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READ RECENT REVIEWS OF 'THE COWS COME HOME'!! Sold-Out Performances in London
http://www.londontheatreblog.co.uk - 'This is densely imagined and experienced dance-drama, evocative and tantalising and paradoxically satisfying. The Cows Come Home is an enigmatic experience that resonates in some place deeper and stranger than the intellect, transcending narrative obscurity to achieve a beguiling synthesis of music and image and motion.' http://www.musicomh.com/theatre/cows_0508.htm - 'By the time the lightbulb pops and the illusion is destroyed, Zach Dunbar and Jesús Rubio Gamo have served up a multi-layered, deeply compelling but also meditative work of experimental theatre. Nothing prepares you for this spectacle, an amalgam of myth, physicality, compulsive behaviour and ritualism. It demands reflection, not on death – human or bovine – but on the quality of life, or the necessity of suffering'. http://magazine.brighton.co.uk (click on Theatre & Comedy/scroll to 'Archives') - 'Like a mass of oil and water, like some kind of wonderful fluid, move the dancers of Zeb Fontaine...They are the living embodiment of what is now seen as ‘fringe’ dance but in reality is the future of such theatre, whether we know it or not'.  
 
The Cows Come Home It’s the after hour of a tragedy. A chorus plans a celebration when a farmer’s dying memories enter the space triggering the chorus to re-experience the Great Going Down. Dance theatre, live electro-acoustic sounds and film fuse in this twenty-first century exploration of the tragic chorus. Bits of the Oedipus story mix in with modern themes about mad cows disease, infection and religious belief - it will melt in your mind. During the last few decades innovative productions of Greek tragedy have acknowledged the leading influence of dance. Increasingly found in fringe theatres (The Gate, Soho Theatre, Camden People’s Theatre), dance-based productions propose new approaches to the interrelationship of performance space, sound, text and movement.  
 
Zeb Fontaine’s third production of tragic transpositions explores the chorus in the twenty-first century. In ancient times, a chorus inhabited another world and also the present. Its message was unclear yet profoundly humane. 'The Cows Come Home' journeys to a sensory world, and features a select cut of dancers and artists from Sweden, Spain, France, Italy and the UK.
Performance Length: 50 minutes
Written and Directed by Zachary Dunbar
Choreography by Jesus Rubio Gamo
Devised by the Company: Cinematic composer Giuseppe Lomeo (co-founder of the electro-acoustic Opera Mutica ensemble), soundscape artist and designer Patrick Furness and Ollie Hymans (Animate Space www.animatespace.com), and scenographer Alexa Reid (Lotos Collective www.lotoscollective.org.uk). The artistic direction is by Zachary Dunbar whose specialty in Greek tragedy brings an innovative and present-day voice to its modern reception.
Camden People’s Theatre
58-60 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 2PY - World Première
www.cptheatre.co.uk 6th-11th May, 2008; 8:00 pm; 12/£10
Ticket Bookings: Ticketweb 08700 600 100 (24 hours); www.ticketweb.co.uk
Can also purchase tickets from Camden People's Theatre ONLY 30 minutes before the evening's performance. Ground floor venue; Full wheelchair access The Udder Place, the Udderbelly's Pasture, Old Steine, Brighton, BN1 1NH 12th-13th May, 2008; 6:15 pm £12/£10 Tel bookings 01273 709 709; Web Bookings www.underbelly.co.uk and www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk Tickets on sale from 20th March 08
The Press on Zachary Dunbar’s previous productions:
OUT OF CHARACTER
'Three sparkling and beautifully devised plays by Zachary Dunbar are a joy to behold…an exceptionally original and exciting spectacle’ (The Scotsman****); ‘Very professional, mature and considered drama…truly remarkable’ (The Stage);
THE YEAR OF THE PIG
‘A squeak away from fame!’ (Times)
The Press on Jesus Rubio Gamo’s recent Stabat Mater at the UK’s Resolution Festival (Robin Howard Dance Theatre, London)
‘Gamo’s Stabat Matter was the highlight of the evening…gestures alluding to the Virgin Mary and womankind were connected smartly through sound and text’ (Gillie Kleiman, The Place)
WHY SPONSOR THIS PRODUCTION
Zeb Fontaine is a multimedia performance group. We are eclectic about theatre styles and genres. We try to transform the conventional reception of sound, space, movement and text by altering the expressive qualities and configurations of the various media. The net effect is multiple acts of aural and visual densities that behave as dramatic narratives. There is also a story here somewhere.
In the present state of arts funding cuts, Zeb Fontaine is unique in offering the actors and artistic team a small stipend for the performances and for travel even though we are not grant-maintained. As a former concert pianist, I will offer for instance a public concert to raise money for productions.
YOUR DONATION ensures that there is longevity in the creative vision of Zeb Fontaine's work. Each production affords a significant opportunity to draw together international professionals, to collectively devise a work, to shape and bring their art into a high-profile public performance, and to sustain the huge initial investment of time, energy and creative talent as it gains a competitive edge in grant applications. YOUR DONATION also sustains a long term theatre project. The Cows Come Home is part of a continuum of major works that are prompted and inspired by present-day transpositions of ancient Greek tragedy (please see 'Productions'). Two other projects, based on Sophocles’ Antigone on Euripides’ Hippolytus are presently undergoing research and development. During the last few decades the reception of classical tragedies has enjoyed immense global popularity in both theatre and academic research. Its timeless themes and performance practices vitally resonate with contemporary issues from war and ethnic cleansing to religion, socio-politics, gender, postcolonial problems and science.
Zeb Fontaine’s goal is to eventually stage all three productions simultaneously in three different performance spaces in London, thus creating a kind of ancient festival of Greek tragedies re-imagined for a cosmopolitan audience.
We keep a record of all our sponsors, and when possible, offer them concession rates for tickets purchased for any performance. Sponsors, if they wish, are also listed in our programmes, and are informed of forthcoming productions. If you prefer the ‘old fashioned’ way of making a donation, I would be grateful if you could send a cheque, made payable to: ‘Zachary Dunbar’, and post to c/o Zeb Fontaine, 61 Blythe Road, London W14 0HP, United Kingdom. If you require any further information on this production, or about the professional background of the artistic team, please contact
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