Eve Stainton

Co-commissioned by Bold Tendencies, Dansehallerne, Transform, The Place, performance, possession + automation (funded by AHRC). Supported by Queen Mary University of London, Old Diorama Arts Centre, Den Frie Udstilling, SLUG, L'Ecart Biennial, Mind Eater, The National Lottery (though Arts Council England), The Wavendon Foundation.

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Artist and choreographer Eve Stainton makes their Bold Tendencies debut, with the World Premiere of The Joystick and The Reins, accompanied by large scale orchestra Sinfonia Smith Square, conducted by Jack Sheen. Exploring how threat is constructed and maintained in society, the work interrogates the instrumentalisation of marginalised groups through systems of oppression and authoritarianism. Spanning influences including historical reenactments, police and riot arrest imagery, and 1980s Crimewatch episodes, The Joystick and The Reins is emblematic of Stainton’s community–rooted practice – their interest in how differently marginalised people come into relationship with power structures and societal conventions.

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Imagery and scenes are committed to a ‘memory bank’ that Stainton draws on as movement

vocabulary throughout each performance, allowing these images to cycle through like a warped,

overlapping playlist. The piece progresses through hyper-emotional states of intensity and

choreographic distortion, examining what it means to reconstruct a theatrical scene that draws on

truth. The scene and solo figure become a site for the audience’s own projections: power, dominance, perpetrator, victim, threat and interpretation. Stainton is accompanied by the 52 players of Sinfonia Smith Square Orchestra conducted by Jack Sheen, playing Ennio Morricone’s seminalscore for sci-fi horror blockbuster The Thing (1982). Performed live in full for the first time in history the score was specially prepared for the project by the Morricone Estate, from the composer’s handwritten manuscripts as he left them in Rome where he died in 2020. Celebrated for his ability to intensify affect and emotion, Morricone is credited by The Thing director John Carpenter as imbuing the film with a “deep, tragic sense that this is the end of things, of

everything.” A stark evocation of dread and demise, Morricone’s score finds resonance with

Stainton’s mutual exploration of societal suspicion, psychological horror, and the devastating potential of individual isolation.

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Credits

Eve Stainton – Choreographer & Performer

Sinfonia Smith Square

Jack Sheen – Conductor

Michael Kitchin – Producer

Sara Sassanelli – Creative Producer

Edward Saunders – Lighting Designer

Temitope Ajose – Rehearsal Director/Steward

Maëva Berthelot – Rehearsal Director

Florence Peake – Dramaturg

Binita Walia – PR

Guest Appearances – John Costi & William Morey

With thanks to The Morricone Estate, Wise Music Classical, Martin O’Brien, Jim Tuck, Lydia Garnett, Hamish Wirgman, Jon Gibson.