The Picnic

A new full-length work by Eva Recacha, The Picnic presents a large group of young humans enjoying themselves in a surreal blend of parading, celebrating, indulging and co-operating activities, all emerging from a dreamlike picnic scenario. The work, co-created with a cast of professionals and participants, explores themes of utopia and misogyny and it is inspired by the painting ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ by H. Bosch, which presents many human figures in a terrestrial paradise, indulging in worldly pleasures.

Co-commissioned by Sadler’s Wells and South East Dance, with support from London Contemporary Dance School. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The Picnic will premiere at the Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadler’s Wells on the 27th November 2024.

R&D

The 2023 R&D period of The Picnic was supported by London Contemporary Dance School and supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The 2021 R&D period of The Picnic was supported by Sadler’s Wells and using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. It involved the band The Yonis and long standing collaborator Alberto Ruiz Soler.

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Direction & Choreography: Eva Recacha

Performance and devising: Charlotte Mclean. Alicja Nauman, Scilla Rajalin & London Contemporary Dance School Students 

Sound: Alberto Ruiz Soler

Scenography: Kate Lane

Lighting Design: Jackie Shemesh

Associate Lighting Designer: Joe Hornsby

Text: Devised by the Creative Team

Production Manager: Ben Moon

Promotional Images: Rocio Chacón

Image Rocío Chacón
Image Rocío Chacón

The Picnic is an attempt at grasping a collective celebratory moment. One that acknowledges the synergy of our collective efforts towards a world that can be liveable.

At The Picnic, a self made feast, we create moments of visibility and dignity – for ourselves and others-, moments of recognition, of freedom, of care, alongside moments of desire, pleasure, joy, and revel.

The tone is that of a dream; filled with certainties that turn uncertainties, numbness turning into deep sensation, quotidian scenarios turning into surreal imagery and dullness into oneiric atmospheres.

Eva Recacha (July 2024, thoughts on The Picnic before the piece is made).

Working texts July 2024– these are texts that try to capture some of the themes of the work. They are not meant to be a script, but they provide points of reflection and documentation along the journey,

Text 1

I want to cultivate my vulnerability.

Our errors, our misconceptions, our weird thoughts, our secret desires, our not so good ideas, allowed to breathe and co-exist with that part of ourselves that we think it’s our better self.

Text 2

Fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fuuuuuun.

Fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fuuuuuun.

I want to be fun. I want to be fun. I want to be fun. I want to be fun.

Text 3

If you could see what I see.

If you could come here and stare, filling your eyes till they no longer see, distinguish, or identify. Hearing till you can no longer make the words, the songs, the messages, the codes, all sound turned into shrill and cacophony. Feel the multitude of touches, skin surrounded by skin, melted, joined up, glued together into a giant mass of human epidermis, all encompassing, filling the space, filling the void, spreading and shrinking, pulsating, beating alive rivers of hidden blood. Cool blood boiling in the depths of the body, our bodies, my body. Blood, pump, heart. Blood, pump, heart. Blood, pump, heart.

Text 4

Respect my privacy. Don’t diagnose. Don’t justify. Don’t understand.

Text 5 Free

I bleed

Sometimes

I bleed

Not always

Let me bleed in peace

Let me disappear

I go numb

Your attention is not needed

I ride free on my unicorn

Free of fear

Free of numbness

Free of scrutiny

Free of terror

I am free

I am not yours.

Text 6 – The bone

The bone, the skin, the blood, the hair

The core, the meat, the heart, the shell.

Beneath the skin the bone

Beneath the shell the core.

Inside out the heart beats

Proclaiming victory

Arranging

Manufacturing

Classifying

Assembling

Beating Beats of consciousness

Beats of love

Beats of loud, lived fragments.

Forgotten

Obliterated

Wasted

In the big mess of sinking.

Text 7 – An encounter

An encounter

In the presence of

A genesis with production line efficiency.

The Zero waste system is full of

Appreciation of the parts and

Complication in the assemblage

lines

Lining up

Lining down

Orderly lines

Full of loudness

Not Quiet

One after another after another after another after

Forever_neverending_allatonce_subreptitiously

Not quiet

Not quiet

A loud secret, unfolding, unyielding,

cruising the vast space between worlds,

between us,

Between you and I,

between them,

between all.

All here

all present

All lined

All loud

All clear

All in all

after all

in the end

at the end of the line

another.

Appreciation

Appreciation of the complex arrangement

Collection

Assemblage

Genesis of form

The logic of attachment

The Physics of entanglement

Tied

Sewed

Stitched to eachother

like we are the same

Like we are the same

Our bodies beating in sync

Pulsating together

Our bodies in arranged composition

Travelling together

Pulling, placing, parting, parading

Arranging

Arranging

An array

A disarray

An array

A disarray

An array

A disarray

Text 8 – I feel

I want to walk into the night

Run into the dark

Fly into the unknown

I feel excited

I feel

Text 9 – This one…

This one came alone

This one came with a friend

This one came late from work

This one is looking for work

This one is a particularly bright student

This one is still undecided

This one is very tired from a late shift last night and this one is full of energy and excitement after a lot of sex last night

This one is unsure

This one wishes to mix with others

This one prefers to be left alone.

This one has good ideas for how to be together.

This one is shy and wants to be apart for a while

This one loves heat, pulsating blood, proximity

This one loves the buzz of the night

This one doesn’t like the fuss tonight

This one loves the crowd

This one loves the attention

This one needs attention

This one has a bad memoryThis one prefers not to say

This one prefers to dream

This one prefers to forget

This one remembers

This one wants to speak

(silence)

This one has something to say

(silence)

This one has something to share

(silence)

This one will ride a unicorn tonight

This one will wear loose hair tonight

This one will wear no shoes tonight

This one will lay low tonight

This one will fly high tonightArray

Disarray

Text 10-Inviting death

If Inviting death wasn’t so real

If inviting death wasn’t so normal

If inviting death wasn’t your fault

If inviting death wasn’t the end

If inviting death

Inviting

Death

Text 11 – Cracked open

Countless, endless, speechless,

Numb

Terrified

Frozen

Cracked open

Left to bleed

Left to cry

In silence

Text 12 – Decent and dull

Decent and dull

Nice, nice, just bloody nice

Decent and nice, and kind, and very dull.

It’s asphyxiating

Settling down

Resigning

Self-conscious

Sex conscious

making an effort

putting a good face

carrying a burden.

Text 13 – I am grasping out for wholeness

I am grasping out for wholeness.