My dark eyes sweep across the sea.
The grass is cool beneath my feet.
I am a single step from heaven.
Beachy Head is a jagged line of chalkface cliffs on the south
coast of England. At the top of the cliffs stands a telephone
box. At the foot is a lighthouse. It is a beacon for would-be
suicides. A thousand lives have ended here. They come from
across the world. It takes eight seconds to fall.
In Analogue’s new show they explore the lives that end at
the foot of those cliffs, the suffering of the ones left behind
and the ripples that spread from a single leap through
families, friendships, through earth, water and air. What are
the responsibilities of the artist towards the dead? What do
we edit? What traces does suicide leave behind? And what
could bring a person to the very edge between life and death,
between land and sea, between hope and despair?
Analogue brings this story to life in their innovative and
cinematic performance style, mixing 3D animation, object
manipulation, text and arresting physical performance.
Beachy Head is the second show in a trilogy and follows
Mile End, which the New Wolsey presented in 2007.
“Mile End often flows with a hypnotic magical realism
more associated with the cinema… this is neuron-firing,
emotionally hot-wired theatre from a visionary young
company.” The Metro