To coincide with the publication of their first anthology of essays on contemporary performance, Andy Field and Maddy Costa bring together a collection of the artists they write about in the book to talk about performances they themselves have seen and loved in the past decade.
Featuring Alexandrina Hemsley, Augusto Corrieri, Ellice Stevens (Breach Theatre), Jemima Yong, Rachel Mars, Rachel Porter (Figs in Wigs), Sheila Ghelani and Tim Crouch.
This event will be not just a book launch but a celebration of the effect live performance has on us, and continues to have, even when theatres are closed.
Published on 11 February 2021, Performance in an Age of Precarity is a new anthology of 40 short essays, each on the work of a different artist, through which Andy and Maddy sketch a map of the contemporary performance landscape in the UK in the period between the financial crisis of 2008 and the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020.
“This magical book is a love letter to the artists whose imagination and cleverness transport us and unite us, and to the beauty and fragility of their performance. When I read it I feel like I am constantly on the joyful edge of falling in love, trying so hard to keep hold of the feelings evoked. A very precious book in our precarious times.”
Vicky Featherstone, artistic director, Royal Court
