Xavier De Sousa's POST to Make UK Premiere at Ovalhouse This December

Xavier de Sousa and Ovalhouse Theatre present POST in its UK premiere, running Wednesday 30th November - Saturday 3rd December 2016, 7.30pm. Press night: Wednesday 30th November 2016, 7.30pm.

Developed from Xavier de Sousa's work-in-progress performance Saudade, this bold new work uses British and Portuguese history, cultural traditions and personal experience to explore the meaning and relevance of national identity in the modern world.

The piece tackles the dichotomy of a generation who grew up in an open-doors Europe, accustomed to technological advances, travel, exchange and international engagement and the fear and nationalism sweeping across the world which threatens to close our borders. Xavier de Sousa reflects on borders as protective systems and asks us who they protect us from, what they represent and what they are reinforcing - as well as looking at ingrained British values and colonial history and how these have affected our thinking around migration in Britain today.

Deviser and performer Xavier de Sousa said: "POST came as a direct response to the rhetoric employed around migration and refugees in the UK and across mainland Europe. It was essentially my way of re-gaining some sense and some pride in the word and the lived experience that being a migrant provides you with.

"Over the past two years or so, since the rise of UKIP into the national mainstream we - those of us who had the misfortune of being born outside of England (and I emphasise England here, rather than the UK), have been treated as bait for an apparent national hunger to demonise a group of people as the ones to blame for the economic and governmental failures in this country.

"POST is about post-nationalism and looks back through history and at specific traditions and identities that form part of both Portugal and England's 'brand', in deconstructing this it asks 'why are we so obsessed with keeping this so-called national identity and what the hell is that in the first place?"

Xavier de Sousa is an independent performance maker and producer. Having grown up with Europe's oldest performance art festival, CITEMOR (Portugal), he has been working solidly in theatre, dance and live art since graduating from Kingston University in 2010.

His previous solo practice included Almost Xav, a character which explored hyper masculinity and the effects of mainstream discourse on masculinity. Xavier has previously worked with Tino Sehgal, Lauren Barri Holstein, Richard DeDomenici, Rosana Cade, Forest Fringe, Louise Orwin, Ellie Stamp, Needless Alley Collective and OperaUpClose amongst others. He has also performed in a variety of solo shows and collaborations at Latitude Festival, Tate Modern, Vogue Fabrics, Southbank Centre, Whitechapel Gallery, Old Vic Tunnels, King's Head Theatre, Camden People's Theatre amongst others.

As a producer, he currently works with live artists Nicola Hunter and Jamie Lewis Hadley, choreographers Evangelia Kolyra & Sivan Rubinstein and The Place. Together with Sally Rose, he is currently working on Producer Gathering which proposes to be a point of network, mapping and sharing of resources for producers of all backgrounds. This initiative came from a two year-long producer residency at the Live Art Development Agency.

POST is commissioned by Ovalhouse Theatre and supported by Attenborough Centre for the Arts, Marlborough Theatre, Camden People's Theatre, Bikeshed Theatre and Tempting Failure Festival. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

This performance has developed into a full production from Xavier de Sousa's FiRST BiTE work-in-progress piece Saudade, originally presented at Ovalhouse in 2015.

This is an extra-live show and audiences are invited to respond to the show in whatever way feels natural; moving around, making noises and coming and going from the auditorium if needed. Latecomers are permitted. For more information on the Extra-Live movement, please follow this link: www.extra-live.co.uk.

For more, visit www.xavierdesousa.co.uk.

IF YOU GO:

POST

At Ovalhouse Theatre, 52-54 Kennington Oval, London SE11 5SW

Wednesday 30 November - Saturday 3 December 2016

Running time: 90 minutes | Age restriction: All ages

7.30pm | £13 (£8)

Box office: | www.ovalhouse.com

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