WORKS

The Argonauts

By Ben Duke
2020
The Argonauts is a new piece of dance theatre from the award-winning director/choreographer Ben Duke of Lost Dog.

Created in collaboration with Candoco Dance Company, The Argonauts is a re-imagining of the myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece by a group of disabled and non-disabled performers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine.  

Crossing languages, genres and cultures they re-tell this story of heroic stupidity and doomed love, but their re-telling is interrupted by the more contemporary concerns of this particular cast.  Their stories of occupation, discrimination, injustice and joy, disrupt the well-trodden path of The Argonauts and we watch as they construct a new version of an old story in which the mythical and the mundane overlap.

A dark, funny and moving look at the effects of war, the temptation for revenge, and how we build our individual and national identities through the stories we tell. 

The result of a six year professional development programme led by Candoco in the Caucasus, this piece by Ben Duke of Lost Dog is an epic poem. The deft weaving of myth, political history and personal narrative is magic.
Charlotte Darbyshire, Artistic Director

A first iteration of The Argonauts was performed in 2019 in the Caucasus as part of a tour alongside performances from Candoco’s repertoire. Find out more about the six year programme that led to this work here.

 

Production details

Directed and Choreographed by

Ben Duke

Creatively Assisted by

Welly O'Brien and Jemima Hoadley

Produced by

Candoco Dance Company and Lost Dog

Lighting Design by

Jackie Shemesh

Costume Design by

Anna Ipatieva

Performed by

Maria Bakalo, Manuk Saghatelyan, Andriy Shcherbatsky, Nigar Ibrahimbayli, Mher Zalinyan, Victoria “Vikki” Kliushyna, Vusala Babayeva, Iakob Gogotishvili, Natali Garkava, Anastasia Mnatsakanova

Southbank Centre in association with LIFT 2020 presents

A Candoco Dance Company & Lost Dog co-production

Commissioned by

British Council

This presentation is supported by

Ukrainian Institute and Ukrainian Institute London

Year

2020

Running Time

65 minutes

Suitability

12+

Funders

Journal