Thricely? Precisely. A Pocket Full Of Pips.

Keep Everything. Lose Your Mind.

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Pinwheel Productions Presents Thricely? Precisely. A Pocket Full Of Pips.

This February, the director of 2008’s sold-out season of The Eiffel Tower Wedding Party (Three Spoon Theatre) returns with a dance theatre production that delves into the details of obsessions and compulsions. Thricely? Precisely. A Pocket Full of Pips. is a bold new devised work that explores the neurotic, turbulent symptoms of obsession through an unlikely medium: Dance.

For director Brigid Costello, these two subjects were not far removed. “The physical symptoms of anxiety have a dance-like quality,” says Costello. “The compulsions that are carried out to quieten the obsessive mind have a specific, repetitive and rhythmical nature which lends them well to a dance work.” A former dancer in the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Costello both directs and performs alongside fellow dancers Hannah Elks and Jane Wenley. Using the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale The Princess and the Pea as a stimulus, Costello brings a sense of whimsy and play to Thricely?, providing relief and accessibility to its otherwise daunting subject matter. “I was inspired by Anderson’s bizarre depiction of the ‘real princess’ as a hypersensitive, neurotic heroine whose pea obsession somehow wins her a husband. I wanted to explore whether or not this vulnerable creature could actually function in contemporary society. From our investigations so far, obsessions and compulsions are a continuous quest for safety and control but they tend to isolate the individual because they are so consuming.”

For Thricely?, music and dance were composed in tandem, with composers Dale Hitchcock and Chapman-Tripp Theatre Award nominee Tane Upjohn-Beatson attending rehearsals to ensure unity between the two. The result is a soundtrack that is tightly scripted and danceable, but also quirky and idiosyncratic. It plays with compulsive sound effects and unusual arrangements to keep the dancers and audience in a comfortably uncomfortable headspace.

Staged at Photospace Studio on Dixon Street, the show’s location gives symbolic contrast to how obsessive and compulsive behaviour has historically been addressed, or more specifically, how it hasn't. In a location designed for capturing images for dissemination, Costello hopes to achieve the same for a disorder that is often kept concealed by its sufferers, and stigmatised by others. “When we look at the nature of obsession through an artistic lens, we can see a little of ourselves in the restless compulsions, which makes you wonder how far we are capable of going to gain control over our everyday lives.”

Thricely? Precisely. A Pocket Full of Pips. Where: Photospace Studio, Level 2, Dixon Street When: 7:00pm, Wed 17 Feb - Sat 20 Feb, Tue 23 Feb - Sat 27 Feb Tickets: $16 General, $14 Concession, $12 Fringe Addict Book at: pinwheelnz@gmail.com

ENDS

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