After Der Fall Meursault – Eine Gegendarstellung and The Assassin, Iranian director Amir Reza Koohestani returns to the Kammerspiele with his own version of the Scottish play.
As times shift, tastes change, something we’re currently witnessing in regards to the role of the pub. Once the heart of local communities, we now find that 25% of UK pubs have shut down since 2001. Exploring what this institution means to different people, Anna Jordan’s We Anchor in Hope transforms The Bunker into a full functioning pub. During the show’s run, Anna tells us more about her approach in terms of creating the show, what she’s learned from writing the show and offers advice to aspiring writers!
Within the UK, we often find we learn and hear about international conflicts via the news, online and print media. The role of technology playing a crucial role in us all finding out what’s happening, yet simultaneously creating a barrier between us and those directly impacted by said conflicts. Drawing on the use of technology to report on such issues, Artist Caroline Williams talks about her show ‘Now is the Time to Say Nothing’, co-created with Syrian Filmmaker Reem Karssli and currently playing at the Battersea Arts Centre.
Explorative but limited, Karaoke Play introduces interesting ideas of one’s own purpose, how we relate to others and what we deem as success, but fails to perceptively explore these ideas to the intriguing extent that is possible.
A show about trust, intimacy and vulnerability presented through an overtly playful and ironic questioning of performance and the relationship between audience and performer, I think.
Split into two sections, Beta Public X is a thought-provoking night of playfulness questioning of conventions of games performance.
“The old days are gone” – in today’s world of political and social upheaval this line can be applied almost anywhere in the world currently, but in war torn Syria the words of filmmaker Reem Karssli’s grandfather sound even more pertinent.
Divisions within our society have become extremely apparent post the EU Referendum, unearthing tensions that have seemed to have simmered for decades. In a time whereby the rise of technology has helped bring people together, rhetoric from powerful figures sadly work against this, their encouragement of building borders and placing blame elsewhere a worrying trend. Exploring the idea of ‘borders’ both physically and mentally, playwright Afsaneh Gray presents ‘The Border’; a collaborative piece created alongside young people in Croydon and Bedworth and dramaturg Sarah Dickerson. Mid tour, having already visited Redbridge Drama Centre, Wanstead Festival, The Northwall Arts Centre and Theatre Peckham, Afsaneh tells us more about the show!
In 2013, the Birmingham local council would receive a damaging letter claiming a plot was underway to run local schools under strict Islamic doctrine. This letter outlined a plan known to many as ‘Operation Trojan Horse’, its ultimate aim of whomever sent it, to implicate various figures. This very letter would then be passed onto the Home Office and Department of Education and would subsequently be leaked to mainstream press. This very letter would start off a chain reaction of detrimental events – insensitive headline articles, emergency OFSTED inspections of 21 schools in Birmingham and Michael Gove openly criticising the Home Office on tackling ‘non violent extremism’. Tahir Alam, the former chairman of the Park View Educational Trust who ran three schools in Birmingham and fourteen other teachers would receive lifetime bans that would later be dismissed. This scandal was damaging to the local community of Birmingham, and sadly six years on, we’re living in a world whereby Islamaphobia is on the rise, scandals such as this fuelling a dangerous climate of hate. Tapping into the voices affected by the repercusions of this national scandal, writers of LUNG Theatre Company Helen Monks and Matt Woodhead talk about their latest show ‘Trojan Horse’ – a show placing verbatim at its core.
A marriage doomed from the onset, Orpheus and Eurydice’s union is perhaps one of the most well -known stories within the Greek pantheon of myths and legends. Prophesised to not last, both enjoy a short lived romance, inevitably put to a bitter end by the cruel passing of Eurydice.
