Double Booking at Lowry
Johnny James, Managing EditorVisit now
Double Booking
Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.
The concert is about to begin, the orchestra is ready to perform and the audience are waiting patiently in their seats. All they need now is the conductor… when two arrive at once.
This is the comedic premise of Double Booking, a playful, fast-paced and delightfully strange new dance-theatre show coming to Lowry this November.
Created and performed by Leeds-based dance artists Lewys Holt and Eleanor Sikorski, the show begins with an administrative error and evolves into a comedy of two rivals battling for status, pride and their professional reputations.
Rivalry and ambition in the arts? Surely not. Double Booking takes these most human impulses to the extreme, as a simple mistake crescendos into a fierce and farcical battle for the spotlight – and that ultimate privilege, the glory of the final bow.
Through an unfurling series of naturalistic, abstract and choreographic scenes, Holt and Sikorski promise chaotic, unpredictable, tuxedo-clad performances that delve into ideas of translation, symbols, doubling and selfhood.
It’s an approach that’s typical of Holt’s Leeds-based company, perfectly serviceable, who present the show in Lowry’s intimate Aldridge Studio. The Welsh/Canadian dance artist’s stated aim is to twist the boundaries of their medium – which spans dance, comedy and devised theatre – producing new, experimental work that is at once bold, strange and witty.
Two conductors, one concert – only one of them gets the final bow.
Commissioned by Lowry through its Developed With programme, with additional support from Yorkshire Dance.
