LADA Screens: Adrian Howells – Online Screening

LADA Screens: Adrian Howells
Selected works of Adrian Howells
Online 18 July ­ 1 August 2016

Documentation from this screening featuring presentations from Deirdre Heddon & Dominic Johnson, Katy Baird, Nic Green and Ella Finer is now available to view online.

Adrian Howells (1964-2014) was one of the leading, international figures in the field of one-to-one, intimate performance practice. Developed over more than a decade, Howells’ award-winning work initiated new challenges and innovations in performance art, “intimate theatre,” and socially engaged art. Howells left behind a significant corpus of work that extends from his early Adrienne shows — including Adrienne’s Dirty Laundry Experience (2003), Adrienne: The Great Depression (2005) and Salon Adrienne (2006) — and other autobiographical works such as May I Have the Pleasure? (2011 – Total Theatre Award), to his one-to-one performances, including Held (2007), Foot Washing for the Sole (2008 – Total Theatre Award), The Garden of Adrian (2009) and The Pleasure of Being: Washing/ Feeding/Holding (2011). Howells’ rich portfolio of practice also includes his work with Citizens Theatre and collaboration with Leigh Bowery, Ivan Cartwright and Stewart Laing in the early 1990s; works with the late Nigel Charnock; and devising with Tim Crouch (The Author, 2009).

For LADA Screens we are screening Adrienne at Home (2006) and Adrienne's Room Service (2005).

Adrienne at Home features four videos of Adrian Howells in drag: he interviews his family members about his childhood, visits his infant school, and performs other interventions. Made in collaboration with the filmmaker Ben Wright and shown in many performances of An Audience with Adrienne (2006). 

Adrienne’s Room Service was performed at the Great Eastern Hotel, Bishopsgate, London. Adrienne is called to a specific room by an audience-participant, and delivers a meal, glass of wine, and dessert on a trolley; Adrienne and her customer-cum-date sit or lay on the bed together, while the latter eats, and they talk. Adrienne shares a dessert with the guest, then leaves, returning to the hotel’s kitchen to await another order.

This screening accompanies the publication of It’s All Allowed: The Performances of Adrian Howells edited by Deirdre Heddon and Dominic Johnson

Review by Bryony White for thisistomorrow.

About the Publication

It’s All Allowed is the first book devoted to Howells’ remarkable achievements and legacy. Contributors here testify to the methodological, thematic and historiographical challenges posed by Howells’ performances. Citing his permissive mantra as its title, It’s All Allowed includes new writing from leading scholars and artists, as well as writing by Howells himself, an extensive interview, scores, and visual materials, which together offer new insight into Howells’ ground­breaking process. The book includes essays on Howells’ work by Deirdre Heddon and Dominic Johnson, Stewart Laing, Jon Cairns, Caridad Svich, Helen Iball, Rachel Zerihan, Marcia Farquhar, Kathleen Gough, Robert Walton, Rosana Cade, Fintan Walsh, Lucy Gaizely, Gary Gardiner, Ian Johnston, Shelley Hastings and Jackie Wylie, Stephen Greer, Tim Crouch, Laura Bissell, Jess Thorpe and others, Nic Green, and Jennifer Doyle.