imitating the dog, one of the UK’s most original and innovative performance theatre companies are set to bring their unique theatrical vision to the stage this autumn when they premiere a bold retelling of Joseph Conrad’s extraordinarily influential and timely novel – Heart of Darkness.
Following on from their popular and critically acclaimed adaptation in 2014 of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, imitating the dog will stage an exploration of Conrad’s classic novel filled with visually rich, multi-layered work that fuses live performance and digital technology.
The production will premiere in Italy at Marche Teatro’s Teatro Sperimentale in Ancona and then tour to Aberystwyth Arts Centre (16-17 November) and Birmingham Repertory Theatre (20-24 November). The UK tour will continue in 2019 from 5 Mar to 11 May to Doncaster, Glasgow, Lancaster, Keswick, Newcastle, York, Ipswich, Salford, Liverpool, and Coventry.
Written more than 100 years ago, amid the optimism at the turn of a new century, Heart of Darkness, which explored the journey of Conrad’s narrator Charles Marlow travelling up the Congo river into the Congo Free State in the heart of Africa, is a tale of lies and brutal greed and of the dark heart which beats within us all. Now retold as a journey of a black woman through war torn Europe, the play explores a forsaken landscape lost to the destructive lust for power and emerges as a tale absolutely for our time.
Heart of Darkness is retold and directed by imitating the dog founder members Pete Brooks and Andrew Quick (A Farewell to Arms and Kellerman, imitating the dog and The Carrier Frequency, Impact Theatre Co-operative). The production’s projection and video are designed by fellow original founder member Simon Wainwright (The Kid Stays in the Picture, Royal Court).
imitating the dog have been making ground-breaking work for theatres and other spaces for 20 years. Their work, which fuses live performance with digital technology, has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people in venues, outdoor festivals and events across the world.
