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Stuntwoman!

Ika Schwander & Lizzy Deacon / Frascati Producties in coproductie met Monty en Battersea Arts Centre
Tue 3 Nov 2026 - Wed 16 Dec 2026
My Car-Crashing, Plane-Jumping, Bone-Breaking, Death-Defying Hollywood Life.
Tue 3 Nov 2026
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Wed 16 Dec 2026

The car was supposed to hit the boxes, I was supposed to hit the pavement, and the wig was supposed to stay attached to my head. There are four of us who look enough like her from behind. One does horses. One does water. One is very good at being set on fire. I do falling. Tomorrow they’ll cut it together. Her eyes, my back, her smile, my falling. They’ll stitch us together so neatly nobody will ever notice that she is made up of many girls. She will be a hero. And I will have risked my life.

Ika Schwander and Lizzy Deacon dive headlong into the shadow world of the stuntwoman. They explore how the image of action that we are familiar with in cinema can be rendered in a live context. Inspired by Mollie Gregory’s extensive 2015 study of stuntwomen’s labour throughout history, this performance references the role of stuntwomen in the film industry from the silent era to the twenty-first century. By isolating the stuntwoman’s body from the screen and zooming in on the specifics of a choreographed action, Ika and Lizzy study the precision and discipline required to perform such stunts in real time.  

Stunts entailing risks and exhausting the body while demanding extreme precision, are combined with stagings of cinematic tropes and confessional accounts. For this work, Lizzy and Ika collaborate with highly skilled identical twin circus artists Clementine and Grace Tonkin Wells (holders of the Guinness World Record for the longest foot-to-foot trapeze hold). 

In the press

"As a physical performance, Stuntwoman! is undeniably impressive. The performers effortlessly hold your attention, transforming their bodies into a spectacular display." Het Parool

"In Stuntwoman!, theatre-maker Ika Schwander and visual artist Lizzy Deacon draw an intriguing connection between the work of female stunt performers and female celebrities, questioning how the female body is used for entertainment." Theaterkrant

"The physical control of the experienced performers (who even hold a world record) is at times hypnotic." Het Parool

  • Duration: 50 min.
  • Premiere: Thu 5 Nov 
  • English spoken 
  • Sat 7 Nov part of the We Are Public Program.
Part of

Credits

script, concept, direction and design Ika Schwander & Lizzy Deacon performers Clementine Tonkin Wells & Grace Tonkin Wells outside eye Floor Houwink ten Cate with thanks to Battersea Arts Centre, Monty with support from AFK, OCW, Ammodo 

     

About Ika Schwander

Ika Schwander (born 1999, Luxembourg) is a French-Dutch director and performer, known for her poetic, physical approach to history, care and mythology. She combines visual art and performance in a multidisciplinary body of work that creates space for stillness, ambiguity, complexity and layered meaning. With a background in circus training during her youth, she developed an interest in physical danger, surrealism and movement.

Ika studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins in London and graduated from the performance programme at the Institute of Performative Arts in Maastricht in 2023. She gained recognition with her graduation performance è vero è vero è vero, about the aftermath of sexual violence, with which she toured internationally. Her first production with Frascati Productions, Of all your soft words and strange ways (2024), was described by Theaterkrant as "a beautiful love song that connects two generations."

About Lizzy Deacon

Lizzy Deacon is a British artist (b. 1999) living and working between Amsterdam and London. Working primarily with moving image, her practice explores themes of power, class and fantasy. Through character-centred investigations, she examines the behavioural, visual and material codes of contemporary culture, drawing on personal experiences as well as conversations, tabloids, advertising and self-help books. Set in everyday, recognisable situations, her films embrace chance, with improvisation serving as a central artistic strategy.

Lizzy studied at De Ateliers in Amsterdam and Open School East in Margate, and holds a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Bozar (Brussels, 2026), 243 Luz & Co (London, 2026), Liste (Basel, 2026), Annet Gelink Gallery (Amsterdam, 2026), Eye Filmmuseum (Amsterdam, 2025). Lizzy is represented by 243 Luz & Co gallery in London.

About the collaboration 

Lizzy Deacon and Ika Schwander first met in London in 2017, whilst they were studying at Central Saint Martins. They immediately started collaborating on performances and video works, and have since developed works including Precautionary Measure (2021), and Prosecco Wisdom (2024), which have been exhibited internationally in galleries, film festivals and museums, with Precautionary Measure completing its North American Tour in 2023. 

Lizzy and Ika were awarded The Research Labs Award at the EYE Filmmuseum Amsterdam in 2025, and The Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award for an Emerging Experimental Video Artist at the 60th Ann Arbor Film Festival in 2022, with presentations at Spring Performing Arts Festival, Utrecht (2024); IndieLisboa, Lisbon (2022); the Millennium Film Workshop, New York (2022); and Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2022). Now that Lizzy and Ika are living in the same city again, their duo practice continues, with Dreamers Awake being their most recent, and most ambitious collaborative work to date.

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Stuntwoman! reveils the invisible world of the stuntwoman

Stuntwoman! reveils the invisible world of the stuntwoman The car was supposed to hit the boxes, I was supposed to hit the pavement, and the wig was supposed to stay attached to my head. There are fou…
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