The Enormous Room from Stopgap Dance Company returns in October following the London launch at the Lilian Baylis theatre, Sadler’s Wells. Featuring David Toole, whose achievements and skills as a disabled performer have been widely influential, plus newcomer Hannah Sampson as a father and daughter living through their own, very different experiences of grief.
Dave’s wife Jackie has died, but he still sees her everywhere. She is lying in his bed, sitting at the kitchen table and laughing with their daughter Sam. Dave has withdrawn into the living room unable to let his memories go, but going is all that Sam can think about….
David Toole performs the role of Dave adding to a distinguished career that includes a prominent solo in the 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony and the landmark 2004 film from DV8, The Cost Of Living. David has worked with Stopgap Dance Company for over a decade.
Sam is played by Hannah Sampson, a young dancer with Down’s syndrome who has received over 10 years of professional training with Stopgap Dance Company. The interactions between David Toole and Sampson demonstrate their onstage chemistry, which has been evident since initial rehearsals and workshops of this production.
David and Hannah are joined by non-disabled dancers Amy Butler (the rehearsal director of Chotto Desh by Akram Khan) and Tamar Daly plus Hannah Rotchell or Elia Lopez, depending on location, who take the roles of Jackie as Sam’s mother and Dave’s wife respectively.
Lucy Bennett, Stopgap’s Artistic Director and choreographer for The Enormous Room, chose to have two performers play Jackie to illustrate the subjective nature of memory. The Cambodian wheelchair dancer Nadenh Poan plays Chock, a Puck-like presence who orchestrates the collision between this world and the next. Christian Brinklow from Great Yarmouth plays the role of Tom, who offers his friend Sam a chance to escape sadness.
Tour Dates:
3 October: Cambridge Junction, Clapham
5-6 October: Circomedia, Bristol
6 November: DaDa Festival, Storyhouse, Chester
24 November: Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds
13-15 December: Chichester Festival Theatre, (Relaxed Performance on 15th December at 2.45pm)
