Acting in London, 2005-2017

The following 13 videos are from works directed by my partner Cradeaux Alexander between 2005 and 2017, to which I contributed as a performer. Some are complete pieces, some are parts of larger pieces, and some are other things, all as specified below. He can be found here; see also his PhD thesis, Playing with (my)self : reconfiguring 21st century performance art as an emerging encounter amongst the becoming-stage, the becoming-actor, and the becoming-audience, in the British Library here.

 

Rhino (2017)—one “vox pop”

This brief “vox pop” is one tiny element from within a much larger piece called Rhino by Cradeaux, which was performed at Bow Arts, Bow, London. The whole of Rhino was a conversation with Eugène Ionesco’s play Rhinoceros. 2017 was a year when the world seemed to be settling in to a process that had begun one year earlier, when a gradual morphing of normal-seeming humans into political rhinoceroses started to feel like a faint echo of the similar morphing phenomenon that Ionesco had observed in 1930s Europe, which informed his 1959 play. This vox pop by Rohan Quine was recorded on 11 March 2017, beside Bow Church. (0’29”)

This video is also on Vimeo and YouTube.

 

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Pop the Bitch (2009)

This is a finished piece called Pop the Bitch, combining three characters, each on her own screen; edited during March-June 2009, from recordings in February or March 2009 at 7 Manningtree Street, Aldgate, London. A noirish satirical romp featuring two queens named Sharpay and Sonoma (both played by Rohan Quine) plotting together to betray and assassinate a third queen named Shaqanda (played by Cradeaux Alexander), soon after the three of them have perpetrated some shadowy heist. (11’15”)

This video is also on Vimeo and YouTube.

 

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Pop the Bitch (2009)—Sharpay loop only

Showing Sharpay only, this is one of the three loops constituting the final three-screen edit of Pop the Bitch (see description above). (10’41”)

This video is also on Vimeo and YouTube.

 

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Pop the Bitch (2009)—Sonoma loop only

Showing Sonoma only, this is one of the three loops constituting the final three-screen edit of Pop the Bitch (see description above). (9’57”)

This video is also on Vimeo and YouTube.

 

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Pop the Bitch (2009)—rehearsal

This is a rehearsal of Rohan’s parts in Pop the Bitch (see description above), recorded in February or March 2009, at 7 Manningtree Street, Aldgate, London. (8’05”)

This video is also on Vimeo and YouTube.

 

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Pop the Bitch (2009)—gallery installation

This is documentation of a gallery installation of Pop the Bitch (see description above), recorded probably in June 2009, in the Triangle Space at the Chelsea College of Arts, Pimlico, London. (9’21”)

This video is also on Vimeo and YouTube.

 

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Eccentric Archetypes on the Beach (2014)—dailies

This project Eccentric Archetypes on the Beach (a title subsequently bestowed by Rohan) progressed only as far as the recording of these dailies, on 31 October 2014 in the Moving Image Studio at the Royal College of Art, Battersea, London. Before a backdrop projection of a palm-treed beach, ambiguous interactions and non-interactions occur between five characters who somehow suggest archetypes, perhaps of Americana, despite their having such colourful individuality as to infuse an amuse-bouche of doubt into any such construal of archetypality. Included are whimsical reminiscences, spoken by Cradeaux Alexander and by Rohan Quine, of the former’s formative early years in 1980s Los Angeles, especially in the San Fernando Valley; and some skilfully sung infusions of blues and folk vocalisations by Clair Le Couteur. (15’19”)

This video is also on Vimeo and YouTube.

 

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Quartet (2005)

This is the finished edit of documentation of a live performance of a play by Heiner Müller, translated by Carl Weber; one of three Müller plays presented in sequence under the overall title Vengeance, Bloodlust and Afternoon Tea: Armageddon, Cupcake and the Poisoneous Love of Heiner Müller’s “Medeamaterial”, “Heartpiece” and “Quartet”, performed from 24 March to 10 April 2005 at Theatro Technis, London; directed and designed by Cradeaux Alexander, produced by Rohan Quine, presented by iMind Theatrical Productions; thanks to Fanny and Bob for financial assistance; filmed by Patapios Gavrielides and Aris Eugeniou, thanks to Barnet College Media Production Unit; edited by Rohan Quine, post-production facilities by Theatro Technis. In this production by Cradeaux of Quartet, the cynical and dissolute machinations of these characters were given a formal stylisation wherein the Müller’s rich language was “doubled”, through being performed in tandem, by both performers of Merteuil and by both performers of Valmont. The performers were Ava Burton as one Merteuil, Rohan Quine as one Valmont and David Sayers as another Valmont. (42’52”)

This video is also on Vimeo and YouTube.

 

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Bitter Tears (2012)

This is the finished edit of documentation of a live piece called Bitter Tears that was recorded on 12 January 2012 at the Royal College of Art, Kensington, London. Structured as a short sequence of stylised actions that are repeated many times, addictiveness and perhaps even transcendence are mined from this very repetition, under a revolving projected backdrop that’s influenced by the combined lushness and spareness of imagery in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. The performers are Hugo Danino, Josh, Jonathan Lill and Rohan Quine. (16’09”)

This video is also on Vimeo and YouTube.

 

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Myth Machine (2008)

This is the finished edit of documentation of a live piece called Myth Machine, which was performed and recorded, probably in 2008, in the Chelsea College of Arts, Pimlico, London. A quality of industrial automation pervades the manufacture and dissemination of organised myth, as pages from Bibles are ripped out, reconstituted and purveyed anew, by an army of us worker-bees wearing black tights and expressions of obedient productivity. The performers include Cradeaux Alexander, Angeline Andrews, Christina Noland and Rohan Quine. (6’11”)

This video is also on Vimeo and YouTube.

 

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Sitcom 2: Breaking Bread (2009)

This is a finished piece called Sitcom 2: Breaking Bread, from a recording in October or November 2009 in Brompton Cemetery, London. Sitting on the grass in an ornate old cemetery, these four characters share a picnic. Yet their breaking of bread together, in this place of sunlit beauty and death, appears to involve no bonhomie but rather a wordless mutual suspicion; and it’s followed by their restless stalking up and down the stone colonnades, with daggers drawn, in an increasingly fevered shared hunt for some unidentified enemy. The performers are Sara Kelly, Mali Purkayastha, Rohan Quine and Karen Wilkinson. (7’26”)

This video is also on Vimeo and YouTube.

 

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Sitcom 1: the Meeting (2009)

This is a finished piece called Sitcom 1: the Meeting, from a recording, probably in 2009, in the Chelsea School of Art, London. Trapped together n a harshly-lit, hard-edged white-walled chamber, four characters appear to be locked into an exhausting cycle of mutual aggression, defensiveness and distrust, though this is punctuated by moments of playful humour and even the occasional flicker of affection. The performers are Daniel, Rohan Quine, Karen Wilkinson and Celia Young. (20’58”)

This video is also on Vimeo and YouTube.

 

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Act Natural (2016)—excerpts

These are excerpts from the documentation of a live piece called Act Natural that was performed and recorded on 19 February 2016, in the Dyson Gallery at the Royal College of Art, Battersea, London. Figures banter and reminisce, in interlocutions that run the gamut from misconstruals to unexpected perceptions; while childhood memories persist, of frightening rumours about a murder that probably happened in a house across the street. The performers are Cradeaux Alexander, Manca Bajec, Anne Duffau, Nayan Kulkarni, Carol Mancke, Andrew Milne, Rohan Quine, Nicole Vinokur and Peter Wareing, (4’57”)

This video is also on Vimeo.

 

 

The first 12 videos above also appear here:

And in the Vimeo showcase “Acting in London, 2005-2017 – Rohan Quine”.
And in the YouTube playlist “Acting in London, 2005-2017 – Rohan Quine”.