{"id":20973,"date":"2017-11-06T18:35:14","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T18:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=20973"},"modified":"2017-11-06T18:35:14","modified_gmt":"2017-11-06T18:35:14","slug":"ballet-bay-makes-bbc-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2017\/11\/06\/ballet-bay-makes-bbc-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Director Marc Rees talks about ballet, revolution and surrealism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Cardiff director Marc Rees talks about ballet, revolution and surrealism<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nTHE radical ballet PARADE, directed by Marc Rees, was performed at the Wales Millennium Centre, and broadcast by BBC FOUR as part of a season marking the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution.<br \/>\nThe original piece, created for the Ballets Russes in Paris in 1917, with a score by Eric Satie and costumes by Picasso, was reimagined as an immersive theatre piece by National Dance Company Wales.<br \/>\nPARADE formed part of the Russia Season across Wales that also featured theatrical performance and symphonies by Russian composers Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_20975\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20975\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-20975\" src=\"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Parade-at-NDCW.-Photo-by-Mark-Douet-_80A4833-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20975\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-20975\" src=\"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Parade-at-NDCW.-Photo-by-Mark-Douet-_80A4833-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" \/><\/noscript> The Tetris-themed set above the BBC NOW Orchestra Pit. Credit: Mark Douet<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nThe Millennium Centre performance included a free outdoor performance as well as ballet on the centre\u2019s main stage.<br \/>\nRees said: \u201cThe BBC have done a really nice cut of it, it\u2019s only about 30 minutes, but I think captures the essence of the performance.\u201d<br \/>\nRather than just perform the original ballet, Rees and choreographer Caroline Flynn created a \u201cwraparound context, to make it relevant for the modern day\u201d.<br \/>\nPARADE can be viewed on BBCiPlayer. More information about the performance is available <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wmc.org.uk\/Productions\/2017-2018\/DonaldGordonTheatre\/Parade\/\">here<\/a>.<br \/>\n<em><strong>The Cardiffian asked Marc Rees more about his work and his inspiration<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nMARC Rees, an actor, director and performance artist, has been making \u201csomething quite different\u201d performance pieces in Wales and beyond for over 20 years, starting his career as a performer in 1989.<br \/>\nExeunt Magazine described him as: \u201cOne of the most compellingly original and beautifully strange artists currently working in the UK.\u201d<br \/>\nTraditional theatre bores him.<br \/>\n\u201cI find it hard work, I like to be stimulated elsewhere. I don\u2019t get stimulated if I\u2019m just going to sit in the auditorium unless it\u2019s really engaging or something quite different.\u201d<br \/>\nHis latest creation, a re-imagining of the early-20<sup>th<\/sup> Century ballet Parade by Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau, had performances in both Cardiff Bay and Bangor last month.<br \/>\nThe ballet begins with a series of street performers outside the theatre trying to convince the public to watch a performance inside.<br \/>\nThose who attended were treated to what Mr Rees describes as \u201cnonsense\u201d, a collection of dancers in Picasso-inspired cardboard costumes seeking to entertain through stylised dance.<br \/>\nCocteau premiered the ballet at the time of the Russian Revolution and Rees was inspired by that theme. He created a narrative of a politician unveiling a old-fashioned, retro robot he claimed to be revolutionary, with the intention of replacing human workers in a dystopian-style future. The ballet is then laid on as a celebration of the new robot\u2019s announcement.<br \/>\nThe piece is characteristic of Rees\u2019 portfolio, which include a walking trail through garden allotments in Brighton, a sensorial treasure hunt in Laugharne, and a mobile aircraft shell becoming a stage for London\u2019s cultural Olympiad.<br \/>\nRees describes his work as immersive theatre, with most performances taking on a surrealist element. Averse to conventional proscenium-arch theatre, Mr Rees works with a \u201cplace and community\u201d to create \u201csite-specific theatre\u201d.<br \/>\nWith the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay as the chosen performance space, Mr Rees also looked to the current political landscape to build on the premise of a politician facing down workers, when an opportunity presented itself.<br \/>\n\u201cWith Theresa May\u2019s disastrous party conference speech, you just couldn\u2019t have made that up.\u00a0We had the politician interrupt her own speech with a coughing fit.<br \/>\n&#8220;That speech was actually on the morning of our first rehearsal with the Eiry Thomas as the politician. You could not have written it, with the P45, just comedy gold.\u201d<br \/>\nBut such events come at a cost to surrealist artists like Rees. Twitter-wars started by the US President, and scandal after scandal involving British government ministers have made the surreal seem almost commonplace.<br \/>\n\u201cLook at something like [the TV series] House of Cards. At first it was superb but now, because of Trump, you cannot parody [American politics], it is beyond parody\u2026 it loses its impact,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nMr Rees\u2019 biggest problem is how \u201cfact and fiction has merged to become more blurred\u201d. Eventually a surrealist artist\u2019s work can become less contentious, defeating their purpose to surprise, shock or engage an audience.<br \/>\n<em><strong>Marc Rees will be returning to South Wales with his next theatrical project in 2018.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cardiff director Marc Rees talks about ballet, revolution and surrealism THE radical ballet PARADE, directed by Marc Rees, was performed at the Wales Millennium Centre, and broadcast by BBC FOUR as part of a season marking the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The original piece, created for the Ballets Russes in Paris in 1917, with a score by Eric Satie and costumes by Picasso, was reimagined as an immersive theatre piece by National Dance Company Wales. PARADE formed part [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":20974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,42,3,439],"tags":[454,5044,2559,5045,3438],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-20973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardiff-bay","category-music","category-news","category-diary","tag-cardiff-bay","tag-marc-rees","tag-parade","tag-revolution","tag-russia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Director Marc Rees talks about ballet, revolution and surrealism - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2017\/11\/06\/ballet-bay-makes-bbc-four\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Director Marc Rees talks about ballet, revolution and surrealism - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cardiff director Marc Rees talks about ballet, revolution and surrealism THE radical ballet PARADE, directed by Marc Rees, was performed at the Wales Millennium Centre, and broadcast by BBC FOUR as part of a season marking the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. 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