End of Love is a vaudeville performed at the end of the world.
The location is on the stage of a London theatre. There is no audience. There are twelve characters: a dark angel, a betrayed Cyclops, a love torn dandy, a man who has everything, an ancient moon, a pair of petty criminals on the run, a trapeze artist, a homeless man, a lonely astronaut, an imprisoned woman and an aged Jack the Giant Killer.
The film follows a series of fragmented vignettes that, though interrelated, deny any overarching narrative or feeling of emotional closure. The characters’ monologues reveal glimpses of a lonely world of fear and desire, where they wait amidst crushed hopes and the impossibility of romantic truth. As the actors each deliver their words, there is a sense that the theatre itself has become unmoored and floats untethered through time and space, the drama unfolding inside the hold of a space ship or ancient sea-faring vessel.
Referencing theatre, literature, expanded cinema and performance, as well as the artist’s personal practice, End of Love is a poetic expression of love’s elusiveness, the non-linearity of time, and fleeting facets of personal memory.
Written and Directed by David Austen
Cast Dark Angel – Vicky McClure / Moon – Liam Smith / Dandy – Joseph Mawle / Petty Criminal Her – Mia Austen / Petty Criminal Him – David Leon / Homeless Man – Paul Anderson / Fat Man – Elliot Cowan / Nobody – Obi Abili / Trapeze Artist – Jenn Murray / Astronaut – David Austen / Prisoner of Love – Mia Austen / Jack – Richard Bremmer
Commissioned by the Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston University
In association with the Rose Theatre Kingston
Produced by Partizan Films
Supported by the Stanley Picker Trust and by the National Lottery through Arts Council England
End of Love publication designed by Fraser Muggeridge Studio, with original script, extensive productions stills and an essay by Nigel Prince. Published 2010 Modern Art Oxford and distributed by Cornerhouse ISBN 978 1 901352 49 8
