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The SLG presents the London premiere of JERK, a collaborative work by director and choreographer Gisèle Vienne, writer Dennis Cooper and actor and performer Jonathan Capdevielle. The 52 minute performance, featuring a soundtrack by Peter Rehberg and styling by Stephen O’Malley and Jean-Luc Verna, is followed by a reading by Dennis Cooper.

JERK is an imaginary reconstruction – strange, poetic, funny and sombre – of the crimes perpetrated by American serial killer Dean Corll who, with the help of teenagers David Brooks and Wayne Henley, killed more than twenty boys in the state of Texas during the 1970s. Written by Dennis Cooper, the text is here re-staged as a solo performance for puppeteer, using glove puppets and playing the role of the con artist, David Brooks.

Serving his life sentence in prison, Brooks learns the art of puppetry, which enables him to face up to his responsibility as an accomplice to the crimes. He creates a show that reconstructs the murders committed by Dean Corll using puppets and ventriloquism for each role. He performs his show in prison in front of a class of psychology students from a local university. The brutality and humour of the text brings a fierceness to the performance which merges sexuality and violence.

This presentation of JERK is followed by a special reading of excerpts of 'Ugly Man', Dennis Cooper’s latest collection of short stories. The evening of 1 July also features a discussion with Gisèle Vienne and Dennis Cooper chaired by director Chris Goode.

This event is included in Paris Calling 2009, a Franco-British season of performing arts. The performance is not suitable for people under 18 years of age.