Furious Folly by Birmingham Hippodrome

FU RI O

war

Art, i n sa n i t y a grand

and on scale

Creat

ed by–– Mark Anderson ––

Part of

–– H ans A rp founder of the D adaist movement

“While the thunder of the batteries rumbled in the distance... We searched for an elementary art that would, we thought, save mankind from the furious folly of these times."

“Furious Folly is inspired by the Dadaists, and the writers, poets, philosophers, radicals and ordinary people who rejected the propaganda and j i n g o i s m peddled by leaders, politicians, big business and the privileged elite of countries and empires as they squabbled for power with their usual contempt for the lives of ordinary people and the destruction wrought in the process.”

–– M ark A nderson

Wilso

lly t a no betw akes -ma ee plac audie n the t ns land wo on t e as n nce h lines ight find open . Dis e battle the -air c orien front ollag mselves and tate im e p 14– erforman of sound mersed w d, the 18 N , ligh ce. ithin t Fu O ,p a the F irst W W, the U rious Fo yrotech n nics lly is orld K’s a W r p Mar t k An ar Cente s progra art of and de mme sit na for of a e specifi rson, cre r y. rtists c pe rform ator of m who the u a ea draw ltin on th ce, lead media Railin rly 20th s e an g a Cent ti-wa a team gain ur y War r spir st t h Dad a aist e it o Furio nd the us Fo mad futility o moveme f n ll f th sens e G nt. eless y challe ess of the n ness reat b of co ges the inhu attlefield nflict m , s pa st an anity an d pre d sent. cha

rson h as spe oscil nt his latin p g che mica F ls a falls, urious Fo in

o f e s s i ona nd p l c a r e e r c r ar e a a t i p n h g e audio r n alia t o d a z zle

ght, h eat, v ibrati imag ons, e inati lectri o n s .” c i t y, –– Ri

“A n d e

visua l a l c hemy t h our e a t u ses li y e s a nd s t a r t le ou r

T h e

Dada movement galvanized in Zurich,

1916, as the First World War neared its peak. Although they con the heat, fury and

of the War, a world beyond it compositions Cabaret

Voltaire

that gave rise to Europe converged a

group

art

t h i n ke rs’ ‘Dada’

itself

multilingual in

Romanian

French) that to

and

Dadaist

art

combine.

for the movement’s magazine, which became a home for contribu

overtly multi-national membership endorsed founder Hugo Ball’s e

nvened in neutral Switzerland, the Dadaist ‘exiles’ responded viscerally to industrial-scale

carnage

while also attempting to create in aggressively experimental across a wide range of media. was the performance space Dada, and artists from across there to paradoxically create movement

from

resolutely

‘independent from many nations. The name captured

the

sophisticated

punning (meaning ‘yes-yes’ and

‘rocking-horse’

onomatopoeic and Dada

‘nonsense’

performances became

the

sought title

utors from Romania, Alsace, Germany and France among others. Dada’s

early rejection of the base nationalisms that culminated in the Great War.

Dada managed to evade such political entanglements while remaining actively engaged with their real world repercussions, and most importantly, with the sweeping impact on the way humanity perceived the new world wrought by war and its technologies. The performance culture of Cabaret Voltaire produced explosive, percussive dins to represent ‘the background’ of war – ‘the inarticulate, the disastrous, the decisive’ state into which the world had plunged, and ‘the conflict of the vox humana with a world that threatens, ensnares,

e tur nL iversi i t e r ty a

ica

Oxfor dB

rooke s Un

ri n

ctu

ior eS en hit W ic Er

and destroys itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. The Dada ethos insisted that absurdity and sensory overload (for example, in Richard Huelsenbeckâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s confrontational drumming performances) must coexist with and mutually comment upon scathing political satire. Dada spread like wildfire across Europe and the Americas, and its practitioners were among the first of the modernist avant-gardes to reconfigure art as a barometer of the sensory and literal overkill that WWI had unleashed on the world.

“Noble and res Zurich, students, vagabonds, aimless countries, unite!... statement tonight, you...what we have you like a bullet...W we are Dada, and w was found in a di nothing...We want t with nothing, we wa and Painting with n to end the war wit don’t need to end u soon as you overcom and you write Da we are re-united a

s he ll s ho ck v ictim

(Erklärung, read at the Cabaret Voltaire, Spring 1916. Typescript. Reprinted in Dadad. Eine literarische Dokumentation (Rowohlt : Reinbek/Hamburg 1964) 30. http://www. dada-companion.com/ huelsenbeck_docs/ hue_erklaerung_1916. php)

spected citizens of artisans, workers, s wanderers of all .I have to make a , which will shake to tell you, will Dada hit r eso u r ces: We have found Dada, we have Dada. Dada The International Dada ctionary, it means s d r c . l i b . u i o w a Archive .edu/ d a d a / i n d e x . html to change the world ant to change Poetry Dada Companion d a d a nothing and we want c o m p a n i o n . c o m th nothing...we still up as enemies. As me your resistance ada on your flag, and best friends.â&#x20AC;? 9

Created by Mark Anderson

Furious Folly is part of 14–18 NOW, a five year programme of extraordinary arts experiences connecting people with the First World War. Working with partners all across the UK, we commission new artworks from leading contemporary artists, inspired by the period 1914–18.

Tim Etchells – Additional text / direction

HELEN GREGG – Woman Stuart Henderson – Bugle Au re l i a n Koch – Man Graeme Leak – Percussion and Sound Design Pyrotechnics –––––––– Pa Boom Simon Chatterton –––––––– Producer Colin Nightingale –––––––– Production Adviser Mat Ort –––––––– Production Manager Liam Walsh –––––––– Artist-technician and fabricator Martin West –––––––– Artist-technician and fabricator Hester Chillingworth –––––––– Additional direction

Charles Poulet – Original Sound Design Guy Dickens – Lighting Design Jony Easterby, Paul Batten, – Tower design and construction Susan Kulkarni – Costume design Rachel A. Smith – Banner design George Tomlinson – Additional staging e l e ments Graham Calvert – Electronics Matt Eaton – Sound Design Slawek Danek – PA tech Colin Eales – Crewing logistics and construction Emily Milne – Lighting and Stage Management Matt Bird, Ed Collins – Lighting techs

Co-commissioned by 14–18 NOW: WW1 Centenary Art Commissions and the Town of Poperinge, supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England, and by the Department for Culture Media and Sport.

CREATED at 101 Outdoor Arts Creation Space Produced by Corn Exchange Newbury and OCM in association with Birmingham Hippodrome, Oxford Playhouse, Oxford Festival of the Arts and Stockton International Riverside Festival. Birmingham Hippodrome would like to thank Sutton Coldfield Community Trust, Birmingham City Council, Sutton Coldfield BID, and BMET College for their support. Oxford Playhouse and OCM are supported by Arts Council England, Oxford City Council, University of Oxford (OP), Oxford Brookes University and PRS for Music Foundation (OCM). Oxford Festival of the Arts would like to thank Magdalen College School. Stockton International Riverside Festival is organised by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council and supported by Arts Council England.

poperinge14-18.be

PICTURE CREDIT S PG.1 –– A G erman soldier and HIS mule wearing gas masks in WWI, 1916 rarehistoricalphotos . com | PG. 4/5–– “B ow to the authorities ” by G eorge G rosz . © E state of G eorge G rosz , P rinceton , N.J. / DACS, 2016 | PG.6 –– T he F irst I nternational DADA F air , 1920 | PG.7 –– A ustralian soldiers drill in their gas masks during W orld W ar I (J ohn O xley L ibrary , S tate L ibrary of Q ueensland N eg : 182319) | PG. 8 –– S hell shocked soldier . S till from footage supplied by B ritish P athé | PG.10 –– A G erman infantryman using a frying pan as an improvised gas alarm gong . B attle of the A isne , between R eims and L aon © IWM (Q 55224) iwantdesign.com