DIALOGUES

Somewhere Near Variety

Tim Etchells and Adrian Heathfield

Director and writer Tim Etchells pursues a dialogue with Adrian Heathfield on the life and residues of Variety Theatre in contemporary art and performance practice.

In a series of letters composed to each other and delivered to camera, Etchells and Heathfield examine what underlies their shared interest in the notion and forms of Variety. In this eclectic and evocative exchange their dialogue ranges through sources as diverse as memories of childhood, Saturday night TV of the 1970s and 1980s, Bruce Forsythe, Morecambe and Wise, Laurence Olivier in John Osborne’s The Entertainer, Tommy Cooper, cabaret performance, found photography and the performance works of Forced Entertainment. Turning over each other’s thoughts on Variety they come to examine the nature of entertainment, laughter, mortality, exoticism and the tireless re-cycling of forms.

Somewhere Near Variety was commissioned by the Live Art Development Agency and was originally presented as part of Variety Acts a weekend of performances and discussions at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, November 2005. A DVD of Somewhere Near Variety is published by the Live Art Development Agency.

Photograph and © Tim Etchells