm with DJ's until 1am. Entry just £5.


Horseplay is London’s new club experience bringing the best music, visual art and theatre under one roof for one night. Expect pop up theatrical spectaculars and roaming puppet masters, video installation in a stable and a band on the stage. Brought to you on horseback is our host who welcomes you in to this rowdy, boisterous party where the line up is sure to hold your attention and throw a few surprises your way.

www.horseplayartsclub.com

Come and watch me perform with no sleep, no rehearsals and a layer of volcanic ash glazed over my eyes.

8pm-9pm - 'Did you ever know that you're my hero?' Lizzie&Phoebe An intimate performace event for one audience member.
Through out the night - 'Somewhere over the drain hole' Performed by Jill Raymond and directed by me. An intimate performance in the ladies loo.
9pm-10pm - SEXY ZEBRA! MANYROOTS theatre An in-crowd interactive work.
Keep your eyes peeled as there still may be a surprise performance 'Ready Steady Theatre' going on... if I am not all zebra-ed out that is...

KEEP CALM and CARRY ON

"It's okay... On Sunday I have a full day to do lots of work... and to catch up and to read and to update and to write and it will be fine."

My room is really dirty I better clean it.
The flat is really dirty I better clean it.
My clothes are really dirty I better wash them.
I am pretty dirty I better have a shower.
I really fancy making a Moroccan beetroot bake.
I desperately need pears.
Bob (my fish) needs cleaning out.
I'll just pop to Tesco.
I'll just pop to Primark.
I haven't spoken to Michaela for a while, I better give her a call.
I haven't spoken to my Mum for a few hours, I better give her a call.
I have far too many bras, I better sort them out, get rid of a few.
I don't think this floor has ever been mopped.
Beryl and Pete (my stick insects) are actually very interesting, I have never studied them before.
I think I should take up smoking.
My computer screen is really dirty.
I'll just have a crumpet.
I can't work without Jasmine tea, it sounds stupid but I just can't.
My computer keyboard is sticky.
I'll just watch an episode of skins on 4OD, just one.
I'll just check facebook.
I'll just message my ex.
I'll just have a wee.
I'll just have a glass of wine.
There is one can of strongbow left, I better have it.
I might as well finish that wine.
Right, that was productive, bedtime.

I am getting really damn stressed. Work due in. Can't do it. Really can't and everywhere I look round London there are quirky interior household fancies telling me to 'KEEP CALM and CARRY ON' I am trying...

Up in the Cloud

Whose Cloud is it Anyway?

Whose Cloud is it Anyway? is a vital attempt to comprehend the digital landscape that exists above our heads. Vast amounts of our data, our social interactions and information increasingly exist in digital clouds. Even our books, films and art are being transferred and uploaded by Google and Apple, who now seek our trust in them as custodians to the future of our culture. This durational performance work is made up of that same information, relayed and remixed alongside multiple narratives exploring the necessity for human traces in this digital age. An absent father is manifest in the postcards he leaves as bookmarks and a woman silenced online protests atop a roof against an unjust regime.

Retro Disney is Allowed.

Well maybe we could do something like this... I have a story from my youth... I was cutting my sisters hair when... No... It's not really like that... It's sort of the same but not really... You don't like it? OK then. How about this. THIS. No... This? No. This. Hello I am over here... You don't talk much... I like talking... I have a strong connection to depression and MENTAL HEALTH. How many pages? Yes, well no actually... Have you smelt the fresh rain? No of course not... I have smelt the toilets however and they bloody stink. Maybe we could hang tiny parcels from the ceiling and let them drop through out? YES? I like it. I agree. You agree with yourself? When is lunch? This room is cold. I feel deeply moved by Tom Waits. Maybe we could light it from behind... Or from the front... Or from the side... Have you tried that with movement? Have you smelt fear recently? No of course not, why would I? That's a bizarre question. Do you like this? this? or this? I don't like this but I do like THIS. This angle makes me look fat. From the ceiling I will look better. How many stories do you have? I have loads. Like this and this and even THIS. THIS IS REALLY GOOD. LETS GO WITH THIS. Have you every thought about this angle? No it makes me look fat. When is lunch? When is the toilet break? Can I have a cigarette. You don't talk much. Well I kind of prefer to listen. Hello, do you like to listen? No I like Katie and Peter the next chapter. I like this. I agree... On this? or this? Have you smelt the smell of desire at one point in your life? I have felt desir... but.. what do you mean? I have lost the point... Am I... erm... Welsh? I really want to constantly keep my face on the floor. To express feminism you know. What? How does that express femin... Does it? Ok. If you want, it's up to you really. Have you read Theatre of the Oppressed? Have you smelt oppression? No. What kind of ridiculous question is that. It was only a suggestion. I won't make one again, promise. Chocolate bums? From a Soho sex shop maybe? That could work. I am watching her and she is bloody pissing me off. But she has nice shoes. When is it a coffee break? Now. I need COFFEE AND CIGARETTES. Do you like that film? You know the one? Tom Waits... and Iggy... Erm... Do you like Disney music? I don't know the words but I like the songs. Disney? Are you sure? Yes. I like it. I don't. I do... Erm... I didn't ask for this. Do you know Snow White and the seven dwarfs? Oh yeah. Retro Disney is allowed. Of course. WHAT WE COULD DO IS... Well OK... I guess we could... I was kind of wanting to... But it doesn't matter really... Hang the parcels from the ceiling... Hang them... Light them... you know... But OK... I will let it go. Snow white has depression. Has Snow white smelt depression? Felt it? EMBODIED it? We could add more movement... I am not feeling it. I am feeling this though. This? or THIS. Or t-h-i-s. My penis hurts. No? It was only a suggestion.

"A faculty is everything man is able to do, even though he may not do it. Man, even if he does not love, is able to love; even if he does not hate, he is able to hate; even if a coward, he is capable of showing courage. Faculty is pure potentiality and is immanent to the rational soul."
(Boal, A)

"Everything is gratuitous, this garden, this city and myself. When you suddenly realize it, it makes you feel sick and everything begins to drift...that's nausea."
(Satre, J)

Well its kind of like this.. but not really.. yes.. no.. erm.. sorry.

On Tuesday I lead my first Improvisation workshop at school. In the past I have only lead workshops for 12-18 year olds so this was a first. I sat up on Monday night trying to re-write my exercises for participants my age and older. However two glasses of wine and ten minutes into the task I fell fast asleep, out cold, gone. Woke up Tuesday morning rather panicked and when the bus was late (due to a school boy being sick on the upper level) I ended up running to school in a right fluster. I still managed to get to school on time (just) and after all that worrying the workshop actually went quite well. I think the class really understood what I was trying to achieve and overall it was very light hearted and comic. The improvisation style that I am interested in is all based around your own personal experiences. Not to hide behind a character and a stereotype as people often do. The youth group I taught last year was a perfect example of this. In every improvisation they would play a postman or a teacher, usually one would have an affair or give birth and that was that. I tried to encourage them to find truth in their improvisations, what would they personally do in a given situation or space. Once they came round to this idea I could see it starting to excite them, they felt ownership over the work as it was completely personal to them and their life. They liked the fact that their unique story was happening at a unique time and place and would never be repeated exactly the same again. Back to Tuesdays workshop... The class gave me feedback on my exercises. They all had lots of lovely positive things to say and I felt quite pleased.. My main criticism was that I overly explained myself.. Couldn't quite articulate what I wanted and as a consequence 'vomited instructions'. Something to work on. Which brings me back to a memory from the youth club when one day one of the girls said "Howay Miss.. Can we just do it" (in a Geordie accent).

I have an idea... What do you think?

What have you realised today?

Workshop with Duncan Macmillan and Clare Lizzimore - 60 seconds to write down what you have realised today...

1.) Crash mats are very comfortable.
2.) The most serious makes me laugh.
3.) Low fat salt tastes nicer than regular salt.
4.) I have an annoying voice. I annoy myself.
5.) New levels of worrying alcohol induced incidents; my friend 'gained consciousness' running down a motorway outside of Leeds with no clothes on.

Polite Cards by David Shrigley