20 February 2025
Lucy Marinkovich and Lucien Johnson have collaborated on numerous projects, including Strasbourg 1518 which was commissioned by and premiered at the 2020 New Zealand Festival of the Arts. Their latest work, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes will be performed at Te Auaha 6-8 March as part of the 2025 Fringe Festival.
I caught Lucy and Lucien during their production week in Dunedin to chat about the show before it makes its way to Wellington.
What can audiences expect from The Night Has a Thousand Eyes?
The Night has a Thousand Eyes is a contemplative work, a rumination on the beauty of the night. It's a soft piece, almost a little melancholy but full of visual illusions, surprises and wonder.
What was the inspiration for this piece?
Lucien has been composing piano pieces for about a decade now. He's called them Nocturnes//Reveries. They were first performed in Paris for a celebration of the French composer Ravel, who was one of the inspirations behind his work. We decided to use them as the basis for this project, so they were the initial inspiration. We've workshopped this production in Dunedin from the get go with the amazing lighting designer Martyn Roberts, so it's also been based around creating a visual architecture in which the dancers exist.
How does this work differ from other work you’ve done?
All our shows are very different. Lobsters was inspired by surrealist artwork and took the form of a demented cabaret/contemporary dance fusion. Strasbourg 1518 was inspired by real events and was explosive and politically charged. This work is quieter, more abstract perhaps and strangely soothing. What links them all is the dreamspace, the investigation of the subconscious realms.
What is unique about working as an artist in Aotearoa?
Aotearoa can be a fantastic place to create work. The artistic community here is accessible and our colleagues and peers are always making inspiring work, there are approachable venues around and there are some funding possibilities even if all of us would love these to be more significant. We can be inspired by our wonderful natural environment, and we live in a peaceful country which are things to be eternally grateful for. What is difficult, due to our small population and isolation, is extending the lifetimes of our work and touring. This has ramifications for performing artists which mean that economically it is hard to survive in our field.
What’s the most unusual place you’ve performed?
Lucien: Either a tour of fishing villages in India with a clown troupe, a yurt high up in the French Alps with a French folk singer, or in a community centre in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti with voodoo drummers.
Lucy: In front of the casket at a funeral.
What’s next for you?
Back to the dreamspace to find the next idea to carry us away!
Get tickets for The Night Has a Thousand Eyes at Te Auaha 6-8 March.
