Slap and Tickle - Liz Aggiss

Description

SLAP AND TICKLE is a dark and ribald physical commentary on cultural mores, forays and sexual taboos. Liz Aggiss places herself centre stage in this solo performance in a vociferously moving and disorientating display of contradictions and interpretations, on girls, ladies, women, mummys, mothers, bitches and dogs, pensioners and senior citizens. Decoding mythologies, platitudes, refrains and old wives tales, this performance navigates itself into a feminist soup; it is push and pull, punishment and reward, slap and tickle……all the way home.

Conceived, written, choreographed and performed by Liz Aggiss, SLAP AND TICKLE beats a path through the personal and historical. The stage is littered with an aural and visual collage; from archive and cover versions, to radio nostalgia and contemporary reference. The performance lurches relentlessly from spoken word to expressionist and music hall movement and gesture, from costume change to prop manipulation.

The performance is driven by content that embodies feminist dance practices, is framed by the politics that challenge and resist the ‘authority’ of formal conventions, revising attitudes towards mature female visibility.

Strictly Over 18s Show

“The hilarious tickle never undermines the serious slap in this solo – sheer brilliance.” Mary Brennan The Herald

“empowering, liberating and moving” Courtney Chapman arthursseat.net

“With the spit of punk and the polish of ballet, Liz Aggiss transformed into a singular provocateur” Lorna Irvine Exeunt Magazine

“a very funny solo piece… no need for Aggiss to bemoan the lack of opportunities facing older women in the theatre, because she puts herself centre stage through her live art practice.”Lyn Gardner

“………….personal, pertinent and potent”. Sarah Kent londondance.com

“sidesplittingly funny, entertainingly choreographed and spectacularly devoid of ordinariness or political correctness”. Niki McWilliams theatre bubble 

‘’Divided into three acts, Slap & Tickle is a vaudevillian journey through the Ages of Woman. It’s crammed with musical hall leitmotifs; Aggiss punctuates her subversive nursery rhymes and joyously grotesque phrases with shouts of, “Come on everybody! Let’s have a party!……..There’s a giddy, sinister air to the whole show” KA Bradley Exeunt Magazine

Slap and Tickle is supported by Arts Council England, Dance4, South East Dance, University of Bath.