The Seb & Fiona Blog

Teatro Fondamenta Nuove is a small performance venue in Venice. It looks out over the north east perimeter of the city towards an austere-looking island called San Michele. I was there last Thursday, during a fascinating five-day escapade, and as I didn’t take a picture of the theatre, here’s a gratuitous one of San Michele, which is also known eerily as ‘The Island of the Dead’ consisting as it does entirely of a cemetery.

On the Thursday, I saw an unfinished version of choreographer Frauke Requardt’s new piece ‘Roadkill Cafe’.

The culmination of a two and a half week residency, the performance was to unveil the latest stage in a creative process that will come to fruition later this year. I already love it. It’s like the cheese-fuelled dream of an alternate David Lynch (this one a jazz critic rather than a director). There’s a mysterious pair of twins, a dog who does a doggy dance, a tale of jazz overcoming the military, a tale of paranoia overcoming jazz and a round of subverted line dancing. A soundtrack dashes from experimental jazz to screwed up country and western, but it is all by John Zorn.

For anyone interested in jazz music, it is a synaesthetic treat. For anyone at all, it’s a brilliant show. It’s on in London on 18 and 19 April, at The Place in Euston.

Seb