#mif17 #fatherland
FATHERLAND
By Scott Graham, Karl Hyde and Simon Stephens Created by Frantic Assembly's Scott Graham, Karl Hyde from Underworld and playwright Simon Stephens (Punk Rock, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), Fatherland is a bold, ambitious show about contemporary fatherhood in all its complexities and contradictions. This daring collage of words, music and movement will transform the Royal Exchange Theatre, animated by a 13-strong cast and a multitude of voices. Fatherland is a vivid, urgent and deeply personal portrait of 21st-century England at the crossroads of past, present and future. Inspired by conversations with fathers and sons from the trio's home towns in the heart of the country, the show explores identity, nationality, masculinity and what it means to belong in a world weighed down by the expectations of others. Tender and tough, honest and true, Fatherland is a vital and necessary show about what we were, who we are and what we'd like to become. Commissioned and produced by Manchester International Festival, Frantic Assembly, the Royal Exchange Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith and LIFT. Suitable for ages 14+ #MIF17 Frantic Assembly - Fatherland Naked Boys Readings's second journey to the north - to the Golden Lion at Todmorden for The Brontes, where I read from Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - attracted some press... And now for a nude lifeguard reciting Jane Eyre … my night with Naked Boys Reading - the Guardian [5 March 2017] Naked Boys Reading on tour - Canal St [8 February 2017] Actors Touring Company and Royal Exchange Theatre production in association with Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh THE SUPPLIANT WOMEN BY AESCHYLUS IN A NEW VERSION BY DAVID GREIG 10 MARCH 2017 - 1 APRIL 2017 Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester Clearly I was not a suppliant woman but I did appear in 24 out of 26 performances of The Suppliant Women as a member of one of the three community choruses - as a citizen of Argos. The other choruses being the titular suppliant women and the soldiers of Greece/Egypt (as required). Considering my only previous experience of a professional theatre production was as a citizen of Argos in Aeschylus's The Oresteia (at HOME, Manchester in 2015) I can now reasonably claim to be a specialist in Classical Greek theatre, being a Citizen of Argos (Argive), and the works of Aeschylus. But this has been entirely unexpected and coincidental. When I took part in The Oresteia I considered it a rare opportunity to be in a professional production never to be repeated. Less than two years later, I was doing it again. And singing this time. I should have learned by now that one thing leads to another. That since my first almost-accidental appearance as a volunteer in a piece of performance art - Jeremy Deller's Procession at MIF09 each subsequent thing has represented an accumulation of experience and personal ambition - a constant desire to push myself further and not to allow myself to be ruled by fear and self-doubt. Typically, being in the theatre was not part of a plan and has - due to the time commitment - removed me briefly from thinking about or having time to make my own work, take part in other projects (of arguably less interest), and from reviewing and seeing my beloved dance. But it is hugely enjoyable, fun, challenging, exciting and interesting - and on a scale that is very appealing. And I plan to do it again. Later this year. But not playing a citizen of Argos in an ancient Greek work by Aeschylus. (Never say never, though, eh?) Reviews The Suppliant Women - The Arts Shelf **** The Suppliant Women - British Theatre Guide The Suppliant Women - Canal St 4/5 The Suppliant Women - Manchester Theatre Awards The Suppliant Women - Mancunian Matters The Suppliant Women - Postcards from the Gods The Suppliant Women - The Reviews Hub **** Hammers on the door of our hearts with power and conviction - The Suppliant Women, Royal Exchange, Manchester - The Telegraph **** CELEBRATED CONTEMPORARY VERSION OF EARLIEST GREEK DRAMA REINVENTED IN MANCHESTER
Royal Exchange Theatre, Actors Touring Company and Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh present THE SUPPLIANT WOMEN By Aeschylus in a new version by David Greig Directed by Ramin Gray; Composer John Browne; Choreographer Sasha Milavic Davies 10 March - 1 April - The Theatre READ MORE + TICKETS This spring the Royal Exchange Theatre sees one of the world’s oldest dramas play out on its unique stage. THE SUPPLIANT WOMEN by Aeschylus, in a new version by the multi award-winning writer David Greig, is an extraordinary theatrical event featuring, at its heart, a chorus of forty women and men from across Greater Manchester arguing for their lives. Reimagined for the Exchange by director Ramin Gray (Artistic Director of the Actors Touring Company) this production has been beautifully reworked for this in-the-round space and, following its original critically-acclaimed production in 2016, is remade for and with the people of Greater Manchester. Written 2,500 years ago THE SUPPLIANT WOMEN has startling resonance for 2017, reflecting major issues of contemporary society. Suppliant means ‘asylum seeker’ and the play explores issues of migration and democracy, gender politics and political power. The Royal Exchange Theatre, Actors Touring Company and Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh present THE SUPPLIANT WOMEN from 10 March – 1 April. A group of women leave everything behind to board a boat in North Africa and flee across the Mediterranean. They are escaping forced marriage in their homeland, hoping for protection and assistance, seeking asylum in Greece. The forty-strong Chorus is a diverse mix of talented and passionate volunteers from across Greater Manchester who have been working with the company to create the power and energy of a Greek chorus. They perform alongside Oscar Batterham, Omar Ebrahim and Gemma May Rees. The production features new music by composer John Browne who has used the ancient Greek instrument the aulos (likely to have been used in the original production 2,500 years ago) to create a beautiful and unique sound for the production, clashing ancient sounds with contemporary composition for a 2017 chorus and audience. David Greig is The Royal Lyceum’s Artistic Director as well as an acclaimed and award-winning playwright. His plays have been performed across the UK, as well as produced and toured around the world. Plays include THE LORAX (The Old Vic); THE EVENTS (Traverse, Scotland and Young Vic); THE STRANGE UNDOING OF PRUDENCIA HART (Tron, National Theatre of Scotland); MIDSUMMER (Traverse, Soho, and Tricycle); DUNSINANE (RSC at Hampstead and National Theatre of Scotland); and the book for CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY THE MUSICAL, which opened in the West End in 2013. Ramin Gray is Artistic Director of Actors Touring Company. He returns to the Royal Exchange following his role as a Judge on the 2015 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting. He has worked in many of the UK’s most notable theatres, including the Liverpool Playhouse, Royal Shakespeare Company and Hampstead Theatre. He is a passionate advocate of new plays, having directed over fifteen world or British premieres - including Simon Stephens’ MOTORTOWN and Mark Ravenhill’s OVER THERE - at the Royal Court, where he was International Associate before becoming Associate Director. He has directed all of ATC’s productions since 2011. to edit. For its exhibition series devoted to young contemporaries, Le Manoir de la Ville de Martigny invites the Anglo-Swiss collective JocJonJosch for a project entitled o o o. JocJonJosch is formed by Jocelyn Marchington, Jonathan Brantschen and Joschi Herczeg. The three artists seek to increase their understanding of human identity and existence by addressing the dynamics of their own collective. Ooo - JocJonJosch reduced to its vowels - is the first major exhibition of the collective in Valais since obtaining the Manor Prize in 2013. In the last three years, JocJonJosch have been able to develop the Dig project, a series of various excavation performances in the Valais area. One of them, Raised Totems , took place in 2016 in Martigny as part of the Ganioz Project Space (GPS). The exhibition will present new works (photographs, sculptures, drawings, videos and sound installation) as well as a performance on the night of the opening, the traces of which will form a work. A publication will be published as an extension of the exhibition. From 17 February to 21 May 2017 The performance on 17 February will be Footfall, which was also performed at JocJonJosch's London exhibition Foot-Kroku-Zvuk-Klingen-Fall at the Laure Genillard Gallery on 26 November 2016, 16 December 2016 and 3 February 2017.
Footfall will be performed by a mix of people who took part in the three London performance and local recruits. I took part in the first performance on 26 November but, due other commitments, have not been able to join the other two performances and will not be travelling to Switzerland for the new gallery opening. Naked Boys Reading: The Brontës
A fundraising evening for Islington Mill 3 February 2017, 7:30pm £8.00 Tickets Naked Boys Reading provides the perfect literary salon to enjoy an evening of classic much loved local literature reimagined for just one night only. All proceeds go towards Islington Mill's fundraising campaign. We really hope that girls and boys of all preferences and genders will join us for this wonderful evening of men in the buff reading Bronte - what more could you want! Naked Boys Reading is produced by the Haus of Husbands. DJ, the Duchess of Pork, will spin you some tunes throughout the night. The readings end with knee-up to literary disco - the perfect ending to a night of nude men reading hard. All proceeds from the ticket sales will go towards Islington Mill's fundraising campaign http://www.islingtonmill.com/about-us/support-us-now/ JOCJONJOSCH Foot-Kroku-Zvuk-Klingen-Fall Foot Kroku Zvuk Klingen Fall Foot-Kroku-Zvuk-Klingen-Fall - the corruption of ‘footfall’ through translation from English, to Czech, to German places an emphasis on the motion and the sound of the action implied by the word Footfall. The collective JocJonJosch are devising a new performance entitled Footfall premiering at Laure Genillard Gallery on the opening night, lending its name to the exhibition and thus defining its parameters Footfall. The exhibition is curated by Jo Melvin. Performances: Private view on 25 November 2016, 6pm Friday 16 December, 6.30pm Friday 3 February 2017, 6.30pm JocJonJosch | Footfall post/between-performance installation at Laure Genillard Gallery, London
In 2013, after seeing his work somewhere online, immediately registering as a potential participant and contacting him via social media - to which he responded, to my joy - I helped organise Angelo Musco's first shoot outside of the US. Angelo is Italian but based in the US.
The shoot took place at Sunbeam Studios in London in October 2013, peopled mostly with friends from Spencer Tunick shoots, and other naked adventures. The success of this endeavour actually gave me the confidence and firmed up the idea of the Natural State Performance Network, the Facebook group I created to bring together 'ordinary' people with an interest in and experience of public-participation art and performance - especially that featuring nudity and the body. London was the first of many shoots for this project. Others followed in Buenos Aires, New York, Berlin, and it seems the scale of the work continued to expand and consume Angelo's energies. In early-August 2016 the finished work was revealed for the first time - Sanctuary. And it is wonderful and epic in scale, execution and creative vision. A series of bodies appears, dotted around the urban landscape. Each body is falling, falling so slowly as to be barely visible. A vertical collapse set against the rapid flow of a linear city: a human measure of time and a reflection on presence and on time itself.
Collapse is an ongoing series of performance interventions that place the ‘body as measure’; Collapse Manchester creates a new landscape of stillness in the daily rush. Dominique Baron-Bonarjee Hazard 2016 | presented by Word of Warning | Manchester | 9 July 2016 |
Peter Jacobs
Performer, model, art participant, dance reviewer, blogger, wannabe performance artist, visual and performative arts fan - oh and there's a day job. Archives
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