MILLENNIUM SHOW

Greenwich:  September 16 1999

• First glimpse of show elements unveiled including giant 19 metre mobile
• First sounds of Peter Gabriel's original music for the show
• Costumes for a new millennium
• Soloists and Millennium Company begin rehearsals

The first extraordinary and dramatic elements of the Dome's uniquely created Millennium Show are revealed.

In a specially choreographed six-minute performance held in the 27 metres high rehearsal space at Three Mills, 70 cast members performed a breath-taking combination of aerial skydiving, dance, and abseiling set around a spinning metal mobile structure. Hurtling down onto an unsuspecting audience, the performance demonstrated just a few of the mind blowing physical experiences that await audiences for the Millennium Show's opening performance on the 1st January 2000.

The Millennium Show is the must see central attraction that takes place up to five times a day during 2000 at the heart of the Dome. Following a 20 minute pre-show, there will be a 28 minute live aerial and acrobatic spectacle that uses 61 performers at anyone time and the full height of the Dome's 50 metres. The show is set in the Dome's central arena, one of the largest undercover performance spaces in the world and the size of Trafalgar Square. The show has been conceived for the Dome by Mark Fisher and Peter Gabriel.

A unique feature of the Millennium Show when it opens in 2000 will be impressive moving architectural structures that dominate the space, becoming vehicles for the characters and story. Three moving lightweight aerial mobiles (19 metre long x 5 metres high) will enable performers to inhabit the air and establishes a link between the sky and earth. The show is told in the round with the action taking place all around and above us. As the human drama unfolds the narrative is communicated through the cast's physical movements and dramatised by Peter Gabriel's powerful music.

The past year has seen intense activity and determination to bring the Millennium Show to life and marry the technology and many varied physical skills of the performers. The show combines specially developed and created show equipment, like the rocketing bungee stilts and sail diver rigs that enable amazing feats of skill and daring. These intense physical theatre skills currently being rehearsed by the young cast are designed to thrill and amaze audiences. Every few hours, audiences of up to 12,000 will gather at the heart of the Dome taking seats or standing positions in or around the central arena for the 20 minute pre-show. Performers move among the audience inside incredible contraptions distracting and entertaining - creating moments to delight and amaze, enabling the crew to move equipment into place before the show begins.

The costume development process has evolved in consultation with the performers' own needs and specific skills. This collaboration by Keith Khan and his team has involved working with different textile designers, traditional English craftspeople and carnival artists to create costumes that are a fusion of contemporary craft married with the latest developments in hi-performance wear technology.

The Millennium Show's strong and resonant characters take the audience on a series of journeys exploring themes that the audience can identify and connect with. Fisher and Gabriel have created a timeless piece of visual storytelling, a contemporary fable. This is the story of a family divided by internal conflict and by the great changes going on around them - a family in transition each generation struggling with the coming and the passing of their own time. It is also a story of forbidden love.

From a cast of 61 for each show, five principal characters will convey the narrative.

Peter Gabriel has described the characters as:

Theo - a father who loved the earth and everything that grew from it

Beth - a mother who knew too much and tried to mediate until her family was torn apart by defiance and deceit

Ion - a son who loved machines, taming the fire that destroyed his father

Sophia - a daughter who dared defy and fell in love with an outsider, discovering the mysterious marriage of nature and technology

And Skyboy - an outsider whose dreams turned from mischief and seduction to rebellion and love for Sophia….

As the show's cast will rotate between 3 – 5 performances a day, there will be two casts and two principals for each role. While the Millennium Company has been auditioned and specifically trained from all over the UK and the world, the principals are highly skilled and experienced performers from an eclectic and diverse background. They are drawn from the worlds of theatre, dance, circus, clubbing, opera, ballet and acting. Micha Bergese, the show’s artistic director has assembled a fascinating group of highly talented performers to tell the story.

Micha Bergese, Artistic Director commented: "Although we are working in a huge space nobody is so far away that they won't be able to see the expressions on the performer's faces. The emotional content is clearly read and understood through the language of movement, resulting in electrifying physical performance."

Peter Gabriel said: "During the first part of the writing process you're a little like a lighthouse keeper – from a musical point of view it's quite isolated. So now that I'm bringing in a wider range of people and musicians, there’s more interaction and more to feed off. I'm doing something that I've never done before – both looking back towards a whole range of folk references and then looking forward to the future, bringing in industrial elements, so from my perspective I'm pushing out into areas I haven't explored which I'm really enjoying."

Mark Fisher, Creative Director added: "There have been immense challenges connected to creating such an emotional and powerful show both in the round and largely in daylight – so the story is told in the style of a very large piece of physical street theatre – it's a really hi-energy experience with aerial performers, acrobats, actors, dancers and a very strong soundtrack – everybody is pushing at the boundaries of what has been done before and that's exciting."

Jennie Page, Chief Executive New Millennium Experience Company said: "The Millennium show is going to be without a doubt the biggest and most exciting show anywhere in 2000. Already for the past year its been providing young people from all over the UK, Europe and farther afield, with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to gain incredible skills and real experience, creating a legacy of fantastically talented and enthusiastic performers."

An eclectic Millennium Company together with a world class creative team, are creating a vast piece of electrifying and moving aerial and acrobatic physical theatre, involving the biggest aerial company on earth. Nothing on this scale has been attempted either technically or creatively and the show will take performance to new physical and performance heights far beyond what previously thought possible.