History History History

“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 Herald, Teatro Perinsala, and The Fix Magazine)

“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 so strong it deserves to be enshrined as a film of its own; it does not deserve to be ethereal, but that is part of its beauty.” – Musings on Film

“History, History, History is a performance that reflects, implicitly, on the emergence of historical possibility as a creative, personal and collective process.” – 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:

April 20th and 21st – Dartington Arts, Dartington, UK

Upcoming dates tba in Manchester and Estonia

History History History past performances:

2016

Premiere: January 29th and 30th with bit teatergarasjen at USF in Bergen, Norway

Version Française Work-in-Progress à Théâtre Garonne – Toulouse, France

UK Premiere: The Cube, Mayfest. May 19th and 20th.

The Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh

Compass Live Arts Festival, Leeds

Drugajne Festival, Maribor, Slovenia