Introduction BE FESTIVAL 2014 is a fortnight-long feast of culture, with each week serving up a different opportunity to enjoy the best of European theatre in the heart of Birmingham. Following an exclusive double-bill in the first week, we present 23 companies from 14 different countries in the second, a choice pick from over 600 applications of daring and unforgettable shows that you won’t see together anywhere else. Each day kicks off with workshops, talks and other events, and ends with four 30 minute-long pieces each night, split by an interval like no other, where you get to sit down for dinner with your fellow punters and all the festival performers. Our fifth festival is our first away from the AE Harris building. When the metal factory’s expanding business needed its space back, our search for a suitable new home began. Whilst knowing the artists’ work deserved even larger audiences, we wanted to preserve the spirit of the festival, to transform another unique space into one that might hold the practice and atmosphere that we love to share. In a city itself evolving a new cultural identity from its industrial past, we were also searching for an apt opening to a new chapter of BE FESTIVAL’s own story. And so a plan was born: to take over The REP and turn the building back to front, leading our audience to another kind of factory, inside the machinery of a producing theatre. It seems the clamour on Europe’s news stations, front pages and city squares has been growing since we started back in 2010. At its heart and on its fringes, debate rages about who should be in and who should be out and why, about economics, and belonging, and value. We grapple with how we are defined by what contains us, historically, physically, ideologically and geographically. BE FESTIVAL is built around a desire to cross these boundaries, to break them down and play amongst the debris, opening up a space of possibility where artists and audiences from anywhere in this thing we call Europe might exchange ideas and experiences, and imagine our collective future. Welcome.
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BE TEAM Directors - Isla Aguilar, Miguel Oyarzun and Mike Tweddle General Manager - Sadie Newman Producers - Simon Day and Judy Owen Learning and Participation Producer - Jenny Smith Assistant Producer - Helena Scott-Hardy Press Officer - Clare Jepson-Homer Marketing Officer - Anna Himali Howard Assistant Producer (BE Next) - Jane English Volunteer Coordinator - Emma Halstead Intern - Jodie Ratcliffe Operations Manager - Felix Andrew Technical Manager - Mick Diver Production Manager - Ethan Hudson Bar Manager - Nina Ridding Caterers - Blanch & Shock Food Design Graphic Designer - David Martín de Juan Web Designer - Jack Ratcliffe Film-makers - 1-4-4 Photographer - Alex Brenner BE FESTIVAL Board - Joseph Seelig (Chair), Jo Lee, Clare Martin, Stuart Rogers, and Sophia Tarr Produced in association with Birmingham Repertory Theatre With generous support from Arts Council England, Birmingham City Council, ERDF, Sir Barry Jackson Trust, International Young Makers in Transit, European Union, John Feeney Charitable Trust, HOME Manchester, mac Birmingham, DanceXchange, Stan’s Cafe, Newman University, Spanish Embassy, Acción Cultural Española, Institut Ramon Llull, Wines from Spain and Staying Cool. We are indebted to The REP for handing over its building, and the expertise of so many of its people.
Huge thanks to everyone at The REP, Charlotte Martin, Craig Stephens, James Yarker, Craig Ashley, Louisa Davies, Alison Gagen, Ginnie Wollaston, Paul Burns, Tim Manson, David Alcorta, Atresbandes, Fidel López Álvarez, Beatriz Mérida, the ACT Festival team, our fellow IYMT Festival Directors, Judy Tweddle, Sandra Hall, Mark Ball, Corey Campbell, Zayneb Khan, Disa Nilsson, Lizzy Bell, Le Truc Birmingham, Yassine Hawawi, Joel Robison, Mercè Estela Poch and to our Board members. And to all the volunteers and hosts who are the backbone and spirit of the festival.
INDEX intro / BE TEAM The key to BE BEST OF BE 2014 / BE NEXT Jury & Awards WEEK 1 - double bill week 2 - Grand Opening Main Programme Workshops Programme Visual Arts Programme ALTERNATIVE CURRENCIES INTERVAL DINNER MENU SUPPORT US MAP, Tickets AND Prices Calendar
pp. 2 - 3 pp. 4 - 5 PP. 7 and 20 pp. 8 - 9 p. 10 p. 11 pp. 12 - 22 pp. 22 - 25 PP. 26 - 27 P. 27 pp. 28 - 29 P. 30 p. 31 p. 32 3
The Key to BE Two distinct weeks, each serving up a different opportunity to enjoy the best of European theatre at The REP: WEEK ONE (Wed 2 - Fri 4 July) A double-bill featuring Birmingham’s own Stan’s Cafe and Danish winners of BE FESTIVAL 2013, Out of Balanz. WEEK TWO (Tue 8 - Sat 12 July) Over five nights, you can see 23 performances from 14 different countries. There are opportunities throughout each day to mix and share ideas, with visual arts exhibitions, workshops and discussion too.
BE FESTIVAL TAKES OVER THE REP For the festival’s second week, we’ve turned the building back to front. Audiences now enter the building through the rear entrance on Cambridge Street, stepping into The Hub, a relaxed lounge converted from the venue’s construction workshop; there are plenty of sofas, a cabaret stage, a café and a well-stocked bar. On The REP’s main stage itself there is now a pop-up restaurant, where the mighty Blanch & Shock Food Design serve delicious interval dinners to artists and audiences together each evening. Blanch & Shock Food Design use food to explore and illustrate ideas, focusing on the British palette of ingredients. Since 2009 they have produced more than 100 creative food projects including collaborations with the V&A, Wellcome Collection, Icon Magazine and the Royal Academy of Arts. Menus at www.befestival.org (vegetarian options available). Dinner tickets from box-office in advance or in person on the day. See p. 29 for more info.
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VISUAL ARTS PROGRAMME - pp. 26 - 27 Tue 8 - Sat 12 July The doors of the converted Paintshop gallery backstage are open each day from 5pm, exhibiting work of BE FESTIVAL’s artist in residence, Dadara. DISCUSSIONS Wed 9 - Sat 12 July
WEEK TWO at a glance GRAND OPENING - pp. 11 Tue 8 July To welcome artists to Birmingham from all over Europe, the opening night of the second week includes a drinks reception and performances, including the full-length version of last year’s winning show and contributions from our resident visual and performing artists, Dadara and BE Mix. MAIN PROGRAMME - pp. 12 - 22 Wed 9 - Sat 12 July Four different studio shows a night, each no longer than 30 minutes, plus three more limited capacity pieces taking place in other spaces within The REP.
Each afternoon, the Feedback Café gives you an opportunity to hear from each of the artists and companies featured the previous evening, and a chance to share your own responses to their work over coffee and a pastry. Following feedback, we host a series of talks and chaired discussions in response to the festival theme of “Money, Value, Transaction and Alternative Currency”. WORKSHOPS AT THE REP AND AE HARRIS - pp. 22 - 25 Wed 9 - Sat 12 July A programme of morning workshops covering a range of disciplines and approaches to making theatre. All sessions take place at The REP (apart from James Yarker’s at AE Harris) and are open to festival performers and the general public. See the back of this brochure for the festival calendar and ticketing information - pp. 31 - 32
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COMING SOON 11 TO 14 JUNE
13 TO 28 JUNE
18 TO 21 JUNE
16 TO 20 SEPTEMBER
26 NOVEMBER TO 24 JANUARY
Clean Break, Royal Court Theatre and Royal Exchange Theatre present
Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Dundee Rep Ensemble present
Tiata Fahodzi in association with Watford Palace Theatre presents
The Royal Court Theatre and Mighty Mouth present
Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company presents
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WOMAN IN MIND
By Vivienne Franzmann
By Alan Ayckbourn
THE EPIC ADVENTURE OF NHAMO THE MANYIKA WARRIOR AND HIS SEXY WIFE CHIPO
NOT I/FOOTFALLS/ ROCKABY By Samuel Beckett Performed by Lisa Dwan
By Denton Chikura
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THE BFG By Roald Dahl Adapted by David Wood
Best of BE 2014
Be NEXT
For the fourth year running BE will hit the road this Autumn, rolling out a choice sample of the festival’s unique flavour to venues across the UK and Spain. With the three best shows selected from the Summer line-up all in one night, Best of BE is the essential dispatch from the front lines of Europe’s theatre scene.
BE Next is our year-round theatre training opportunity for 14-19 year-olds. Celebrating the unique community of Birmingham and BE FESTIVAL, the programme is targeted at young people who speak English as a second language, or who speak a second language at home.
8 - 11 October Barbican, London 13 - 14 October The REP, Birmingham 16 October Circomedia, Bristol 17 - 18 October HOME, Manchester 19 October The Hub, Leeds (in association with Slung Low) 21 - 22 October The Gulbenkian, Canterbury 24 - 25 October Corral de Comedias de Alcalá, Spain 26 October Teatro Auditorio Adolfo Marsillach, San Sebastián de los Reyes, Spain 29 October - 2 November Matadero Madrid, Spain 4 November The Atkinson, Southport 5 November Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales 7 November BE @ GIFT, Gateshead
This is a fantastic opportunity for participants to develop their performance skills and work with international artists. Each year, BE Next is led by two professional theatre makers who have previously shown work in the main programme. This year the directors are Manuel Bonillo (Vladimir Tzekov, Spain) and Won Kim (Pas de Dieux, France). The BE Next group will meet again this August, and welcome any new members who wish to make great theatre and great friends, and gain the nationally recognised Arts Award. For more information please contact Jenny Smith on jenny@befestival.org or call +44 (0)7967 187822. See p. 20
If you would like Best of BE 2015 to visit your venue next year, please contact us.
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BE Jury
We are delighted to welcome a wealth of international talent, expertise and experience onto this year’s jury, who will award prizes to a number of shows from the Main Programme. Jordi Duran i Roldós Jordi is Artistic Director of Fira Tárrega and Professor of Scenic Arts Management for the Masters Programme in Cultural Management at the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona, where he previously studied scenic direction and playwriting. He formed part of the production team at Teatre Lliure under the direction of Josep Montanyès. He has been in charge of the Dimitri Ialta project since 2008 and was Director of the Aula de Teatre at the Universitat de Girona for 6 years. Wendy Houstoun Wendy has worked extensively as a solo performer, and with companies and artists whose work moves around the boundaries of dance and theatre. Since 1980 collaborators have ranged from DV8 Physical Theatre to Jonathan Burrows, from Forced Entertainment to Rose English. Her numerous solo works, including Happy Hour and The 48 Almost Love Lyrics have toured internationally, with her latest piece, 50 Acts, about to play in Ljubliana and Copenhagen. Wendy recently curated Juncture with Yorkshire Dance, a Leeds based festival of performance, film and photography. Alja Predan Alja is a dramaturg, translator and editor, and Artistic Director of Maribor Theatre Festival Borštnikovo srečanje since 2009. Previous roles include: Artistic Director of City Theatre of Nova Gorica, Curator at City Gallery of Ljubljana, Dramaturg and Editor at City Theatre of Ljubljana, and Artistic Director of the Theatre and Dance Department in the Cultural Centre Cankarjev dom Ljubljana. She was programming director of the National Festival Week of Slovenian Drama (2008 -2009). Mikko Roiha Mikko is Artistic Director of Tampere Theatre Festival. For his work as a theatre director, Mikko was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Performing Arts in 2008. After studies at the University of Tampere and at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, he became Director of the City Theatre of Seinäjoki in West Finland. Other work includes for the Kuopio City Theatre, TTT Theater in Tampere and Dance Theatre Minimi in Kuopio. Roiha is also a columnist, appearing regularly in journals such as Teatteri & Tanssi, Ilkka, and Glorian ruoka & viini. He is currently based in Berlin. Petra Jane Tauscher
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Petra is the Creative Producer and Dramaturg for a new international contemporary arts venue and theatre opening in Manchester in 2015, HOME. Petra spent her first professional years in Berlin, with Peter Stein and at the Berlin Ensemble. Returning to the UK she moved into film, becoming Head of Script Development for Atlantic Productions (London) alongside her work as a freelance dramaturg for theatre productions (The Barbican, The Curve, International Dance Festival, Birmingham).
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BE Awards BE FESTIVAL 1st Prize Supported by Birmingham REP and mac Birmingham.
£2500 plus a fully covered three-week creative residency at mac Birmingham and a run of the full-length version of the winning show at The REP as part of BE 2015. HOME Prize £2000 plus a week-long research and development period at HOME, Manchester’s new contemporary arts venue. This residency is one of ten with potential for future programming at HOME. ACT Festival Prize The winning performance will be programmed and supported at the ACT Festival 2015 in Bilbao. Three Special Mentions The jury will decide categories for these honorary awards, and determine the winners. Audience Prize All audience members will be able to vote for their favourite piece each night, with the most popular overall awarded the honorary Audience Prize. Best of BE The festival directors will select three performances to tour the UK and Spain in Autumn 2014 under the banner of Best of BE FESTIVAL. See p. 7
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Finger, Trigger, Bullet, Gun Stan’s CafE
Next Door Out of Balanz Denmark
BE FESTIVAL 2013 1st Prize and Audience Prize winners Encapsulates the festival’s welcoming spirit - Matt Trueman, The Telegraph
A play written by Nenad Prokic for Stan’s Cafe. A Bosnian Serb finger pulled the trigger of the gun that started the First World War but who put the bullet in that gun? As Stan’s Cafe complete the process of remorselessly standing thousands of dominoes in a precarious chain, we are taken behind closed doors in Berlin, Vienna and Belgrade to watch a conspiracy being built; a conspiracy that will lead to Sarajevo, a date with the Archduke, and that gun loadedwith that bullet having its trigger pulled by that finger. Co-commissioned by LIFT & 14-18 NOW, WW1 Centenary Art Commissions.
When Ivan Hansen’s neighbour suddenly passes away, he realises how little he knows about him… A blend of personal memories, shared stories and melodies to remember, Next Door is a joyful celebration of the imagination. Join Ivan and his good friend Pekka on an adventure through the past, as they explore what really connects us. Founded in 2006, Out of Balanz is an award-winning international theatre ensemble based in Copenhagen, Denmark. The company is led by Katrina Bugaj and Troels Hagen Findsen.
WEEK 1 2 - 4 JULY
REP POUNDS In celebration of the festival’s theme of Alternative Currency, a ticket to this exclusive double-bill is extra special: not only will it set you back just £12, but when you arrive at the theatre, we will give you your money back (plus interest) in the form of REP Pounds. You can spend your REP Pounds on a variety of shows in the theatre’s Autumn & Winter 2014 season.
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Photo: Alex Brenner
UK
WEEK 2 8 J U L Y GRAND OPENING 5.30pm Raise a complimentary glass of the finest Rioja (with thanks to Wines from Spain) and join us in a toast to this year’s programme and to all things BE.
One Minute of Time 4 Yourself DADARA | The Netherlands
How to make a living as an artist BE MIX | MADE IN BIRMINGHAM Each production in last year’s programme nominated one of their number to stay behind for a week to join our transient, multi-national company in residence and begin making a new show. This year, the BE Mix artists return for a fortnight, and will welcome you to BE FESTIVAL 2014 with the fruits of their labour, an impassioned tug of war between art and money, craft and reproduction. Devised with Spanish director Carlos Aladro, and inspired by resident visual artist Dadara’s research, How to Make a Living… is the ensemble’s response to the festival theme of Alternative Currency.
Next Door Out of Balanz | Denmark
POST-SHOW
Live music with Rikitiki-Taffi Based in Birmingham, Frankie Fox (Cymru/Wales) and Riki Rocha (Portugal) use throbbing vocals, a tangle of instruments and pulsing beats to bring different tongues together. Fox’s humour and passion, and Rocha’s virtuosity, are unmistakable. - The Guardian
Mi Gran Obra
THE OTHER PLACE AT THE COURTYARD THEATRE STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
(un proyecto ambicioso)
14 JUNE - 12 JULY
David Espinosa / El Local Espacio de Creación
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Lipwoman, Stedelijk museum, Jon Hurd/Flickr
AD#3 Four plays, six actors, two double bills. A festival of radical new work with plays by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Alice Birch, E.V. Crowe and Abi Zakarian. TICKETS
14 FROM
If you could make a show, unconstrained by funding and liberated from health and safety regulations, what would it be like? Grab your opera glasses and join David, 300 actors, herds of animals, a military orchestra, cars, a rock band and a helicopter to find out what he would do...
£15
WWW.RSC.ORG.UK/MISCHIEF #RSCMISCHIEF 0844 800 1110
Through wandering playfully amongst the fripperies of colossal creations, Mi Gran Obra (My Great Work) continues Espinosa’s ongoing exploration of value, substance and artistic practice as El Local Espacio de Creación, a company he founded in 2006 with África Navarro.
9 - 11 JULY The main programme also embraces work outside of the evening show format and studio setting. All under The REP’s roof, BE FESTIVAL 2014 presents three other intimate and interactive performances: Mi Gran Obra (un proyecto ambicioso), Getaway and Our Front Room.
Photo: David Espinosa
Spain
Getaway
Our Front Room
Germany / Spain Italy / Australia
UK
Theater Am Tisch
Pick a table, pull up a chair, and let’s talk about what we’re fleeing from, running towards and hoping for... Professional exiles tracing paths of escape and opportunity across Europe wait with their tales for you to join them; tales of rules and regulations, of families and values, of cities and dreams, and of love. The nine members of Berlin based Theater am Tisch, from Germany, Spain, Italy and Australia, have been creating intimate theatre experiences together in unique locations since 2012.
MAIN PROGRAMME Our Front Room: between 5pm and 7pm (15 min) In English with headphones.
First Floor Theatre
An interactive audio performance in a pop-up front room for two at a time, exploring love, life and growing old. Relive the story of Archie and Violet’s romance over the decades, unearthing letters, exchanging gifts, and rekindling bittersweet memories to unfold a journey from the 1950s Caribbean to today’s Britain. Includes party nibbles and ska soundtrack. First Floor Theatre create work that draws on contemporary, multi cultural British experience to discover our collective story.
FROM 5PM
limited capacity show info
| HUB | Maximum capacity: 2 | FREE, inscribe yourself upon arrival.
Getaway: 6pm (30 min) | MAIN STAGE | Maximum capacity: 30 | £3 | In English Mi Gran Obra (un proyecto ambicioso): 6.10pm (30 min) | THE DOOR | Maximum capacity: 20
| £3 | Non-verbal
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From the Waltz to the Mambo
Plaza Avellaneda
Hungary
Spain/Argentina
Photo: Csaba Mészáros
In the hands and in the body of a single performer, a 1960s Hungarian ballroom dance manual becomes a tool for questioning today’s dogmas surrounding beauty and education. A disarmingly straightforward, funny, and personal meeting of a vintage text and a contemporary performance language. Radioballet are Hungarian dance artists, Bea Egyed and Milán Újvári. With cultural differences and shared understanding central to their work, they are particularly looking forward to performing in front of an English-speaking audience (with an English sense of humour!) for the first time at BE FESTIVAL 2014.
PRE-SHOW 4pm - Talk with Dadara on his residency
Teatro Secreto
Argentina 2008. 16 years after they last saw each other, two old best friends meet again under very different circumstances. From a small hospital room, where one lies recovering from a gunshot wound, their shared memories of days growing up together transport them back through the forging of the ideals that would ultimately break them apart. Teatro Secreto tell stories with a refined informality, investigating narrative through a physical approach that invites an audience further into the depths of contemporary texts.
Wednesday 9
See p. 29 for more info.
An invitation into the subversive world of Visual Artist-in-Residence and founder of the Exchanghibition Bank. Dadara reflects on his residency at BE FESTIVAL and introduces the work created in response, exploring the value systems surrounding artistic practice.
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Photo: Luis Ruiz, Alejandra Heredia
Radioballet
Everything We Were (NoT) Born With
Beating McEnroe
Poland
UK
Photo: Ilja Van de Pavert
KIJO Group
Three dancers wander an unknown yet inevitable path of isolation and connection, cross-fading between childlike curiosity and methodical cruelty. A sparse, forensic examination of the internal and external boundaries of identity and the human body, where our own sense of self is cast in an ongoing conflict with the desires of others. Founded in Lodz in 2010, Kijo Group’s creative collaborative process draws on elements of improvisation, contemporary dance, physical theatre and martial arts practices.
MAIN PROGRAMME
Jamie Wood
Bjorn Borg, the self-controlled tennis champion and epitome of cool, was everything a six-year-old Jamie wanted to be. Then John McEnroe came along... Thirty years of torment and self-questioning later, Jamie is ready to face his greatest opponent. The final point of an epic Wimbledon final relived with the audience as a joyful, cathartic ritual of rivalry, love and moving on. Jamie Wood is a performer and director, whose work reflects a training that combines fine art, theatre, clown and dance.
FROM 7PM
POST-SHOW
Live music with Mellow Peaches Purveyors of rootsy stomps and gutsy grooves, the unassuming Mellow Peaches have long immersed themselves into traditional, organic and freshly-sourced American blues and roots, mixing it up with their own gumbo of exotic flavours to create a wholesome dish that aids digestion.
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That’s it
Loops & Breaks
Belgium / The Netherlands
Austria
A spectre claws her way across the stage, back and forth between nightmarish dreamscapes to become one creature after another, lurking in the darkest recesses of the mind. For the audience, each transformation, each lurch of time and space, is a terrifying, untethering slip away from what is known and what is real. That’s It is the first solo from Sandman company, founded in October 2012 by Artistic Director, Sabine Molenaar. Winner of ACT festival, Bilbao and award for Strongest Female Talent at Theater Aan Zee Festival, Oostende.
PRE-SHOW
Julia Schwarzbach
Julia invites you, the audience, to make the action by responding to a series of shifting instructions prepared especially for the BE FESTIVAL crowd. The stage expands to become a blur of watching, performing and interpretation,where everyone can join the game of finding common ground together, and where each contribution is precious. Since studying at Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance and Roehampton University, London, Julia has worked with choreographers including Sasha Waltz, Rosalind Crisp, Ted Stoffer and Mia Lawrence.
THURSDAY 10
4.30pm - Talk with Quim Marcé: ‘Alternative Economies’ The Director of Bescanó Theater (Northern Catalonia) explains the venue’s infamous ‘Carrot Rebellion’ of 2012, in which they bypassed the Spanish Government’s damaging VAT increase on Cultural Products by replacing tickets with a certain orange vegetable. An inspiring tale of creative protest.
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Photo: Ray Farhad Kazemi
Photo: Terri Florido, Sarah Oyserman, Sarisden Englesman
Sandman
Ilsa’s Garden Anna Peschke
La Casa en el Árbol
Photo: Kai Kremser
Germany
The Invasion of The Body Snatchers Spain
Ilsa was the protagonist of an eponymous 1974 Nazi exploitation film. An unscrupulous officer and concentration camp doctor, this ‘She-Wolf of the SS’ is an unsettling creation, inhabited here by the artist to interrogate the appeal of German Fascism. The lyrics of Friedrich Hollaender’s revue songs are the only words disturbing an intense procession of images in a dark, otherwise silent cabaret. Since graduating from her studies in Applied Theatre Science in Gießen, Germany, Anna has created work at the meeting point of visual and scenic art, often responding to the architecture and history of specific spaces.
MAIN PROGRAMME
The infamous black and white quest of an unfeeling alien race to eliminate individualism on Earth is explored in the glorious three dimensions and technicolor of a live show. Fragments of ‘50s scripts and sequels work in conversation with video projection to present an unsettling B-Movie mash-up of our notions of identity and collectivism. La Casa en el Árbol is led by Vicente Colomar, an artist, producer and academic. Vicente develops international and interdisciplinary research projects; spaces that explore the performing arts and their role in society.
FROM 7PM
POST-SHOW
Live music with The Mistakings A Birmingham-based acoustic folk trio, who play traditional and original material. Their sea shanties, wild instrumentals and footstamping all-female folk are full of passion and pirate spirit.
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mingbeast in collaboration with Sleepwalk Collective
Photo: Rory Johnson and Maria Gironza
UK / Spain
Spinning giddily between crimesceneinvestigation, misguided therapy session and cack -handed séance for a doomed starlet, GHOSTLAND CINEMA is a cryptic and chaotic exploration of how we remember, and of why we might prefer to forget. London based mingbeast are interested in botched illusion, ultra-competitiveness, and allowing everything to get out of control (if only for a moment). Sleepwalk Collective is an award-winning theatre group based in the Basque Country. Both companies develop performance works between the UK and Spain.
PRE-SHOW
Does it Start with a Kiss? Éva Duda Dance Company Hungary
How much are we dependent on each other? Who takes what from who and why? Urgent questions of individual agency and submission spill from relationships fizzing with the passion of the tango, as an impetuous trio dance ‘all for one and one for all!’ – in it most-definitely-together to discover the outer limits of this guiding principle. The company were formed in 2009/2010 by choreographer Éva Duda. Slovenian artists Rosana Hribar and Gregor Luštek, long-term collaborators and an internationally award-winning partnership, have been commissioned to choreograph this latest work.
FRIDAY 11
4.30pm - Open Discussion: ‘Working in the Crisis’ As Europe’s economies have lurched from crisis to recovery and back again over the last five years, BE FESTIVAL’s artists have continued to carry on doing what they do: creating great work. Come and share experiences of the challenges and opportunities of ‘making do’ in difficult times.
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Photo: Dániel Dömölky
GHOSTLAND CINEMA
Wunschkonzert
Waiting
Maura Morales
Mokhallad Rasem
Inspired by the 1971 Franz Xaver Kroetz play of the same name, Wunschkonzert unveils one woman’s grasp for a sensual life of joy and wonder and of dreams realised, beyond everyday monotony, loneliness and longing. Through sleight choreography and fragile ruses of movement, Morales sensitively opens up the space to reveal the depths of the human soul. Before pursuing her independent practice in 2008, Maura was a soloist for leading State theatres in Cuba and Europe. Winner of Kurt Joos Best Dance Performance award at Huesca festival, Spain.
MAIN PROGRAMME
Belgium/Iraq
It can be an interruption, a pause, or an obstacle to a future not yet begun. We wait for insight or for a bus. Until pain subsides. For word of a loved one, for toilet paper, money or for a visa. Different worlds clash quietly through traces of dance, performance and film in a meditation upon the fundamental human experience of waiting. Mokhallad worked at the National Theatre of Iraq before the war changed the course of his life. Now resident director at Toneelhuis in Antwerp, Belgium, he won the 2013 Young Director’s award at the Saltzburger Festspiele for Romeo & Juliet.
FROM 7PM
Photo: Saad Ibraheem
Photo: Klaus Handner
Germany/Cuba
POST-SHOW
DJ and percussionist Will Itsasecret is renowned across a variety of Birmingham’s scenes for his eclectic DJ sets, spanning everything from Funk & Soul to Reggae and Balkan Beats to Moombah.
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Scratch performance
Impressions d’Afrique
Made in Birmingham
ITALY
Photo: Alex Brenner
BE Next
People from every corner of the world are proud to call Birmingham ‘home’. From Kings Heath to Handsworth, the city’s streets are alive with as many languages and accents as you might hear across a continent. BE Next, BE FESTIVAL’s young company, sets out to celebrate our unique community by working with 14-19 year-olds from all over Birmingham, many of whom speak a language other than English. The company have been working with directors Manuel Bonillo (Vladimir Tzekov, Spain) and Won Kim (Pas de Dieux, France) to create a brand new show for the closing night.
PRE-SHOW 5pm - Networking meeting
MK
In his 1910 novel, Impressions d’Afrique, Raymond Roussel saw Africa as an unpredictable hybrid of multiple and arbitrary Western notions. This surreal landscape forms the backdrop to mk’s crowded system of chain reactions and ballistic choreography, a discovery of new destinations and merry misunderstandings. For their week in Birmingham and show at The REP, the core ensemble are joined in rehearsal and onstage by local and festival performers. A leading research ensemble of the Italian dance scene, mk are led by Michele Di Stefano.
SATURDAY 12
A chance for artists and promoters to introduce their work and connect with like-minded professionals from across Europe.
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Awkward Happiness
SHOW
Antonio Tagliarini ITALY
Photo: Karol Jarek
(or Everything I Don’t Remember About Meeting You) Studio Matejka
do NOT miss performance intervention
The Inverse of the Plot
POLAND
The passage of a relationship painted in its full colours of intimacy and doubt, desire and duty. As a couple’s secrets and surprises are laid down over time, layer upon complex layer, the fleeting moments of understanding and connection give a glimpse of the individuals’ simplest yet greatest quest: for happiness. Studio Matejka is a physical theatre laboratory exploring 21st Century performance techniques, born of an invitation made to Matej Matejka, by The Grotowski Institute in 2010, to open his own research programme.
MAIN PROGRAMME
Jaime Vallaure Spain
I have a confession to make: I am a presenter, a dancer, a showman. I am my own time, my own things and my own heroes. I am my own alter ego. I am so many chances that I dissolve, but when you look at me here in this space, you make me feel possible and so so real…
The audience help a beleaguered performer attempt an impossible self-portrait. As a performer, director and choreographer, Antonio has presented work across Italy and Europe, collaborating with artists including Miguel Pereira, Idoia Zabaleta, Daria Deflorian, Fabrizio Arcuri, Raffaella Giordano and Giorgio Rossi.
FROM 7PM
POST-SHOW
BE FESTIVAL 2014 Awards Ceremony and Closing Party Europe’s “11th glitziest awards ceremony” (The Sunday Times) hosted, and broadcast to radio listeners around the world, by former sports specialists fallen on hard times, The Commentators. Followed by DJ’s until late.
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The Inverse of the Plot Jaime Vallaure Spain
This new work, to happen sometime during Saturday evening, is being created for BE using local and European performers during his workshop: The Essential. What is really going on when nothing is happening... what do we see? What do we want to see? Responding to BE FESTIVAL’s unique takeover of The REP, a performance intervention that flips our understanding of how a theatre space works. The place where we watch is revealed as a factory of ideas, where the building blocks of action must first be imagined. Jaime Vallaure is an experimental artist working in fields of action-art, performance, video, and independent publishing. Want to be involved as a performer? Join Jaime’s workshop, The Essential (pp.xx), or for a one-off session with the group on Saturday morning. Visit the box-office in The Hub for more information and to sign up.
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WORKSHOPS Workshops take place 10.30am-1.30pm and are held at The REP unless otherwise stated. Sign up in The Hub.
Listen, Breathe and See Marc Gassot (Out of Balanz)
Wed 9 July
A clown workshop committed to keeping it simple, to playing with the nature of presence, and to working out how open you can be on stage. Bring yourself, your naiveté and your unique way of experiencing the world. In improvisations, the group will also be looking at how the body communicates in the space alongside and between the words, through movement, gesture and mime. Marc Gassot is an actor based in Helsinki. After training with theTheatre Academy of Helsinki (where he has since returned to teach) and at l’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, Marc has worked with the Finnish National Theatre and with Out of Balanz, the international theatre ensemble and BE FESTIVAL prize winners based in Copenhagen.
MOVING, THINKING, MAKING Annie Pui Ling Lok
Wed 9 July
Drawing on research in experimental anatomy and craniosacral therapy, a dance and movement workshop that offers skills to move, think and make within solo, duet and ensemble improvisation. The group will focus on tuning awareness to develop connectivity and clarity in our movement, whilst accessing and responding to a wide range of stimuli inside and outside of the body. Annie trained in visual arts, dance and interdisciplinary
collaboration at Brighton and The Place. She lectures at Bedfordshire University, is Resident Artist at Greenwich Dance Agency and Associate Artist with DanceDigital and Step Out Arts. She has worked with internationally renowned companies including Siobhan Davies Dance, Les Ballets C de la B and Beijing Dance Academy.
PERFORMANCE AS SEDUCTION I*
Iara Solano Arana and Sammy Metcalfe (Sleepwalk Collective)
THU 10 July
Explore strategies drawn from the company’s experience of creating radical performance works across genres, cultures and languages. Focussed on practical, DIY approaches to developing text and creating material for both conventional theatre contexts and intimate one-on-one encounters, this session proposes a creative process as ‘a kind of making-out’.
The Essential I* Jaime Vallaure
THU 10 July
How do you go from the brain to the body and back again? What happens when you don’t know what to do and there is no one to ask? How can we work with our animal side? An attempt to develop a universal way of understanding beyond verbal language and a workshop proposing a series of performance experiments. The results will be presented by participants during Saturday evening’s programme. See The Inverse of the Plot, p. 22 Jaime Vallaure is a multi-disciplinary artist, a founding member of Circo Interior Bruto and one half of Los Torreznos (Venice Biennale, NRLA). He teaches on the Masters programme in Performance Practice and Visual Culture at the University of Castilla - La Mancha in collaboration with the Museum Reina Sofia of Contemporary Art in Madrid.
Sleepwalk Collective is an award-winning live-art and experimental theatre group creating fragile, nocturnal performance experiences between the UK and Spain. Formed in London in 2006, the company currently live and work in Spain. Their show As The Flames Rose We Danced To The Sirens, The Sirens won both First Prize and Best Actress at BE FESTIVAL 2011.
www.lostorreznos.es
www.sleepwalkcollective.com
Jaime Vallaure
Performance as Seduction II*
FRI 11 July
The Essential II*
FRI 11 July
Iara Solano Arana and Sammy Metcalfe (Sleepwalk Collective)
*participants are welcome to attend session I, II, or both; the theme of each will be the same but explored through different content.
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WORKSHOPS MANIPULATE AND PLAY Liz Walker
FRI 11 July
A table-top based puppetry workshop on bringing material to life. Beginning with breath and intrinsic movement, participants will work towards animating and improvising with Bunraku style articulated puppets in pairs, exploring and developing manipulation skills and technique, expression and play. No previous experience of operating puppets is required. Liz trained in the 1980s at The Little Angel Marionette Theatre, London. As a founder member of internationally renowned Faulty Optic, Liz toured work throughout the UK and from Indonesia to Venezuela, Canada and lots of places in between. She has worked as a puppet consultant and performer for companies such as the Royal Opera House and Rafi Peer Theatre in Karachi, Pakistan.
THE CHALLENGES OF DEVISING
James Yarker (Stan’s Cafe) Venue: Australia at AE Harris, Jewellery Quarter
SAT 12 July
The only technique we will address is one of thinking, but don’t leave your bodies at home because there will be the chance to ‘do something’. Mixing discussion of the challenges we all face when devising with some practical responses, we’ll also share our tricks, discoveries and blind spots. Whilst responding to what people feel they need, the session will inevitably return to my own obsession: how form dances with content to make theatre the thing I love.
James co-founded Stan’s Cafe in 1991. Performed around the world, he has directed all the company’s major productions, each taking a wide range of radical forms. In 2012 James ran week-long devising workshops for theatre makers in Calgary and Tokyo. www.stanscafe.co.uk
HOW TO START A CONVERSATION? Matt Burman
SAT 12 July
How can artists and programmers begin and continue a dialogue with each other? Where might it end up? Matt will lead an informal discussion around these key questions, inviting your own contributions towards furthering a mutual understanding of the pitfalls and opportunities in developing those all important relationships. Matt Burman is Head of Programme & Audiences at Warwick Arts Centre. He was Executive Producer at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (2008-2011), and General Manager of Forced Entertainment (2003-2008). He has sat on the curatorial group for Caravan showcase of new English performance and the advisory committee for the British Council’s Edinburgh Showcase.
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VISUAL ARTS PROGRAMME Our Visual Arts Programme runs on a two year cycle, developing and exhibiting work in response to a chosen theme, and in dialogue with the wider festival. With 2013/14’s theme as “Money, Value, Transaction and Alternative Currency”, BE FESTIVAL 2013 showed the work of five international artists, as well as hosting a research residency for Dutch artist, Dadara. This year, under the title “TIME = MONEY = ART”, Dadara shares the results of that process. Part shaman, part banker, Dadara’s is an animating, provocative and irreverent presence at BE FESTIVAL 2014, playfully engineering a collective space of exchange. There are a number of ways to encounter the work: live, online, and in your wallet; at scheduled moments or in the fabric of the festival experience itself. You will never look at a piece of art, money or the passing of time in the same way again. About the Artist Dadara’s designs and paintings, made for the 90s underground international House music scene, led to his first exhibition (of 10 to date) at the Reflex Modern Art Gallery, Amsterdam. He has since shown work in Paris, Berlin, Stuttgart, Miami and New York, with commissions from clients including BMW, Absolut Vodka and Greenpeace. In the past 10 years, Dadara has mainly focused on painting and large interactive art projects that provide a commentary on contemporary society. Topics include governmental control, lack of transparency, privacy issues and regulations, as well as value creation, money and dreams. www.dadara.nl
TIME = MONEY = ART 26
Dadara will be keeping office hours throughout Week Two, in BE FESTIVAL’s gallery space converted from the The REP’s backstage Paintshop. The Arena Gallery at mac, also hosts his first major UK exhibition 5 July-31 Aug.
The Exchanghibition Bank Booth In times when governments have no money for the arts but lots of money for banks, a well travelled bank booth makes its way from the Nevada desert to open for business in Birmingham: the business of serving art, and the art of turning that art into money. Transformoney Tree As we stumble through crisis, lost on the path of infinite economic growth on a planet of finite resources, you are invited to contribute your banknotes to a cumulative sculpture, transforming their value by creating a beautiful object. The tree casts the true and time-bound worth of money into stark perspective against concepts of natural order and intrinsic value. Hourtopia - www.hourtopia.com Are we as conscious about spending our time as we are our money? The dread of the watched clock and time wasted is thrown aside in search of those moments when life ticks in harmony with the heartbeat of our soul. Hourtopia offers you the oncein-a-lifetime chance to capture your magic hour and share those priceless hopes and memories with your loved ones. Forever. The Karma An alternative currency is in circulation throughout the festival’s second week. Trade in your grubby and anonymous legal tender for Dadara’s colourful, limited edition, customisable BE FESTIVAL currency, the Karma. Each time a note changes hands challenges our conventional assumptions around spending, reasserting the notion of exchange over mere transaction. The Karma investigates currency’s value in motion, its ability to connect groups and to tell and maintain stories. Paintings and drawings Dadara’s background in striking visual design serves to both document a journey through, and develop his own understanding of, an obsession with money as it relates to the artists’ place in the world and the intrinsic value of creative practice.
Alternative Currencies at BE FESTIVAL 2014 Biannually, a festival theme informs a programme of activities that work in dialogue with the performances. The following initiatives stand out this year in response to 2013/14’s theme, “Money, Value, Transaction and Alternative Currency”. WEEK ONE (double-bill) - REP Pounds Collect or present your double-bill ticket on arrival and get your money back (plus interest) in the form of REP Pounds, which can be spent on tickets for the theatre’s Autumn & Winter 2014 season. See p. 10 WEEK TWO (main programme) - Golden tickets Buy a festival pass or an evening ticket in advance and you have the option of upgrading to a Golden Ticket for an extra £8. Golden Tickets grant a stranger entry to one day of the festival, and are distributed by local partner organisations working with people who do not ordinarily get to enjoy a trip to the theatre. At the bar - The Karma The Hub’s bar runs on a new currency conceived by 2013/14’s Artist in Residence, Dadara: not the Dollar or the Pound, but the ‘Karma’. Karma are issued in return for cash in The Hub. Audiences are encouraged to add their own content on the reverse of the limited edition notes, transforming transactions into something more personal.
Don’t miss Dadara’s full exhibition Sat 5 Jul - Sun 31 Aug
Arena Gallery mac Birmingham www.macbirmingham.co.uk
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Premieres and commissions from WarWick arts centre GeCko
Warwick Arts Centre and China Plate
THeATRe DeS BoUFFeS DU NoRD
Forced entertainment
Institute
Confirmation
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by Chris Thorpe and Rachel Chavkin
The Valley of Astonishment
The Last Adventures
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Thu 2 & Fri 3 oct
Wed 21 & Thu 22 May
Wed 11 – Sat 14 Jun
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Warwick Arts Centre
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only Uk dates Presented by Warwick Arts Centre, in association with Fierce.
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Sid Tou ik ma Su i D ni n ia & 1 Ju ba n té
Tue 13 – Fri 16 May
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Tue WED T HU FRI SAT INTERVAL DINNER
MENU
Braised beef (v- mushrooms) with British spices such as hay and hogweed in flour tortillas Tomato and red onion salsa * Crushed pea salad Sour cream
Lamb (v - falafel) and wheat kibbeh Yoghurt Butterbean Humus * Carrot and courgette salad Fattoush (bread-based dish)
Roast 7-spice goat (v = Aubergine) Mushroom and seaweed cous-cous * Smacked cucumbers with chilli and garlic Carrots with sweet miso dressing
Toulouse-style sausage, lentil, tomato and red pepper stew (v = with mushroom) served with yoghurt * Fennel, spring onion and parsley salad Bread and butter
Roast pork shoulder with fennel, chilli and lemon (v = cheese) Potatoes with garlic and rosemary * French beans Butterbeans with red onion and basil
Blanch & Shock Food Design makes creative food projects and provides bespoke catering. We use food to explore and illustrate ideas, focusing on the British palette of ingredients. Based in South London, we design food for diverse events and projects across the UK and beyond. These have included concept-based canapé services, multi-course dinners, tasting experiences and edible installations, our own pop-up restaurants and singular artistic projects. Since opening in 2009, Blanch & Shock Food Design has produced more than a hundred projects exploring British food, including collaborations with the V&A, Wellcome Collection, Icon Magazine and the Royal Academy of Arts. www.blanchandshock.com
“We are really excited to be back at BE FESTIVAL in its new location this year. The atmosphere the BE team and audiences create is always great, and we are looking forward to being part of that and cooking for everyone again.”
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Support Us BE FESTIVAL is committed to sharing the best emerging European theatre with as many people as possible, and to support the development of artists across the continent. We receive funding from a variety of sources, including Arts Council England, The European Union and Birmingham City Council. We also rely on the generosity of the people of Birmingham, who give so much of their time and energy as volunteers, and who open their homes to host visiting artists. And especially this year, we are indebted to The REP for handing over its building, and the expertise of so many of its people.
Produced in association with Birmingham Repertory Theatre Funded by:
In order to continue to deliver this extraordinary event, and to develop each year, your support year-round is crucial. Here is how you can get involved: Become a host or volunteer next year Keep your Karma money or buy a Golden ticket this festival (see p. 27) Go online to join our Friends Scheme or make a donation of any amount anytime Sponsor an artist or company to travel to the UK to teach, create, or perform Donate a prize to award a brilliant show at BE FESTIVAL 2015 To find out more, please contact Miguel (Festival Co-Director) on miguel@befestival.org or go to the Get Involved page of our website at www.befestival.org Thank you to everyone who continues to make BE FESTIVAL possible.
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Supported by:
BE FESTIVAL ENTRANCE
FESTIVAL HUB (WORKSHOP)
The REP - BACK entrance (Cambridge St, B1 2EP)
BE BOX OFFICE
Week One
(THE DOOR)
PERFORMANCE SPACE
BE BAR
POP UP RESTAURANT (MAIN STAGE)
Double-bill ticket £12 | £10 REP Pounds* £15 credit received upon arrival at venue
EXHIBITION SPACE (PAINTSHOP)
PERFORMANCE SPACE (THE STUDIO)
REP FOYER
Tickets and Prices
THE BOX
(BOX OFFICE) LIBRARY OF BIRMINGHAM
The REP - FRONT entrance (Centenary Square, B1 2EP)
Week Two
Evening ticket £12 5-Day pass £50 Golden ticket* + £8 (optional) when purchasing Evening ticket or 5-Day pass Getaway by Theater Am Tisch and Mi Gran Obra by David Espinosa £3 each (limited capacity, advance booking recommended) Our Front Room by First Floor Theatre FREE (limited capacity, sign up on the day in The Hub) Dinner £8 Festival dinner pass £40 Workshops / discussions / exhibition / Feedback Café FREE *For more info see Alternative Currencies at BE FESTIVAL 2014 p. 27 Tickets: 0121 236 4455 | www.birmingham-rep.co.uk Fees and charges (Online) When purchasing tickets to be delivered to you, a £1.00 postage charge will be added to your order. Online bookings are exempt from our transaction fees (3% credit cards, 50p debit cards) and members of our individual, group and schools membership schemes are always exempt from transaction fees regardless of booking method.
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BE FESTIVAL 2014 CALENDAR
7.45pm Finger, Trigger, Bullet, Gun by Stan’s Cafe Next Door by Out of Balanz
6.10pm Mi Gran Obra by David Espinosa 7pm That’s It by Sandman loops & breaks by Julia Schwarzbach 8.15pm Interval Dinner 9.30pm Ilsa’s Garden by Anna Peschke The Invasion of the Body Snatchers by La Casa en el Árbol 10.30pm Live music with The Mistakings
Tue 8 July
Fri 11 July
Wed 2 July Thu 3 July Fri 4 July
Double-bill Double-bill Double-bill Grand Opening
5.30pm Drinks reception 7pm One Minute of Time 4 Yourself by Dadara How to Make a Living as an Artist by BE Mix 8.15pm Interval Dinner 9.30pm Next Door by Out of Balanz 10.30pm Live music with Rikitiki-Taffi
Wed 9 July
Main Programme
10.30am Workshops programme at The REP 3pm Feedback Café 4pm Talk with Dadara on his residency 5-7pm Our Front Room by First Floor Theatre 6pm Getaway by Theater Am Tisch 6.10pm Mi Gran Obra by David Espinosa 7pm From the Waltz to the Mambo by Radioballet Plaza Avellaneda by Teatro Secreto 8.15pm Interval Dinner 9.30pm Everything We Were (Not) Born With by KIJO Group Beating McEnroe by Jamie Wood 10.30pm Live music with Mellow Peaches
Thu 10 July
Main Programme
10.30am Workshops programme at The REP 3pm Feedback Café 4.30pm Talk with Quim Marcé: ‘Alternative Economies’ 5-7pm Our Front Room by First Floor Theatre 6pm Getaway by Theater Am Tisch
Main Programme
10.30am Workshops programme at The REP 3pm Feedback Café 4.30pm Chaired discussion: ‘Working in the Crisis’ 5-7pm Our Front Room by First Floor Theatre 6pm Getaway by Theater Am Tisch 6.10pm Mi Gran Obra by David Espinosa 7pm GHOSTLAND CINEMA by mingbeast Does it Start with a Kiss? by Éva Duda Dance Co. 8.15pm Interval Dinner 9.30pm Wunschkonzert by Cooperativa Maura Morales Waiting by Mokhallad Rasem 10.30pm DJ and Percussionist Will Itsasecret
Sat 12 July
Main Programme
10.30am 3pm 5pm
Workshops programme at The REP Feedback Café Networking meeting
Between
6pm-12 am The Inverse of the Plot by Jaime Vallaure 7pm Scratch performance by BE Next Impressions d’Afrique by mk 8.15pm Interval Dinner 9.30pm Awkward Happiness by Studio Matejka SHOW by Antonio Tagliarini 00.00pm Awards Ceremony with The Commentators Closing Party
Sun 13 July 12pm
Feedback Café