Vivienne Franzmann brings Anatomy of Survival to the Edinburgh Fringe, a striking new collaboration that fuses theatre, dance and psychology. The production examines how humans perceive reality through a single incident told in multiple ways.
Written by Franzmann and co-directed with Frauke Requardt, the show explores the science of the nervous system through an inventive mix of text, movement and live performance. It offers a thought-provoking look at how people experience and respond to the world around them.
Anatomy of Survival runs at Assembly @ Dance Base (DB3) from 25–29 August at 19:45 (20:45). Tickets are available here.
You’ve written Anatomy of Survival at Assembly @ Dance Base. What can you tell us about the show?
It’s a 50-minute firecracker of a show with a drummer, an actor, two dancers and a bit of science.
I co-created the piece with choreographer (and psychotherapist) Frauke Requardt. We use a real-life scene I witnessed in a coffee shop, where a customer absolutely lost her shit at the person serving her, to examine the human nervous system.
The audience sees 22 descriptions and explanations of the same incident from bystanders and then we follow the “aggressor” into the world to see what is happening for her in the meltdown moment, and before and after.
There’s dance, drumming and text woven together in an exciting, offbeat, thought-provoking way.
The piece explores a single meltdown from multiple perspectives. What drew you to this structure and what does it reveal about how we interpret events?
The structure of the piece allows dance, music and text to work symbiotically. Some of the eyewitness accounts are expressed verbally, some physically, and some through drumming.
People often have very different experiences of the same event. We bring our own life experience and history into every moment of our lives, so it’s impossible for us all to experience the same thing.
This collaboration blends text, choreography and psychology. How did working with Frauke Requardt shape the development of the piece?
It’s a piece that I couldn’t have made without Frauke, and she couldn’t have made without me. We’re completely intertwined in the piece.
At the start, our clear aim was to try and make a piece where the words and the dance work together rather than against each other, and to avoid simply being illustrative. We figured out how to do that as we went along.
The process was very organic and playful and, at times, I had to let go of meaning and trust that the body speaks in a way that none of us fully understand.
The show examines the human nervous system and responses like fight, flight or freeze. How did you approach translating that science into performance?
We researched and refined what we thought was needed.
It’s a piece of theatre and dance rather than a scientific lecture, so we had to find a way of bringing the information to the audience that feels in step with the look and feel of the piece.
Along with one of our performers, video artist Susanne Dietz created an information film that is fun, strange and informative, and has the same flavour as the performance.
Your work often tackles complex and challenging themes. What conversations do you hope Anatomy of Survival sparks with audiences?
For me, the show’s main takeaway is about empathy and understanding.
I like to think that when audience members step outside into the crowd to see their next show, and everyone is getting in their way and getting on their nerves, that they understand a little more about themselves and their fellow human beings.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see Anatomy of Survival?
Anatomy of Survival is loud and quiet and tender and brutal and beautiful and awful and funny and sad. It’s full of all the things.
And it looks great.
And there’s a bear in it.
Come and watch.
