Lost Dog to Perform at Wilton's Music Hall, 7/19-24

LOST DOG, fronted by its highly individual, accomplished Artistic Director Ben Duke, recently hit the jackpot with 5 star reviews and capacity audiences for the coruscating dance/theatre production 'Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me)' which has been gaining momentum since its premiere at Battersea Arts Centre in May 2015. The final dates in the spring 2016 tour are at Wilton's Music Hall, July 19th to 24th.

A one-man staging of Milton's epic Paradise Lost, combining theatre, comedy and movement this is a journey through the story of the creation of everything condensed into 75 minutes, beginning with Lucifer's rebellion and ending with Adam and Eve's expulsion from the garden of Eden. Ben Duke plays all the characters, creates all the scenes and, despite his best efforts, falls a little short of perfection. "It's a show for anyone who has created anything (child, garden, paper aeroplane) and then watched it spiral out of control," he says.

Publicity: judy.lipsey@premiercomms.com 020 7292 8330
Co-commissioned by The Place and Battersea Arts Centre with further commissioning support from Bath ICIA University. Developed with support from The Point, Eastleigh and South East Dance.
Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

"Duke's writing is finely pitched, as are his musical choices (from Handel to Janis Joplin); however, it's his dance training that shines through in big set pieces...the battle between God and the rebel angels in which he seems to swell to heroic proportions, riding an imaginary chariot, hurling boulders and spears." (Guardian)

"Duke veers wildly from the original poem in a retelling alive with amusing detail, casting God as Lucifer's needy boyfriend and having battling angels squeezing through the galley kitchen in the Almighty's designer flat. Deftly scripted, Duke threads scenes from his own life through the narrative...using a mixture of text, movement and slightly bewildered charm that makes him very good company." (Evening Standard)

LOST DOG was formed in 2004 by Ben Duke and Raquel Meseguer with the aim of creating work that is both theatre and dance. The company works with text, movement and music to create work in which dance is framed by stories and characters. The company's first work, Pave up Paradise, won 1st prize at the Burgos International Choreography competition, 2nd prize at the Hanover choreography competition, and was performed by Phoenix Dance Theatre as part of its Stories in Red 25th anniversary mixed bill (2006).

The Drowner was nominated for a Total Theatre award and won critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2005, and in the same year the company received a Bonnie Bird UK New Choreographers' Award. Lost Dog has also created Hungry Ghosts, (toured UK and abroad 2007-2008); The Rain Parade (2009); Salvage (2010) and in 2011 won The Place Prize for Dance sponsored by Bloomberg with their duet, It Needs Horses. Home for Broken Turns completed a UK and international tour in 2012-2014 alongside It Needs Horses. Like Rabbits, made in collaboration with award-winning writer Lucy Kirkwood and inspired by Virginia Woolf's short story Lappin & Lapinova premiered at Brighton Festival 2014.

Ben Duke - Artistic Director & Performer
Ben Duke trained at Guildford School of Acting, London Contemporary Dance School and has a first class degree in English Literature from Newcastle University. His work explores the overlap and transition between dance and theatre. As well as his work for Lost Dog, Ben has directed and choreographed works for other companies. He has just finished working with Barely Methodical Troupe on their latest show Kin which premiered at the Roundhouse in April 2016. He has created work for Scottish Dance Theatre (The Life and Times of Girl A), Dance Umbrella (The Difference Engine), Phoenix Dance Theatre (Pave up Paradise) and numerous post-graduate performing companies including Verve and Intoto. He has choreographed for projects by The National Theatre of Scotland (Dolls), the Gate Theatre, London (Sexual Neuroses of our Parents) and Handspring UK (CROW). He has performed with Probe, Hofesh Shechter Company, The Gate Theatre, The National Theatre of Scotland, Glyndebourne Opera and Punchdrunk. Ben is a Work Place artist, was Associate Artist at South East Dance 2012-14 and recipient of the Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award 2011. In 2016 Ben won the National Dance Critics Award for Outstanding Male Performance for Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me).

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