Ant Hampton. The Extra People
13 and 14 September at 17h, 17h30, 18h, 18h30, 19h, 19h30, 20h, 20h30, 21h
Riga Latvian Society big hall
Merķeļa iela 13, Riga
1h20, in English
Entrance 10 Eur
Reduced price for pupils, students, seniors, people with disabilities – 7 Eur
Tickets at Biļešu paradīze.
We recommend buying tickets in advance as there are exactly 15 spectators allowed at each performance.
Written and directed by Ant Hampton
Sound design and composition by Sam Britton
Artistic adviser Kate Macintosh
Editing, system design, tech director Hugh Roche Kelly
Commissioned by Ash Bulayev / Empac (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA)
Creative producer Katja Timmerberg
Coproducers Kaaitheater (Brussels) and Malta Festival (Poznan)
Supported by the Culture Program of the European Commission via the House on Fire network
Presentation in Riga supported by the British Council Latvia, State Culture Capital Foundation, Riga Latvian Society and the Creative Europe Program of the European Commission via Imagine 2020: art, ecology and possible futures network
“I think of theaters as very transparently psychological spaces – buildings which spring into existence as a direct result of how our minds work.” Ant Hampton
Equipped with a flashlight, a neon vest, and a pair of headphones, you enter an empty theater as an extra, navigating a bespoke path through the cracked dreams of today’s growing number of short-term, disposable workers. Your role shifts and switches as you set off on an adventure in the dark.
A continuation of British artist Ant Hampton’s Autoteatro series—in which audiences are both spectator and performer, following cues delivered straight to their ears—The Extra People challenges the assumption that theater is a space for community. Individually streamed recordings and tricks of perception isolate you from the rest of the audience and bring to this automatic process a hallucinatory edge.
“The Extra People is a brave and intricate experience, and one that is completely unique. I think none present for these two evenings will soon forget it.” Sherri Kronfeld for New York Theatre Review
Ant Hampton (b. 1975, UK) is best known for his nine Autoteatro works, which deliver instructions to audience members to enact the performances for each other. These works include Rotozaza’s Etiquette (2007), and The Quiet Volume, his Bessie award-winning collaboration with Tim Etchells for library reading rooms, which was presented by PS122 in New York in 2013; The Extra People is the largest-scale Autoteatro work to date. Hampton’s other solo projects include ongoing experimentation around live portraiture and structured encounters with people from non-theatrical milieu. He was also head dramaturg for Projected Scenarios at Manifesta 7 Biennial for Contemporary Art, and has contributed to projects by Jérôme Bel and Forced Entertainment.
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