The Extra People
Call for extras
Guided by headphones and holding a flashlight to illuminate the darkness of a big, empty and dormant theatre, you're cast as an 'extra' in what appears to be a dream-like rehearsal of powerlessness. Ant Hampton is known for his work exploring 'automatic liveness' and unrehearsed performance. This time he takes things several steps further with a deeply-felt work exploring the illusion of collectivity.
• British artist Ant Hampton (b. 1975) has worked since 1999 on performances involving nonprofessional performers responding to scores, live and unrehearsed (Autoteatro).
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There are no performers in Ant Hampton’s Autoteatro series. It’s you, the audience, acting as both spectator and performer, in an ingeniously created world (…) The Extra People is a brave and intricate experience, and one that is completely unique.
– New York Theatre Review
The Extra People is rather dangerous actually, not to the public, but to notions of representation and participation (…) plunging us deep into the defining social and economic reality of our times: empty, disconnected, monitored, vaguely menacing and very public.
– Exeunt Magazine
written and directed by Ant Hampton | sound design and composition Sam Britton | artistic advice Kate McIntosh | editing and system design / tech director Hugh Roche Kelly | early development / brainstorming Geoff Sobelle, Trey Lyford | assistance Julia Asharaf | creative producer Katja Timmerberg | commissioned by Ash Bulayev | coproduction partners EMPAC, Kaaitheater (Brussels), Malta Festival (Posnan), French Institute Alliance Française (NYC) | thanks to Vallejo Gantner, Britt Hatzius, Matthieu Goeury / Vooruit, Edmund and Tina Manwarren Roche-Kelly and to the many volunteers who have helped with tryouts and development in Troy, Brussels and Gent | special thanks to Coda Cola (London) for generous studio support
A House on Fire co-production; with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union
