In co-presentation with the University of Birmingham

Features University of Birmingham String Ensemble, Jonathan Silk conductor.

Who Hurt You? shines a light on the symmetry of Kenneth MacMillan’s 1974 ballet, L’historie de Manon, a narrative aligning poverty and imprisonment with exaltation. Mining bourgeois ideals of detached beauty and heteronormative power, the work assembles references from the erotic thriller Showgirls, and the biography of championship boxer Jake Lamotta.

Layering, contrasting and moving between art and performance, Who Hurt You? is constructed from BULLYACHE’s shared physical language and rich sonic worlds to create an unforgettable sequence of images in movement.

BULLYACHE (Courtney Deyn and Jacob Samuel) choreograph, direct, score and conceptualise spectacular original works.