ASSEMBLY HALL Comes to Sadler's Wells Theatre in March

Kidd Pivot returns to Sadler's Wells Theatre in March 2024 with the UK premiere of Assembly Hall, created by Sadler's Wells Associate Artist Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young. Featuring the company's signature wit and invention, Assembly Hall, a Sadler's Wells co-production, is the latest work from the team behind the ground-breaking, Olivier Award-winning productions Betroffenheit and Revisor.

  

A group of medieval re-enactors have come together for an Annual General Meeting in their local community hall. As the Board of Directors, they oversee an event called “Quest Fest” that has fallen on hard times: membership is dwindling, debt is mounting, and the hall is falling apart. Unless something drastic happens, the Directors of this venerable order will be facing dissolution. As the meeting progresses, the line between real and re-enactment begins to blur, ancient forces are awoken, and it soon becomes clear that there is something much more at stake here than a mock-medieval tournament.

Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young said: “Sometimes these things begin with a concrete premise or proposition, but we were starting from scratch. Neither of us knew what the other was thinking and both had come with only the faintest inkling about what terrain we might want to explore next. By the end of an initial meeting though, a group of individuals had assembled in our imagination. They were gathered around the remnants of an old story - a story, it seemed to us then, that they were caring for and keeping alive. Were they Historians? Folklorists? Conservators? How had this story drawn them into its orbit? What was the connection? Perhaps these people needed this story as much as the story needed them. Or perhaps the story itself was secondary to that age-old human need to congregate; to participate in a communal activity; to be recognized and feel a sense of belonging. A small community hall used by a variety of different groups.”

Sir Alistair Spalding CBE, Artistic Director and Co-CEO of Sadler's Wells said “A new creation from the creative powerhouse that is Kidd Pivot is always hotly anticipated, and rightly so. Crystal and Jonathon are pioneering artists who, with their extraordinary ensemble, have already brought our audiences the unforgettable Betroffenheit and Revisor. Assembly Hall is no less visionary: from such a surprising scenario they have made a beautiful, funny and thought-provoking production. We are delighted to be co-producing this new show.”

In a choreographic career spanning three decades, Crystal Pite has created more than 50 works for dance companies in Canada and around the world. She is the founding artistic director of the Vancouver-based company Kidd Pivot, world-renowned for radical hybrids of dance and theatre that are assembled with a keen sense of wit and invention. Pite is known for works that address challenging and complex themes as trauma, addiction, conflict, consciousness and mortality; her bold and original vision has earned her international acclaim and inspired an entire generation of dance artists. Crystal Pite was born in Terrace, BC, and grew up in Victoria. She began her dance career as a company member of Ballet British Columbia (Ballet BC), then William Forsythe's Ballett Frankfurt. She made her choreographic debut in 1990 at Ballet BC, and since then has created works for such prominent companies as The Royal Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater I, Cullberg Ballet, Ballett Frankfurt, The National Ballet of Canada, Ballets Jazz Montréal (resident choreographer 2001–04), and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. She has also collaborated with Electric Company Theatre and Robert Lepage, and is currently Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater I, Associate Dance Artist of Canada's National Arts Centre, and Associate Artist of Sadler's Wells in London.

Jonathon Young is playwright-in-residence at Kidd Pivot and a core artist and co-founder of Electric Company Theatre, where he has created and performed in over 20 original productions since the company was formed in 1996. He has worked as an actor on stages across Canada including Soulpepper Theatre (King Lear), Coalmine Theatre (Knives in Hens), Luminato Festival, Vancouver Playhouse (Full Light of Day), Necessary Angel (All but Gone), Theatre Calgary, (No Exit, The Great Gatsby), Bard on the Beach, (Hamlet). Assembly Hall is the third full-length work created with Crystal Pite after Betroffenheit (2015) and Revisor (2019). In addition, he wrote the text for two projects at Nederlands Dans Theater (Parade and The Statement). Jonathon is the recipient of the UK National Dance Award.

After its run at Sadler's Wells Theatre in the spring of 2024, the production will tour to the Edinburgh International Festival in the summer.

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