Preview: Twin Peaks Weekender @ BAC

Dean Nicholas
By Dean Nicholas Last edited 163 months ago
Preview: Twin Peaks Weekender @ BAC

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"The owls are not what they seem..."

Twenty years after it first appeared on British television, Twin Peaks is to be shown in its entirety at the Battersea Arts Centre over a single weekend in October.

Situated in the eponymous fictional Pacific Northwestern town, the plot revolves around the investigation by FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) into the murder of Laura Palmer, a young beauty queen whose body is found washed up on a riverbank. Coming from the fertile mind of David Lynch, the show ploughed the filmmaker's familiar themes of the darkness beneath quotidian small-town American life and turned it into a Machiavellian struggle between the forces of good and evil, draped in a jazz-flecked musical score and populated by memorably oddball characters and a heavy dose of the surreal.

Despite its cabalistic symbolism and bottomless stack of unanswered questions, Twin Peaks was an unlikely commercial and critical hit. Though it lasted only two seasons, and lost its way toward the end, the show's brazen originality and film-quality production values marked a huge turning point for American television, paving the way for the likes of The Sopranos and Lost many years later.

BAC's Twin Peaks Weekender begins on October 23rd with the pilot; after that, all 29 episodes (each roughly 47 minutes long) will be shown back-to-back. You'll be able to leave and come back during the run (sleeping through most of the second season might not be a bad idea); the Centre will also be hosting musical acts inspired by the show. Oh, and naturally, they'll be serving coffee, of the 'damn fine' and 'hot' variety. No word yet on whether cherry pie will be on sale, but you'll make a few friends if you bring your own. One final thing: dressing up is "highly recommended".

Twin Peaks Weekender, 23rd-24th October, at the Battersea Arts Centre. Tickets are on sale 10am, September 1st, and cost £19.50, or £35 for sofas in the gallery.

Last Updated 25 August 2010