The Curtsy Play

1992

Choreographed by:

Louise Richards

Performed by:

Louise Richards and Kathy Crick

Music by:

Keith Bennett

The Curtsy Play was inspired by a chapter from the book "The Female malady" by Elaine Showalter; describing the plight of the female psychiatric patients in the care of Dr Charcot in Paris at the turn of the century. Photographs, drawings and visual studies of their behaviour were used to diagnose and analyse their 'problems'. The women were studied, watched, discussed, but never listened to. In the Curtsy Play, the two women play out a relationship of trust and mutual support before the judgmental eyes of the unseen viewer.

The Curtsy Play was originally created with a Bonnie Bird British Choreography Award.