DV8 The Cost of Living

Available on DVD from www.digitalclassics.co.uk and all major retailers.

Winner of the 2005 Prix Italia
The work of the DV8 Theatre company, The Cost of Living is a contemporary dance based on the issues of how we judge each other.
'Exceptional..nothing less than visual poetry' - Time out

NEWSON TRIUMPHS AGAIN Performances are everywhere excellent. The production is visually superlative. The Financial Times

PHYSICAL PERFECTION The best contemporary choreography you will see anywhere a brilliant piece of physical theatre. The Stage

The Cost of Living was shot on location in a typical, old-fashioned and faded English seaside resort where the summer season has petered to an end, and an air of desertion hangs over the
town. Eddie and David are disillusioned street performers. Eddie is tough, confrontational and not afraid to defend his belief in justice, respect and honesty. David is a legless dancer who is quietly determined not to let his disability or societys prejudices get in his way. A series of inter-linked scenes show Eddie and Davids encounters with other people; some are incredibly hard-hitting, others exhilarating because of their sheer physicality. Issues are raised about how we judge others and how we, in turn, value ourselves through physical metaphors. The film challenges notions of dance and demonstrates how expansive and individual the medium can be.

The work of DV8 Physical Theatre is about taking risks both physical and aesthetic. It is about personal politics, about breaking down barriers between dance and theatre and, above all, about communicating ideas and feelings clearly and unpretentiously. The company tells stories through extended naturalistic movement in a radical yet accessible way, shunning linear narrative and rejecting the traditional conventions of ballet and modern dance.