Original Cast :Liz Aggiss (Bride), Chloe Wright(Groom)

Reconstructed 4th Feb 1996 with Colette Sadler (Bride) Liz Aggiss (Groom).

Live music : Billy Cowie (piano), Anne Stephenson (violin), Sian Bell (cello), Amanda Morrison (soprano).
Costume Kate Strachan. Lighting Jeff Baynes.

Commissioned by University of Surrey’s Choreographic Laboratory, The Fetching Bride is an erotic black satire and an exploration of sadism and masochism, charting a downward spiral from innocence and naivety, through to corruption and death.

Premiere 20th April 1995 University of Surrey Border Tensions Conference

‘a furious satire on the casulty of matrimonial illusions wrapped up in beautiful belcanto operatic singing’
Beitigheimer Zeitung

‘Fundamentally, this choreography which Aggiss and Cowie have worked on together, deals with a similar theme to William Forsythe with his very popular ‘love songs’ which show an alarming contradiction between the beautiful relationship that exists beween man and wife. Except this piece is uncomparably more brutal and direct in portraying the sadistic obsessions and the masochistic sufferings of an almost appreciative partner.’
Bernd Krause Reutlinger General-Anzeiger (Stuttgart)

References for The Fetching Bride
Aggiss, L, Cowie, B. Bramley, I (2006) Anarchic Dance : Chapter by Carol Brown. Routledge
Krause, B. (July 1995) Sadistischer Herr und Sklavin. Reutlinger General-Anzeiger (Stuttgart)
Speer, M. (July 1995) Zur arie sadistische Liebesspiele Schwarzwalder Bote (Stuttgart)
Vangeli, N. (Feb 1996) Reviews from the Spring Collection at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Svet a Divadlo (Czech magazine) The World and the Theatre)
Very British : Kultur in der region. (11 July 1995) Beitigheimer Zeitung
Von Helge, M. (12 July 1995) Der schone schein und die wirklichkeit. Esslinger Zeitung

Extracts available of the live performance, on DVD, in the book ‘Anarchic Dance’ by Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie with Ian Bramley (Routledge)