Inspired by Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s painting The Annunciation, the work (resulting from an artist residency with Artspace Lifespace) focuses not on the sacred narrative, but on a moment of hesitation — a state of not being ready.

Choreographer / Director: Zhu Yifeng
Performers: Madeline Squire, Cai Wenhao, Pang Zhichu
With thanks to: Zhang Weiyi, Zhao Maonan (early development support)

After the Annunciation is a physical theatre work that explores how a human life is structured through systems of repetition, instruction, and control.

Through a combination of movement, spoken text, and task-based actions, the piece follows two performers as they move through cycles of eating, learning, and exercise. These everyday activities gradually become structured, repeated, accelerated, and fragmented, revealing how behaviour can be shaped and internalised over time.

A third performer, positioned as an external voice, describes and defines these actions, creating a tension between language and the body.

As the work progresses, repetition intensifies and different temporal layers overlap, leading to a breakdown of the system. The piece concludes with a shift towards a more open, unstructured physical state, questioning whether freedom can exist beyond the systems we inherit.

This sharing presents a work-in-progress stage of a larger project currently in development.

Free and open to the public 6pm to 8pm, Wednesday 8th July.
The Island Gallery, First Floor, Bridewell Street, Bristol. BS1 2QD.

The Island Gallery is located on the first floor of the building. Access is limited by two flights of stairs, please see artspace.uk/venue/the-island/gallery-space/ for our full accessibility document.⁠

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