Arts:Blog

Darkness Reigns

Lorna Irvine speaks with 85A about their closing night celebration for Behaviour 2014.

Images: ©James Wilson

At night, the freaks come out to play.

Hosting Behaviour's end-of-festival party at The Arches are the deliciously naughty, multi-talented subversive arts collective 85A, following on from their Renegade Masquerades club nights and recent re- screening of Chernozem. With performance from, among others, Melanie Forbes-Broome, Calum MacAskill and Cath Whippey and live music sets from Planningtorock, Golden Teacher, Mr Vast and Afrodesia to name but just a few, it's going to be special indeed.

I had to find out more. Trembling, wet-lipped and swathed in my finest Scottish Widows-style black velvet cloak, I tentatively entered their shadowy domain and asked some (who wished to remain anonymous) what to expect...

‘Expect the unexpected' is a cliché, but so true of 85A nights. How much can you tell us about Dark Behaviour?

One of the things that has us so excited about this show is that we are sure it’s going to be pretty unexpected for us too! The opportunity we were presented by the Arches and Behaviour immediately had us wanting to involve many of the people we work with and admire, and Dark Behaviour is the result of us all working together to create something that allows our work as a swollen whole to be taken down into the den where it belongs.

As with many of our shows we are reliant on the audience as they form the basis of each interaction- armed with the theme of “mistaken identity" (inspired by this year's Behaviour brief and our previous Renegade Masquerade events), we're pushing for the punters to get involved by bringing a visual alias of themselves with attitude to match, or to come for an appointment at our mobile 'face swap' clinic and find out who to become. Once those masked intruders join us, then Dark Behaviour will be complete.

Through the course of the evening you will witness three stages of experience as we journey down through the Arches - starting inside a moody, performative arena with interactive treats (come challenge our DJ to a game of chess to mix the evening's soundtrack), moving down to a triple bill concert by some of the most untypical experimental electronic acts backed up by the 85A kinetic puppet crew for a stage show like no other. To top it all off, we will end the proceedings in re-imagined rave cavern where electric sparks, projections and crushed metal will provide the surroundings for the final dance off to the sound of our headline bands and 85A DJs...

Behold Dark Behaviour's immersive triptych of masked ambiguity, despair and distortion.

Planningtorock is an amazing artist and fits in so well with your aesthetic (masks, prosthetics, etc). How did she get involved?

We're super excited to be working with PTR. We were lucky enough to have her put forward by the Behaviour Festival team and the Arches, and we she's definitely got something about her that had us nodding our heads when they put her forward!

Will The Arches know what's hit them?! Who's next to receive the 85A effect?

The Arches have been asking for it for a while, and the time has come. We're certain they won't have had their tunnels used in quite the way we'll be putting them to work. It's underground, it's dark, we're thinking of moving in permanently.

What have you got coming up, next? I believe you're involved with the Commonwealth Games?

Each year summer spells the word 'work' for us all with its usual procession of festivals and events, but we do have something a little different lined up this time, yes. We're braving the daylight on July 26th and putting together a day-long all-ages event with an 85A twist as part of Culture 2014, the cultural programme attached to the Commonwealth Games.

In truth, we're not just about the darkness and we love to engage with wider audiences. Previous shows like Fesco the Giant (a puppet show where our young spectators pelted a corporate monster with seed bombs) or Sonic Soak (three days of gigs and arts in Govanhill Baths) have been great to push our practice and engage with the community spirit. We're looking forward to do it again and put our mark on the Commonwealth celebrations.

Over the past year, we've been working with GFF and some brilliant local artists and performers on bringing a ticketed public event on the Clyde that will involve film, bands, performance and 85A-style staging and kinetic intervention. It's all quiet as we hunker down and keep working on it, but soon the Clyde walkway will be Cargo, Camera...Action!

www.thearches.co.uk