About Super Normal Extra Natural

An audience assembles in Whitgift Shopping Centre, in the heart of Croydon. A woman with a yellow backpack takes the escalator, the assistant manager drops her keys, and the deputy head of accounts finds them. A couple argue about who did what to whom, and someone, somewhere starts to move.

A seemingly normal day starts to merge with a world of angels and demons, hope and pain.

Experience Whitgift Shopping Centre from a whole new perspective. Using headphones to connect to the soundtrack, audiences become a part of a surreal world that blurs the boundaries between reality and performance.

Super Normal Extra Natural is a new, community-based performance made with the people of Croydon, from the creators of experiential performances Future Cargo and DeadClub™. Dancers and singers are joined by Croydon locals to take over Whitgift Shopping Centre in this unique, intimate and constantly surprising dance spectacle.

Croydon residents can book £1 tickets (normally £8). Tickets must be booked through Stanley Arts' website and bookers must have a Croydon postcode when booking. Click here to book.

About Requardt & Rosenberg

Requardt & Rosenberg was established to create dance performance away from the auditorium and studio either in outdoor locations or within temporary structures. Their desire is to make performances that are highly visible, unique events in order to engage a wide audience in a distinctive format. Requardt & Rosenberg combine both the spectacle of large-scale dance performances and the delicate integrity and intimacy of the audience experience through binaural sound.

The goals of Requardt & Rosenberg’s current practice include:

• An exploration of different spatial relationships between audience and performance.

• The creation of dance works that take as a starting point an architectural constraint.

• The creation of models for the construction of temporary performance spaces that can tour and could be reproduced around the world in order to provide an alternate touring network for international work.

Frauke Requardt trained in Germany, New York and London. As well as directing dance and performance, she has also worked as one of Lea Anderson’s Cholmondeleys. Frauke was a Work Place artist at The Place, and is now an Affiliate Artist. Previous work includes Jammy Dodgers, a fantastical world, with a rolling line up of bands from the London contemporary Jazz scene; the Lynch-esque Roadkill Cafe; and Pequenas Delicias, an absurdist site-specific piece; Episode premiered at The Place (June 2011); Mothers (2017), an anarchic response to her experience of being a new parent; and Dadderrs (2019 - 2021) with Daniel Oliver. Current projects include The Anatomy of Survival (working title) with writer Vivienne Franzman.

David Rosenberg co-founded Shunt in 1998 to pursue an interest in the role of an audience in theatrical productions and he directed all their shows: The Ballad of Bobby Francois, Tennis Show, Dance Bear Dance, Tropicana, Amato Saltone, Money, The Architects and The Boy Who Climbed Out of His Face. Together with Glen Neath and Andrea Salazar he founded Darkfield who make audio based performance in shipping containers for audiences in complete darkness.

Credits

Direction and Choreography: David Rosenberg and Frauke Requardt

Composer: Dave Price

Direction and Choreography: David Rosenberg and Frauke Requardt

Composer: Dave Price

Sound Designer: Mike Winship

Costume Design Supervisor: Kate Bunce

Rehearsal Director: Valentina Formenti

Dancers: Ruben Brown, Jordan Ajadi, Temitope Ajose-Cutting and Anwar Russell

Performers: Croydon community members, Coulsdon Sixth Form College students, London Contemporary Dance School students

Production and Stage Manager: Rachel Bowen

Company Producer: Nina von der Werth

Company Manager: Katherine Hurley

Assistant Stage Manager: Ella Kennedy

Super Normal Extra Naturalis co-Produced by The Place. Commissioned by This Is Croydon, the Mayor of London’s Borough of Culture, The Place and Stanley Arts. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Super Normal Extra Naturalis supported by Whitgift Centre.

Access Information

Headphones: To experience Super Normal Extra Natural in full, audience members will be invited to listen in using headphones provided.

Seating: There is no seating, unless provided by the venue for access purposes. Audience members will be standing throughout. If you have any access requirements, please contact the box office.

Touch tours: available upon request.