
ENDURANCE
Jenni is not an athlete. Jenni has not done enough training. Jenni wants to perform a feat of endurance, live and in real time. She really wants to be able to run up hills and mountains.
Since her mum is Bolivian, she’s banking on her DNA containing Inca genes, which she hopes will mean that she will be shit hot at running up mountains. Naturally.
Exploring colonial legacies through the prism of the Bolivian/Aymaran warrior Bartolina Sisa and modern day women who are out-performing men at ultra marathon running, Jenni wants to know how we carry on when things get really hard?
In a blend of dance, theatre, and an attempt at a sports spectacle, Endurance looks at how we endure, why we endure, and how women can make their innate propensity for endurance work in their favour to tip the balance of power.
The show is creatively captioned, blending durational performance, running, Bolivian dance, and contemporary dance. Using her body as the vector for audience experience; Jenni examines safety, risk, and the ancestral histories we carry with us.
Jenni is a performer, theatremaker, and movement director based in Manchester. Her work examines what women and girls are allowed to do with their bodies, her relationship to the UK, and the complexity of living between cultures and races.
Credits
Written and devised: by Jennifer Jackson with Simon Carroll Jones
Performers: Jennifer Jackson & Simon Carroll Jones
Lighting and Video Design: Sarah Readman
Sound Co-Designed: Alexandra Faye Braithwaite and Annie- May Fletcher
Costume Design: Cécile Trémolières and Tracey Dunk
Dramaturgy: Emily Ling Williams
Movement Direction: Simon Carroll Jones
Outside Eye: Poppy Clifford, Anna West, Emily Ling Williams
Lighting and Video Design Development: Joshua Pharo
Creative Technology Consultancy: idontloveyouanymore
Stage Management: Sam Campbell
Producing: Rosie Scudder
Previous collaborators: Anna Himali Howard & Upstart Theatre
Thanks to:
Rajha Shakiry, Nickie Mikes Wildin, Justine Themen, Suzanne Bell, tangled feet, Upstart Theatre, Catt Belcher & Octagon Theatre, Grace Ng Ralph & Claire Symonds (The Lowry), Dan Gilbert, Alex Lui & Laura Elliot (The Oxford Playhouse).
Endurance is a Push 2021 commission from HOME.
DATES:
HOME 4-8 OCTOBER 2021
BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE 3-13 NOV 2021
ENDURANCE was shortlisted for the prestigious Stückemarkt (Theatertreffen 2022), one of 22 artworks shortlisted from 347 global entries.