Some Confusions in the Law about Love

Created 1989

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R: Mike, Dolores. Tell us a bit about the act.
F: It’s a kind of escape artistry routine. We play lovers. Dolores shoots me in the head.
R: That sounds pretty kinky — would you say the act was kinky?
F: It’s kinky alright.
R: You said it was escape artistry, in the act, we wondered what, what are you escaping from?
F: We’re supposed to be escaping from death.

In Some Confusions in the Law about Love, a (rather unlikely) Elvis Presley impersonator in Birmingham, England performs his act on a tacky nightclub stage. As the evening progresses, he is joined by two jaded showgirls, a pair of forlorn skeletons who perform an archaic Japanese love-suicide story and special guests, Mike and Dolores, ‘sex act escapologists,’ who are interviewed ‘live by satellite from Hawaii’ on two monitors at the edges of the performance area.

Like other performances by Forced Entertainment made around this time — for example, Marina & Lee (1991) and Emanuelle Enchanted (1992) — the piece was structured by collaging diverse narrative or imagistic strands, creating a dramaturgy of collision and overlap.

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Video

credits

Conceived and devised by the company.

Performers Robin Arthur, Terry O’Connor, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden, Mark Randle. Thanks also to Fred McVittie for his contribution during the creation and initial tour of this piece.
Direction Tim Etchells, Richard Lowdon
Text Tim Etchells
Video Performers Claire Marshall, Fred McVittie
Design Richard Lowdon
Lighting Design Nigel Edwards
Soundtrack John Avery

Some Confusions in the Law about Love is a Forced Entertainment production.