Lloyd Newson
Lloyd Newson's work since 1986 as the Director of DV8 Physical Theatre has had a dynamic impact on contemporary dance and theatre.
His stage and film work with DV8 has consistently received major awards. His recent film, The Cost of Living, won a Prix Italia and a Rose D'or.
Born in Australia, Newson's interest in dance arose while studying psychology and social work at Melbourne University, a fascination that led to a full scholarship at London Contemporary Dance School.
He danced and/or choreographed with many companies — including Modern Dance Ensemble, Impulse Dance Theatre/New Zealand Ballet Company, One Extra Dance Theatre and Extemporary Dance Theatre — before forming his own company.
From the beginning Newson believed that his work, because of its narrative underpinnings, would translate well onto film. Consequently filmmakers David Hinton and Clara von Gool translated three of DV8’s stage works into film with Newson directing DV8’s last film, The Cost of Living (2004/05), himself. This work has subsequently won 16 international awards.
Straddling dance, text, theatre and film, Newson work’s refuses to be defined. He is interested in conceiving original work rather than performing existing plays or reinterpreting classical ballets. More recently he has started exploring verbatim theatre, looking at the relationship between text (drawn from interviews) and movement. Whilst this is not his first foray into verbatim theatre (MSM 1993), his most recent work, To Be Straight With You (2008/2009), is more text-based than any other work he has created.
[Photograph: Robert Young]
For a full list of live and film productions, visit our project index >
Interviews
An index of published interviews, starting with the most recent ...
• Q&A with Lloyd Newson
To Be Straight With You press information, 2007 ..... full text
• Ohne Angst mit dem Partner Händchenhalten
by Brigitte Fürle,
To Be Straight With You programme, Berlin, 2007 ..... full German text
• First-person-singular Sensation
by Louise Levene
The Sunday Telegraph | 1st May 2005
Interview on film making and the making of Just for Show ..... full text
• Keeping The Edge, Preserving Reality
by Michael Seaver
The Irish Times | 20th April 2005
Lloyd interviewed in the lead up to Just for Show
• Time on His Side
by Trish Murphy
Event Guide, Ireland | 6th - 19th April 2005 | www.eventguide.ie
Lloyd on how DV8 shows are made, interviewed in the lead up to Just for Show
• Lloyd Newson in Conversation with Jo Butterworth
1998, revised 2004 | revised text reproduced here
A wide-ranging discussion on how DV8's work is made ..... full text
• Lloyd Newson & DV8 (Article 19)
by Zoë Boden
Article 19 | 22nd July 2003 | www.article19.co.uk
Interview published to coincide with the start of the 2003 tour of the cost of living..... full text
• Lloyd Newson: Only Connect
by Donald Hutera
Dance Umbrella Newsletter | Spring 2000 | issue 5
Lloyd talks about dance and Wasted (can we afford this) ..... full text
• Lloyd on Love: Lloyd Newson Talks to Libby Snape
by Libby Snape
Dance Theatre Journal | vol.15 no.2 | 1999 | pp. 8-12
Lloyd talks about the making of The Happiest Day of My Life
• Nicholas Rowe Meets the Godfather of Physical Theatre
by Nicholas Rowe
Dance Europe | Oct/Nov 1999 | pp. 13-17
Lloyd talks about dance, audiences, critics and his own life
• DV8 ... Ten Years on the Edge
Based on an interview with Mary Luckhurst (unpublished)
Bound To Please programme, 1997 ..... full text
• Lloyd Newson ... Dance About Something
aAdapted from an interview that first appeared in Live (Methuen)
Original interview by David Tushingham
Enter Achilles programme, 1995 ..... full text
• The Silence of the Man
by Josephine Leask
Ballett International / Tanz Aktuell 8-9 | 1995 | pp. 48-53
An essay on Lloyd Newson's physical theatre ..... full text
• Lloyd Newson on Dance
Dance Now | Summer 1993 | pp 11-13
Lloyd charts some of the many considerations that form a background to his work... full text
• Fish Out of Water
by Louise Levene
The Independent | 11th July | 1992
• In The Plush Hush of the Mainstream
by Gary Carter
Dance Theatre Journal | vol.10 no.4 | Autumn 1993
A wide-ranging discussion of DV8's work, focusing on MSM
• Quest for an Unholy Grail
by Ellen Cranith
Sunday Times | 26th July | 1992
• Strange Fish
Introduction by Nadine Meisner
Dance and Dancers | Summer 1992
Lloyd Newson talks about his new work ..... full text
• Lloyd Newson Interview
by Andy Solway
New Dance | Autumn 1985
