Matters of Life and Death

Developed and performed from 2010-2012, Matters of Life and Death re-imagined a key scene from Graham Swift's novel Waterland, in which a body is found floating in a Fenland sluice. Four individuals urgently begin to retrieve the body from the water, and are forced to come to terms with the event that shatters their quiet lives.

Matters of Life and Death was selected for UKYA01, the first UK showcase for work by exceptional young artists in 2010, and went on to be premiered in London as part of The Place's Spring Loaded Festival in 2012 as well as touring the UK. Read the reviews from our London premiere of the work here and here. Matters of Life and Death was created with support from the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Video extracts of the work from the original idea through two phases of development can be seen on our company blog here.

Dancers: Marie Chabert, Morgan Cloud, Adam Kirkham, Daniela B Larsen, Rebecca Yates (Original devising cast Laure Bachelot, Marie Chabert, Thomas Goodwin, Robert Guy, Carl Harrison)

Composer: Max Perryment

Stage design: James Perkins

Costume design: Berit Laageide

Lighting design: Gareth Green

Guest practitioners: Dr Tom Cornford and Jovair Longo

Matters of Life and Death; photo by Nuno Santos
Matters of Life and Death; photo by Nuno Santos
Matters of Life and Death; photo by Nuno Santos
Matters of Life and Death; photo by Nuno Santos
Matters of Life and Death; photo by Nuno Santos
Matters of Life and Death; photo by Nuno Santos
Matters of Life and Death; photo by Nuno Santos
Matters of Life and Death; photo by Nuno Santos
Matters of Life and Death; photo by Nuno Santos
incredibly mature and beautiful, with a fine soundtrack and some elegantly choreographed moments from the beginning
Morag Deyes, Dance Base, Edinburgh,
Opening with a sequence performed in near-darkness, in which flashes of physical forms and suggestions of action are picked out by torchlight, Matters of Life and Death plays with the visual and the cinematic throughout its duration.
Lise Smith, londondance.com,
With clever wrapping and reversing, Green’s choreography makes visible the conflicting narratives of multiple narrators.
Lise Smith, londondance.com,
Max Perryment’s electronic soundscore is a superbly atmospheric accompaniment to the work; much like Green’s choreography, it’s evocative without being obvious. Green’s five agile dancers make nimble work of the emotional twists and turns, and keep the piece both enjoyably physical and admirably legible. The disquieting subject matter and troubled characters leave little room here for levity; dark as it is, Matters of Life and Death is an accomplished and highly watchable piece of dance theatre.
Lise Smith, londondance.com,
Driven from an emotional pinpoint, the dancer’s movements evolve from within. There’s the sharpness of anger laced with the disbelief. Dancers throw themselves to the ground and fall over one another in moments of agony and shock each adding to our understanding of the threshold this situation has broken through. Contact pervades the movement vocabulary, the dancers hanging from one another, being lifted, shifted. The dancers act as personalities to bounce from, but also props themselves, heightening the sensations of the work.
Rachel Vogel,
This is a work which transports you to a single moment of great change. You can’t help but let your imagination run wild and wrangle the deep empathy that’s shaken within you.
Rachel Vogel,

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