Taking to our stages 6 years ago with gallery performance Hoochie Koochie at the Barbican, US based dancer and choreographer Trajal Harrell returns to London with new work – Porca Miseria, a trilogy inspired by 3 very powerful women within our literal and metaphorical history – Maggie from Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the African American choreographer and activist Katherine Dunham and the Greek mythological Medea. Powerful women who have inspired imagination, the multidisciplinary piece is set to be staged at the Barbican from 12th to 14th May. Ahead of the show, Trajal tells us more about what to expect!
Today (Thursday 30 March), Executive Producer Joe Hisaishi and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), in collaboration with Improbable and Nippon TV, announce that the record-breaking production of Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbour Totoro will return to the Barbican Theatre for a strictly limited run in Autumn 2023.
Kakilang(formerly Chinese Arts Now CAN) has announced the full programme and dates for its unique multi-art form festival which celebrates the work of artists from across the wide spectrum of East and Southeast Asian heritages. Eight extraordinary events platforming theatre, dance, visual arts, live music, cabaret and puppetry will be staged from the 21 February – 23 April 2023 in a selection of London’s leading arts venues including the Barbican, Omnibus Theatre, Rich Mix, Shoreditch Town Hall, Two Temple Place and The Yard.
Whether you’re familiar with Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbour Totoro or not, the eponymous anime aesthetic is something I’m sure many of us are familiar with – a mercurial, comforting , friendly, creature who happens to appear at just the right moments. Originally an animation released in April 1988, the Japanese cultural phenomenon has enjoyed success internationally having also received various accolades along the way. 34 years on, and the cult classic has been reimagined for the stage, receiving its premiere at the Barbican and realised by Tom Morton-Smith and director Phelim McDermott.
Courtesy of Manuel Harlan.
‘The decision is made at a higher management level’: archived voice recording of an agent from the Family and Community Service (FACS) in New South Wales, Australia, as they ‘remove’ a child from its mother. These, the chilling opening moments of Larissa Behrendt’s 2017 documentary After the Apology, are a fitting portent of the film to come. In a series which Barbican curator Alex Davidson describes as highlighting ‘the best, most important, most interesting and often the hardest to see’ films from indigenous Australians, After the Apology surely ranks as one of the most harrowingly painful documentaries ever made. Statistics blaze across the screen in black and white for this rare big-screen showing, giving voice to victims and the systematic trauma they have been subjected to.
Shamanism is a term used to describe a healer’s ability to interact with a world otherwise unseen to the naked eye, a world inhabited by a whole host of spiritual energies. An aspect of humanity that has been practised for thousands of years, and continues to be in many indigenous communities, this is a practice typically carried out by men. Emmy award-winning Lynette Wallworth crafts an innovative foray into the world of Hushahu, the first woman shaman of the Yawanawá located in the Amazon with Awavena. A ground-breaking film documenting a ground breaking moment for the community and wider world.
Courtesy of Ami Robertson.
Power forms a significant part of our lives on both an individual and collective level, a fascinating entity shaping our daily interactions with one another. Born in 2016, after reading a piece in which the topic of power appeared to form the full stop of a larger conversation, cultural thinker and researcher Suzanne Alleyne was inspired to draw on this phenomenon further. Her ongoing research project The Neurology of Power, focusing on the neuroscience behind power. Feeding into this research project, Suzanne, alongside the Barbican Theatre present talk series Can we talk about Power?, a series comprising of various discussions with a distinguished panel of neuroscientists and creatives. Ahead of the event, Suzanne tells us more about what to expect.
Culture Mile: Radio Local: hyper-local radio broadcast to the world
Culture Mile, the City of London’s cultural district stretching from Farringdon to Moorgate will go hyper-local during the lockdown with Radio Local – a daily live broadcast, bringing the sounds and stories of the City, into people’s homes and broadcast to the world.
Radio Local, created by performance artists Hunt & Darton, will be an hour-long show every day from 1 – 2pm, Sat 30 May – Fri 12 June. It will be built with, by and for the City’s residents, workers and local businesses. The show will be streamed live here and here, on Resonance Extra (DAB), with a daily repeat show on Resonance 104.4FM at 10am. It will also go out live on community radio East London Radio and Barts Hospital Radio.
Project Manager Alex Turner has overseen the preparations for this year’s TheatreCraft. An event aimed at those aged 16 to 30 looking to learn more about theatre disciplines off stage, the initiative will see industry professionals give talks and workshops, as well as a careers fair at the Waldorf Hilton Hotel offering attendees the chance to meet some of the UK’s leading theatres, companies and education providers. Read on to find out more about this year’s event.
Iqbal Khan mightily takes the reigns of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra at the Barbican as part of the RSC’s transfer of their Rome season. An explosion of colour and ceremony is aided by Robert Innes Hopkins’s brilliant stage design, allowing the drama of the piece to stir with its uncompromising power dynamics. This tragedy of affairs, corruption, revolt and war translates with ease, Khan and the cast have done well to make the Bard’s work feel approachable yet hold its dynamism.
Courtesy of the Royal Shakespeare Company.