“A roving and inventive presentation.” – Sight and Sound Magazine
In 1956, there was a popular uprising against the USSR in Hungary. The battle was fought primarily from the Corvin Cinema, and the uprising lead to one of the largest refugee crises of the twentieth century. In a live commentary screening of a 1956 comedy about football, scheduled to premiere at the Corvin Cinema the week of the uprising, Deborah Pearson unlocks a surprisingly personal story.
A documentary, performed live, the performance runs the length of and is timed alongside the film, using interviews with the exiled screenwriter and people involved with the film to playfully reflect on immigration, suppression, and our personal links with history. This is a show for lovers of cinema, and for anyone who has stared at pictures of their ancestors a little too long. With dramaturgy by Daniel Kitson, and outside eye work by Tania El Khoury and Laura Dannequin.
A House on Fire research and development commission with Theatre Garonne (Toulouse) and Bit Teatergarasjen (Bergen).
Developed in part at the National Theatre Studio.
★★★★★ “The show’s poignant humanity, its bittersweet reflections on the relentlessness of time and its potent blend of uplifting possibility and heartrending pathos make for an enchanting 90 minutes.” – The Fix Magazine
“History, History, History is a performance that reflects, implicitly, on the emergence of historical possibility as a creative, personal and collective process. It demonstrates the necessity of historical relationships, or relationship with histories, as a way to orient within and engage with the world. ” – Deborah Withers, author of Feminism, Digital Culture and the Politics of Transmission
“A magnetic piece of work that does what all great theatre should, probes and prods at its subject and ultimately reveals it in a new light.” – Kris Hatlett’s Mayfest Shorts Review
Contact Deborah Pearson for Booking Enquiries at deborahpearson@gmail.com
History History History upcoming performances:
June 13th at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
June 25th at The Broadway Cinema, Nottingham
August 5th – 10th at The Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh
August 24th at Malda Levi Festival, Bunker, Llubljana, Slovenia
September dates TBA in Melbourne and Brisbane
History History History past performances:
Premiere: January 29th and 30th at USF in Bergen, Norway
Version Française Work-in-Progress à Théâtre Garonne – Toulouse, France
UK Premiere: The Cube, Mayfest. May 19th and 20th.
Compass Live Arts Festival, Leeds
Drugajne Festival, Maribor, Slovenia
Festival InTacto, Vittoria-Gasteiz, Spain
February 22nd and 23rd Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal
February 28th – March 4th The Yard Theatre, London, UK
March 6th Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, Brighton, UK
March 14th and 15th The Phoenix Cinema with the Bikeshed, Exeter, UK
