Your Last Breath, Olfactory and After the Rainfall

Your Last Breath 1876 - Christopher leaves his young family behind to work in Norway. He will map the uncharted mountains for the very first time. 1999 - Anna's body freezes after an extreme skiing accident and her heart stops. But doctors gradually warm her until it miraculously starts beating again. 2011 - Freija, a successful business woman, has just lost her father. She travels to scatter his ashes in Norway. 2034 - Nicholas explains a medical breakthrough which saved his life as a baby, whereby the human body can be 'suspended in animation.' Spanning 150 years, Your Last Breath piece fuses movement, live piano score and video unravelling the landscapes of the heart and our own personal geographies. It was a Fringe First Winner in 2011 and will be touring, potentially to Scandinavia, in the Spring.
After the Rainfall Throughout history, the study of ants (myrmecology) has been used as an analogy for human behaviour. This piece uses myrmecology as a prism through which to view the present day. Navigating the arid Egyptian desert, continental Europe, the British Museum and a quiet village green, this piece is a patchwork of multidimensional narratives about the aftermath of the Empire. Curious Directive conjure a world where multimedia, movement and sound unpick Britain's relationship to artefacts, mining and the secret life of ants. An epic, thumping, passionate story asking questions about the relationship between our past, present and into eternity. A collaboration between Curious Directive, Watford Palace Theatre and Escalator East to Edinburgh, and it will play at the Edinburgh Festival (Pleasance Dome, 4-27 August) followed by a run at the Watford Palace Theatre.
Olfactory Over 10,000 different smells drift across our planet in various configurations. Olfactory gives you a choice to craft your identity and to decode the invisible molecules floating through the air. Who do you want to be in the future? This miniature explores our invisible relationship with perfumes and smell.

Curious Directive, under the leadership of Artistic Director, Jack Lowe, are a young, award-winning devising theatre ensemble of twenty-nine actors, directors, bio-medical scientists, choreographers, writers, producers, video artists, technicians, composers and designers founded in 2008. Their work addresses the role that science plays in everyday life and they spend time in laboratories to observe, annotate and discuss the processes of being a scientist. They aim to create accessible and innovative science/theatre experiences which encourage its audiences to be curious about the world, peering through the lens of science. Earlier this year, they performed at the HighTide Festival with two short pieces.

The Daily Telegraph calls them ’A company clearly destined for great things’, while Guardian Science says they are ’A remarkable new performance ensemble’.