Acclaimed artist and choreographer Jennifer Jackson is bringing a new live performance to the stage at HOME. WRESTLELADSWRESTLE will be an exhilarating, ambitious and enthralling piece of theatre that carries hope and a sense of empowerment.
Confronting and dissecting a racist incident that Jennifer watched her mother experience as a child, audiences are witness to a reimagination of this moment.
Jennifer is joined by a girl gang as the memory and outcomes are replayed and relived. As well as being a part of the narrative the girl gang represent a critical part of Jennifer’s own story, which is that shortly after the incident she was signed up for judo classes. By the age of 15 she was the under 50kg British Judo Champion.
Questions will be stirred about why there is a need for women to defend themselves and how oppression in society operates, whilst playing out will be a visual and visceral performance that gathers the pace of a sports spectacle with explosive judo and wrestling moves.
Jennifer Jackson, creator of WRESTLELADSWRESTLE, says, ‘I am so excited to be able to share this brand-new work with audiences in Manchester. I am working with an incredible ensemble drawn from the community and an exciting creative team to bring you an exhilarating night of entertainment.’
Born in the Midlands and now living in Manchester, Jennifer Jackson is a Latinx Anglo-Bolivian theatre-maker, movement director, choreographer and performer and this is the second time she has staged a production at HOME. In this Jennifer took on a feat of Endurance in a piece that was shortlisted for the Theatertreffen Stückemarkt (Berliner Festspiele, 2022).
Jennifer is joined on stage by a girl gang who live and work around Manchester – none of whom are professional actors – led by Jennifer and performer Annie Rogers. During the production process each has been trained in playfighting to capture the thrill of seeing the body in motion, based on a vision that Jennifer has been developing collaboratively with Simon Carroll Jones (Head of Movement at The Arden), who alsoappears in the production.
The setting will be evocative of an underground gym and the atmosphere will be electrified by the live drumming of Isobel Odelola.
Sarah Frankcom is outside eye in the second performance that she has worked on at HOME in 2024 that is told within the setting of a gym (Work It Out written by and starring Eve Steele, on which Jennifer Jackson was choreographer). Creative captioning by Sarah Readman puts accessibility front and centre, integrating it into the creative process. I’m
