Three Spoon Theatre presents The Eiffel Tower Wedding Party by Jean Cocteau at BATS Theatre as part of this year's Dance Your Socks Off Festival in Wellington.

Director and co-founder of Three Spoon Theatre Brigid Costello, also a former member of the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company, relishes the opportunity to combine her dance experience with her theatre training.

"It wasn't enough for me to read it off the page and imagine it, I had to see it and feel it physically to understand the sensations and rhythms that Cocteau was painting when he wrote it. New possibilities keep jumping out at me from the script and I love being able to explore them with physicality and voice both in isolation and combination."Three Spoon Theatre presents The Eiffel Tower Wedding Party by Jean Cocteau at BATS Theatre as part of this year's Dance Your Socks Off Festival in Wellington.

Director and co-founder of Three Spoon Theatre Brigid Costello, also a former member of the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company, relishes the opportunity to combine her dance experience with her theatre training.

"It wasn't enough for me to read it off the page and imagine it, I had to see it and feel it physically to understand the sensations and rhythms that Cocteau was painting when he wrote it. New possibilities keep jumping out at me from the script and I love being able to explore them with physicality and voice both in isolation and combination."The Eiffel Tower Wedding Party by Jean Cocteau transports his monstrous reality from 1920s Paris to 2008 Wellington in a surrealist dance theatre affair.

Accompanied by the whimsical melodies of Yann Tiersen (Amelie), Eiffel Tower relentlessly bewilders and amuses through the madcap adventures of a misbehaving camera, a peculiar pair of phonographs and an utterly bizarre wedding party.

The challenge and the joy of this particular production has been the combination of actors dancing and dancers acting. The ensemble for The Eiffel Tower Wedding Party includes established members of Three Spoon Theatre in production and acting roles. In addition they are joined by five experienced classical and contemporary trained dancers to enrich the physical nature of the piece.

The culmination of the two has meant a rich range of interpretations of Cocteau's script. The result Costello says "has blown me away, every word in the script is given a new dimension when it is coloured with movement, voice and music".

The wedding bells ring from 2nd-6th September, 8.30pm at BATS Theatre, Kent Terrace. Tickets $13/$16 (concession rate for students and groups 8+). For bookings: 802-4175 or book@bats.co.nz

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02/09/08