Alter Edith
by Holly Durant
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'Alter Edith' (2021), by Holly Durant. Photo by Alexandre Dubios.
A slow motion striptease, in reverse, without gravity
Alter Edith is a simulation for the senses. A cycle of almost performances amongst extra-terrestrial environments.
Meet Edith – an alien experimenting with worldly sentiments – as she reconstitutes her body into a real-time, mobile-museum of Earthly delights.
This hybrid solo performance by Holly Durant embodies the miracle of transformation and celebrates rebirth. With bursts of surreal song, dada theatre, and post-post-modern dance, Alter Edith is an offering at the altar of alienation; a darkly comical ode to the end of disappointing times.
“a beautifully kinky allegory for the experience of learning how to re-enter the world” — ★★★★ The Age
“If you believe an alien from beyond the Earth’s atmosphere should wish to return to Earth to pour a cocktail and, in turn, pour themselves into a cycle of constricting chartreuse costuming to states of undress and back again, anything is possible.” — Gracia Haby, Fjord Review
Creator & Performer: Holly Durant
Director: Maude Davey
Stage Manager & Performer: Ayesha Harris-Westman
Lighting Technician & Performer: Jaala Jensen
Choreographic Assistant: Gabi Barton
Sound Artist: Quell (Bensen Thomas)
Spatial & Set Design: Danielle Brustman
Costume Design & Stylist: James Andrews
Accessories Designer: Grae Burnished
Light Artist: Gina Gascoigne
Creator and Performer Holly Durant
Sound Artist Quell (Bensen Thomas)
Stage Management Ayesha Harris -Westman
Lighting Operator Jaala Jensen
Director Maude Davey
Choreographic Eye Gabi Barton
Spatial and Set Designer Danielle Brustman
Costume Designer & Stylist James Andrews
Light Artist Gina Gascoigne
Accessories Designer Grae Burnished
Producing Consultant Jonathan Homsey
Photographer Alexandre Dubois
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Holly Durant is an artist who crafts sites for performance with choreography to evoke senses of pleasure and empowerment. Her works consistently gather communities and provide platforms for interrogating how bodies occupy and negotiate space. Her performance work spans stages, galleries, digital and social spaces. By exploring ideas of embodiment, co-presence, and ‘worlding,’ her inhabited installations blur the boundaries between subject and environment, between private and public experience. Layered sensorial environments and disobedient gestures transform the body, conjuring glimpses of future bodies and future worlds.
Holly’s work has been shown internationally at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, Modafe Festival, Korea, FIBA International Theatre Festival Argentina, Havana Int. Theatre festival, Cuba, Virada Cultural Sao Paulo, Fit Festival Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Sangaar Koroegraffi, Malaysia. And in Australia at the Melbourne Festival, Sydney Festival, Darwin Festival, Dark Mofo, Dance Massive, Next Wave Festival, Melbourne Fringe, Feast Festival, and the Adelaide Fringe.
This project is supported by the City of Melbourne Arts Grants.
