"A seamless flow of beautifully crafted, intelligent images"
Christopher Hewitt - Live Art Magazine
In 1996 Robert Pacitti travelled to New York to meet and spend time with the author, raconteur and professional homosexual Quentin Crisp. Pacitti's ambition was to produce a new theatre work that took Crisp's infamous autobiography 'The Naked Civil Servant' as its' starting point.
Wishing to explore issues around disobedience and liberty Robert saw Quentin as a forerunner to many of the then queer / post-gay identities of the day. Crisp had always run the gauntlet of public disapproval and at the time of their meeting Pacitti wrote of him 'I have seen the face of a parent".
Having returned to England Robert set about editing the materials generated during his time in America: interviews with Quentin, Super 8 film , slide images, sound recordings and writings.
Civil premiered in Manchester in 1996, opening the Queer Up North Festival for that year. A cast of five performed the work. Almost three months later Pacitti performed the work again, overhauled and reworked as a solo piece for the Institute Of Contemporary Arts in London. In the words of journalist Pancho Sanchez, writing in 'La Cronica De La Hoy' Mexico City, it is "The perfect argument by Pacitti".
Since the sad demise of Quentin has only been seen once. Undeniably the emphasis of the work has now shifted, and a work that set out to explore shared aspirations and joint activism now reads as a series of images and ideas placed in relation to notions of legacy.
In order to take on this new reading, Robert has chosen to pass on this solo performance constructed around his own body, experiences and beliefs to another performer. This radical approach raises the question of how someone else will interpret and inhabit the piece - how will the images and concerns of the work 'fit' elsewhere? What might this legacy mean?
The work explores notions of lineage, and becomes a process about letting go - of ownership, of origin, and ultimately of Quentin.
Commissioned by Its Queer Up North and launched their 1996 Festival. Funded by the Arts Council of England and The London Arts Board. Sponsored by Roland UK and the Believe Organisation. Made in New York, Manchester and London.
Shown in the ICA as part of 'Textuality' Season in September 1996; The Now Festival, Nottingham 1996; Leibesvisitationen Festival Tafehalle, Nuremburg as part of Siemens (Munich) Cultural Program October 1997; Colchester Arts Centre March 1998; Ex-Teresa Festival, Mexico City October 1998 and Theater Arsenic Lausanne, Switzerland 1999
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