Mayfest 2018 programme by Mayfest

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Hello. It’s good to be back. At the close of our last festival in 2016 the idea that in two years’ time we’d have Donald Trump as POTUS and would be in an interminably opaque exit from the EU would have felt ridiculous. Unlikely, like, surely not? And yet here we are in a transitional world. It’s a big political, cultural and social moment, and it’s scary. How do we embrace it? How can unpredictability be a catalyst for kindness and understanding rather than conflict and defensiveness. What are the small acts of change we can make to keep looking out, reaching up and taking care. What can we do together?

This year is Mayfest’s 15th anniversary. A lot has changed. But there’s still, maybe more than ever, a place for festivals – reasons to bring people together to share experiences, to learn from each other, to try and change the world. We’ve been thinking about healing and catharsis. We hope this festival can be a big old shake out. A noisy, political, joyful cacophony of voices from all over the world. Oh, and if you want to come and find us during the festival we will be taking up residence in Arnolfini’s Front Room. Here will be a space of reflection, company and conversation – keep an eye online for specifics.

We hope that in this year’s programme we can do something together to ask these questions in good company and make a case for the vital importance of culture as an essential component of the human experience. And that we can have a bloody good time.

Have a look. Take your time and enjoy it. It’s for you.

We’ve spent the last two years having conversations with and making invitations to artists whose voices speak both loudly and subtly about where and who we are, right now, in this moment. We are passionate about the unique power that live performance has to do that. It’s a programme that doesn’t shy away from ‘difficult’ themes, things that are hard to talk about, hard to listen to. But together they offer us the means to debate, to reflect, to let go. From the explosive power of voice in the sanctity of a religious space, to a raucous celebration of how music shapes our lives. Our programme invites you to intimate encounters and into the thrill of a crowd. Lose yourself.

Artistic Directors matthewandkate@mayk.org.uk

This year, more work than ever is being made right here in our extraordinary city especially for the festival. Experiences that are made with and for us. Over the last two years we’ve begun to build new relationships and make connections with communities all over the city. And we’re working with artists from Japan, Canada, Australia, the USA and Rwanda alongside makers from all over the UK to help us do that.

Kate Yedigaroff and Matthew Austin

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Mayfest 2018 Opening Party Venue: Trinity Downstairs Thu 10 May, 9pm ‘til late Free

We’ve missed you. To celebrate our return, we’ve invited Ghanaian DJ and producer Katapila to kick off the festival with one of his marathon, euphoria-drenched DJ sets. Splicing the neo-traditional dance music styles of his youth in Accra with the up-tempo, bass-heavy, Roland 808 sounds of Detroit techno, Chicago acid and house, Katapila’s relentlessly joyful sets have become a thing of legend. Call in sick on Friday, or better still, bring your boss along to the party… Expect killer selections adorned with splashes of digital synths, electronic percussion and vocal interjections that galvanise waves of full-blown euphoria wherever he plays. DJ Katapila’s new Aroo EP (Awesome Tapes From Africa) is the latest addition to the iconoclastic producer’s catalog of fast-paced, pan-West African-influenced dance music and follows his debut Trotro (2016) which ignited the international acclaim for his work, with the likes of The New York Times, Pitchfork, Resident Advisor and FACT heaping praise on his work. Cutting his teeth in the early 90s as a mobile DJ at funerals across Ghana, Katapila began spontaneously inserting Ga- and Twi-language chants and raps into instrumental breaks of the well-trodden international house and techno radio hits he’d been playing. Performing on his Yamaha DD11 electronic drum pads during instrumental breaks, he also added his own percussion. He combined the microphone toasting and his rhythms with a sampler and invented new creations on the fly, establishing his trademark rough-edged dance sound which has now become ubiquitous in Ghana and other parts of West Africa.

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The Nature of Why THE BRITISH PARAORCHESTRA The Paraorchestra and Friends’ mission is to redefine what a 21st century orchestra can be, through the creation of ambitious and captivating large-scale contemporary music projects and experiences. Their work spans a range of genres and appeals to the widest range of audiences. At their core is The British Paraorchestra, the world’s only large-scale ensemble for disabled musicians.

Venue: Bristol Old Vic Thu 10 – Sat 12 May, 7.30pm Sat mat 2.30pm £18/£14 Running time 1 hour All ages There will be an audio described performance, see website for details

paraorchestra.com @Paraorchestra @agentbowditch #NatureofWhy Facebook/britishparaorchestra Commissioned and supported by Unlimited, celebrating the work of disabled artists, with funding from Arts Council England. The Nature of Why is supported by Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Additional support by We The Curious. Co-produced by The Paraorchestra and Friends and MAYK

“When you are asking ‘why?’, you have to be in some framework that allows something to be true.” Richard Feynman

WORLD PREMIERE The Nature of Why brings together dance and live music into an epic and beautiful performance. Featuring a cinematic live-score from Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory, an ensemble of musicians from the acclaimed British Paraorchestra and four extraordinary dancers. Bristol Old Vic’s stage will become a site of discovery, as dancers and musicians move as one and audience and performer meet. This world premiere takes inspiration from the unconventional curiosity of Nobel prize-winning theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, and his search for meaning in the world around us. The Nature of Why promises to be an up-close-and-personal dance experience like no other. The Nature of Why is choreographed by Caroline Bowditch (Adventures of Snigel, Falling In Love With Frida), with direction by Bowditch and Charles Hazlewood, conductor, broadcaster and Artistic Director of The Paraorchestra and Friends.

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Image by Peter Moffat

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Choral Cuisine SABRINA SHIRAZI Venue: Extract Coffee Roasters Sat 12 May, 6.30pm, 7.30pm & 8.30pm ÂŁ20 Running time 45 mins Ages 18+ sabrinashirazi.com @Sabrina_Shirazi #choralcuisine

Choral Cuisine is a sonorous dining experience in a coffee roastery. This twocourse meal is an opportunity to create a composition while you dine. You might find a flute in your fork, percussion on your plate, or a choir in your cup. By combining tableware and technology, you and your fellow diners will translate the act of eating into a symphony of sound. Choral Cuisine has been created by Sabrina Shirazi with composer Wilf Petherbridge and creative technologists Luke Saxton and Joseph Horton. Allergy Information: A vegetarian set-menu containing nuts, gluten and dairy.

Photo: Exeter City Council

Sabrina Shirazi is an artist and resident of Pervasive Media Studio. Sabrina produces participatory food events and visual art inspired by colour, unconventional behaviour and play. Wilf Petherbridge is a musician and composer with a background in the visual arts, theatre and choreography. Joseph Horton and Luke Saxton are electronic musicians and software developers whose interests include sound design, computational art and audio/visual installations. They are also residents of Pervasive Media Studio

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“We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice.” John Berger, Ways of Seeing.

Photo: Paul Samuel White

Draw To Look HANNAH SULLIVAN Venue: TBA Fri 11 — Sun 13 May, Various times. See website for details £5 Running time 15 mins Ages 10+ hannahsullivan.co.uk @hannahsullivan8 #DrawToLook

In this one-to-one participatory performance, Hannah invites you to join her in the simple and deliberate act of looking and noticing through drawing. Drawing does many things. It records but it also asks us to pay attention. Using a simple drawing exercise that requires no previous drawing experience, or particular skills or techniques, you and Hannah will sit and draw one another. Draw to Look offers quiet observation, focussing on the live moment and its effect on the relationship of drawer to drawn. The resulting marks become maps of your looking, a record of your brief time together.

Draw To Look was developed for Drawn 2017 at the Royal West of England Academy and made with the support of Arts Council England. With thanks to Loft 6D, Interval, Cove Park, MAYK and the writings of John Berger and Tania Kovats.

Hannah Sullivan is a performance maker currently making solo works that reframe and democratise creative practices by prioritising the emotional experience. Previous works include Echo Beach and With Force and Noise. Hannah is a graduate of Dartington College of Arts and University of Bristol, and a former member of Bristol-based collective Interval.

“Sullivan’s piece is infinitely delicate. It is a snatched moment, a secret shared between you for 15 minutes. It offers an opportunity to examine, and to focus on nothing but this little bubble of calm.” Exeunt

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Caroline Williams Director of

Now Is The Time To Say Nothing

“This is a really special show” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

Interviewed by

The Ministry of Counterculture MoC: Your director’s note states that you wanted to analyse “the semantics of the news and our relationship to screens…”

CW: The history of the photograph and moving image is something that’s always fascinated me. They’re an inherent part of modern culture – what effect do they have on that culture? What does it mean to be able to capture an instance of drama or pain? Does it distance us when we watch those images outside of their context? Dennis Potter said that TV was the first form of “democratic art”. It was beamed into people’s homes and there is something incredibly intimate and powerful about that. Before there were a million channels, the TV could be a tool for true social engagement. If everyone in an entire country watched the same programme and discussed it the next day, how wonderful would that be? Perhaps that’s why I love Gogglebox so much! I wanted to use screens as a poetic tool to show the audience something intimate and unexpected. Once I saw Reem Karssli’s film Every Day, Every Day, and she agreed to collaborate with us, I knew this would be possible.

MoC: For some people in war-torn areas, art is the last thing on their minds. But, taking into account your experience here, how important is it as a healing and informative tool? CW: There were times when Reem felt unable to be involved because the experience felt too alienated from what she was experiencing in her own life. We were meant to end the show with a live Skype, but Reem pulled out of it exactly because at that moment, art didn’t feel important or real compared to the crises her life was in. Reem talks about it in the show, saying, “If I can’t connect with myself how can I connect with other people?” I would go on to say if you can’t connect with yourself, how can you connect with art? You can’t. But that can pass when things get a little easier and then art can remind us of what we love, as well as challenge us. Thankfully this has happened for Reem. Now living in Berlin, she told me recently, “I’m not an activist or a politician but I can make art.” Against very difficult odds, she has found a way to do that – that’s what makes this piece special.

Caroline Williams is an award-winning artist working in multi-disciplinary participatory performance. Caroline was recently commissioned by MAYK to create Can You Hear Me Now with young theatre makers in Bristol, Kigali and Kampala. Reem Karssli is a Syrian filmmaker and researcher now living in Berlin. Taking Part is Young Vic’s strand of participatory work engaging with young people and the theatre’s local communities.

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From the film Every Day, Every Day by Reem Karssli

“Reality from behind the camera is very different. Maybe this is the thing that is making me do this. Because the real world is harsher and uglier. That is why I keep filming.” Reem Karssli

Now Is The Time To Say Nothing CAROLINE WILLIAMS AND REEM KARSSLI Venue: Arnolfini Fri 11 — Sun 20 May Times vary See website for details

£14/£10 Running time 1 hour Ages 12+ (depictions of war) carolinemarywilliams.com @cwilliam_5 #NowIsTheTimeToSayNothing

‘If you are thinking about someone and they don’t know it, do you think it still matters?’ Now Is The Time To Say Nothing is an interactive video installation exploring the role of screens in observing global conflict. Using stunning video and immersive sound, it follows the real story of Syrian artist Reem Karssli as she captures her daily experience of the Syrian conflict on camera. We see what emerges when she is contacted by a group of teenagers from the UK who want to see beyond the footage they’ve watched on their TVs. Together they co-author an experience which attempts to connect a UK audience to the human story behind the news. Created over four years, following Reem into an exile which forces her to leave her camera behind, Now Is The Time To Say Nothing is an intimate exploration of what it means to stay connected to each other and of what happens when war and the need for survival gets in the way. A collaboration between Syrian film-maker Reem Karssli, a group of young Londoners, and artist Caroline Williams. Video design by May Abdalla and Christina Hardinge. Sound design by Keir Vine and Tom Parkinson. Originally produced by Young Vic’s Taking Part.

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Contact Gonzo vs Bristol CONTACT GONZO Venue: Jacob’s Wells Baths Sat 12 — Sun 13 May, 5pm £14/£10 UK DEBUT Imagine a kind of dance that’s also a martial art, that’s also a bit like a game that reminds you of something you’ve seen on the internet, or in a slapstick film, or on the streets. Making their UK debut at Mayfest, Contact Gonzo bring their unique, playful, jaw-dropping physical style to Bristol. It’s violent and tender, very funny and very serious. The show you’ll see involves performers from Contact Gonzo and Bristol working together to create a oncein-a-lifetime encounter. Following Mayfest Contact Gonzo will tour to Weston-super-Mare. Details on mayk.org.uk.

Based in Osaka, Japan, Contact Gonzo were founded in 2006 and made their name on YouTube. Contact Gonzo is both their collective name, and the name of the practice developed by Masaru Kakio and Yuya Tsukahara. They have made work in Singapore, New York, Moscow, Reykjavik and Budapest among other places.

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Photo: Claire Nolan

How (not) to Live in Suburbia ANNIE SIDDONS Venue: Trinity Fyfe Hall Mon 14 — Tue 15 May, 7pm £14/£10 Running time 1 hour Ages 18+ anniesiddons.co.uk @LaSiddons #Suburbia HNTLIS premiered in Edinburgh 2016 and completed two sold-out runs at the Soho Theatre in 2017 and a cross disciplinary symposium on Loneliness at UCLAN. It tours throughout 2018 and 2019 and is currently being developed for TV.

“Who the Fuck are you?” “I’m the Walrus of Loneliness. Let me in.” A few years ago in the middle of a shitstorm of life events, single mother, artist and proud Londoner Annie Siddons found herself living in suburbia by accident. This show is a hilarious, brutal and poignant attempt to describe what happened next.

★★★★★ Annie Siddons is a Londoner, writer, performer and musician. Her work is funny, brutal, honest and poignant, embracing the mythic and the mundane, and always has narrative and music at its root and heart.

“Subtle, sincere, riotously funny and endearingly raw.” Broadway Baby

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Photography: Eoin Carey

Snigel & Friends CAROLINE BOWDITCH AND COMPANY Venue: We The Curious Fri 11 May, various times £9.45 (Early Bird) £11.45 (Second Release) Includes entry to We The Curious’ Toddler Takeover Running time 40 mins Ages 0 – 12 months with an adult carolinebowditch.com

Join Snigel (leading UK disabled dancer Caroline Bowditch, Falling in Love with Frida), the inquisitive snail, in their cozy home underneath the leafy canopy; a colourful and sensory world where Snigel’s insect friends – brought to life by dancers Welly O’Brien and Alex McCabe and performer and musician Zac Scott – come to visit. They dance, play, sing and make music in the undergrowth while uncovering secret treasures. An inviting new work for children aged 0 – 12 months and their adult. Snigel and Friends was created by dancer and choreographer Caroline Bowditch and theatre designer Laura Hook to produce a piece of dance theatre for children that included disabled performers, given the current lack of this kind of work. Created with the performers and a team of babies, the piece is specifically created for babies aged 0 – 12 months old and their adult. Caroline is also the choreographer on The British Paraorchestra’s The Nature of Why (page 3).

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Drag Queen Story Time Venue: Colston Hall Foyer Sun 13 May, 2pm Arnolfini Front Room Sun 20 May, 2pm Pay What You Decide. Suggested donation £5, cash on the door Running time 45–60 minutes Ages 3–11 dragqueenstorytime.co.uk @dqst.uk #dragqueenstorytime

Inspired by the forever-fabulous Drag Queen Story Hour (US), Drag Queen Story Time was created for Bristol Pride 2017 and has continued delighting young audiences in the libraries, schools and hospitals of the South West and beyond ever since. Fairy tales come to life and dress up is real... Drag Queen Story Time is exactly as it sounds. Drag Queens read stories to children, capturing the imagination and fun of the gender fluidity of childhood, while giving children glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. By providing spaces in which kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions, DQST allows them to imagine the world in which people can present as they wish. At Mayfest, Drag Queen Story Time will be performed by International drag star Alyssa Van Delle, who will leave you laughing on the floor with her quick wit, and have you up on your feet with her vocal talents.

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The Killers RICHARD ALLEN Venue: The Regent Café (Weston-super-Mare) Tue 15 — Wed 16 May, 7pm (food) 8pm (show) £15 (including £5 food voucher) Running time 40 mins Ages 15+ brokenapparatus.com @richobject

Richard Allen makes performance works with theatrical props, stage hardware, novelty items, instruments and machines, that play with how narratives and animations are formed between objects and spectators. He has presented work at the National Review of Live Art (Glasgow), Chapter Arts Centre (Cardiff) and Kunstverein am Rosa–Luxemburg– Platz (Berlin). You might remember Richard from 2012’s Garage Band, and as one of MAYK’S SENSE commissions in 2013.

WORLD PREMIERE The Killers is a live binaural sound work performed in The Regent seaside diner in Weston-super-Mare. Sat in the diner, the audience wear headphones and watch as the audio is constructed; eavesdropping on conversations; tracking the flight of a wayward fly; hearing in real time the countdown to an assassination. The work draws on adaptations of Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers (1927) which tells the story of two assassins as they arrive at a diner, thirty minutes before a killing. The men order two fish suppers and discuss methods of execution: a radio plays Cyndi Lauper over and over again in the kitchen; inexplicable deliveries of novelty objects are made to the tables; a diner band tunes up in the corner; the half hour counts down. The Killers is a quiet speculation on how the vinyl booths, coffee counters and cherry pie of British diners carry approximations of American culture, and what happens when you get off the train at the seaside and reach the end of the line. Your ticket for The Killers includes a £5 food voucher to redeem at The Regent. Arrive for 7pm to eat, before the show starts at 8pm. We can recommend the chips and curry sauce with a glass of fizzy Vimto.

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UK PREMIERE In a fixed location, writers type out observations of the world unfolding around them. In that same moment, a town choir receives these observations via a large screen and sings them out to the public. Drawing on patterns of relaying information that mirror Twitter or Facebook, Town Choir treats everyday considerations as the news. Intimate and minute details are transmitted through the ether, and then filtered through the live body in an epic choral declaration. Town Choir is the musical iteration of Theatre Replacement’s Town Criers project, a continuing series of site-oriented performances that are built through partnerships with an artist or company and a festival or venue in any given location. Town Choir premiered at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver (January 2017) and has toured to the Dublin Fringe Festival (September 2017). Town Choir will tour to Weston-super-Mare, Derby and Folkestone after Mayfest. Details on mayk.org.uk. Theatre Replacement acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country.

15 Photo by Emily Cooper

Town Choir THEATRE REPLACEMENT Venue: TBA Sat 19 – Sun 20 May, 2pm Free Running time 50 minutes All ages theatrereplacement.org @ThtrReplacement

Theatre Replacement is an ongoing collaboration between James Long and Maiko Yamamoto. Whether working together or apart, they use extended processes to create performances from intentionally simple beginnings. Their work is about a genuine attempt to coexist. Conversations, interviews and arguments collide with Yamamoto and Long’s aesthetics resulting in theatrical experiences that are authentic, immediate and hopeful.

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Undersong VERITY STANDEN Venue: Bristol Cathedral Chapter House Fri 11 May, 6.30pm Sat 12 May, 2pm, 4.30pm & 6.30pm St George’s Bristol Mon 14 May — Tue 15 May, 7pm & 9pm Barton Hill Settlement Fri 18 May, 6pm & 8pm Sat 19 May — Sun 20 May, 12pm, 4pm & 6pm £14/£10 Running time 45 mins All ages veritystanden.com @Verity_Standen Commissioned by MAYK and Bristol Old Vic Ferment. Funded by Arts Council England.

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★★★★★ “Feels like the most immediate, visceral experience of music as human expression possible… like an antenna to heaven.”

WORLD PREMIERE Undersong places you at the meeting point between threads of music. Voices weave amongst you and around the space, from a whispered duet to a screaming mob. Nine singers build a vibrant language of a cappella music and movement as they bring to life a series of brand new compositions, which move between tender and expansive. You will be the very first people to experience Undersong, staged in three strikingly different venues across the festival.

Time Out (on Verity Standen’s HUG) Music is always at the heart of Verity Standen’s work. She creates sound worlds, using intricate vocal techniques and rich harmony. She has established a reputation around the UK and internationally for her innovative approach to music-making, exploring myriad ways audiences can experience the voice.

Photo by Jack Offord

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How to Form a Band Doug Hream Blunt Sometime in the late 1980s, a San Franciscan by the name of Doug Hream Blunt signed up for an evening class, advertised through photocopied posters slapped-and-stapled to telephone poles: How to Form a Band. Doug had spent his time working odd jobs, doing “almost anything to make money,” trying to make a comfortable life for himself. He liked music but had never learned how to write or play it. In class, he was taught to play guitar by his teacher, a drummer who had little knowledge of how to play the guitar himself. Doug corralled his classmates into joining his first backing band; technicalities like playing in the right key were of little concern, and their jerky, idiosyncratic performances combined timidity and boldness, as if they weren’t quite sure they were doing it right and yet were completely sure they were doing it right. With his band together, Doug spent two years writing and recording the songs that would eventually comprise his only full-length album, Gentle Persuasion, which he pressed to vinyl himself. It never received an official release; instead Doug would occasionally drop off copies at his local record stores, often without bothering to leave contact details and rarely checking back to see if they sold. He made only one other collection, the six-song EP Big Top. In the early 1990s, he played a few solo shows for elderly patients at the hospital where he worked as a nurse’s aid, wandering from ward to ward with his guitar. Doug didn’t play at a traditional venue until spring 2015, when he joined Ariel Pink onstage at Bimbo’s in San Francisco to sing Gentle Persuasion, after the band, knowing he was there, started playing the song during their encore. Today he has a cult following of artists including David Byrne, Devendra Banhart, Dam-Funk and Dean Blunt. Chiz Williams, a member of The Cube Workforce, who will perform with Doug Hream Blunt at his intimate Mayfest show, tells us what we can expect from the collaboration…

Chiz: I met Doug over a long, summer weekend in London in 2016, when he was playing Field Day and some hotel lobby shows (with Klein and Ashley Paul in the band). Doug is a beautiful character, an elder, whose approach to making music is laid back and fun. He likes to sit and then get up and move. In fact, he likes everyone to get up and move. Qu Junktions and Doug have been chatting on the phone so Doug knows the basics about The Cube: it’s a cinema, an intimate, friendly place, with a big stage, decent sound, and a bunch of weirdoes always in attendance. The Cube Workforce is anyone and everyone who works at The Cube. It’s not all watching films, I mean some of the films you have to work at, right! So it’s very open – anyone who mops, books, stocks, tweets, sells tickets, delivers programmes, serves drinks, sleeps or hangs out there can be in the band if they want to be. We’re expecting the collaboration with Doug to be something along the lines of: The Cube Workforce play Doug’s classy-as-hell, riff-driven songs and then Doug joins in and together we jam it out. Many of Doug’s tracks are mesmerising, repetitive affairs. Everything hangs loosely from the rhythm. It’ll probably sound like Bootsy Collins, Ariel Pink, De la Soul, The Pretenders and Freeze Puppy making sweet outsider pop music.

“Finally, an audience for funk’s frazzled oddball… a hazy mix of tropical R&B, off-kilter soul and sexedup 80s fun…k.” The Guardian

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Doug Hream Blunt & The Cube Workforce PRODUCED BY QU JUNKTIONS IN COLLABORATION WITH THE CUBE FOR MAYFEST Venue: The Cube Microplex Sat 12 May, 8pm £8 doughreamblunt.com cubecinema.com @luakabop @cubecinema @qujunktions

A fun...k show dedicated to dabbling, living for it and loved up music making. Cult San Francisco music maker Doug Hream Blunt flies in to collaborate with a wonderful group of Cube musicians to create a live show for your enjoyment. “Fall into a groove and then move.” The private press album My Name is Doug Hream Blunt is an 80s outsider classic, reissued by David Byrne’s Luaka Bop, sampled by those with computers and loved up by many. “Love is in the heart, that’s the way to start.” His name is Doug Hream Blunt and he learnt to play music at the age of 35, by taking an adult class in the late 1980s. The class was organised by a high school music teacher and his wife, and was held in their small garage in the Golden Gate Park neighbourhood of San Francisco. The other students of the class became Doug’s band members, they played the City Visions Public Access television show. Their names are many, and they all worked or hung out at The Cube Microplex. Some may have been paid a few quid for music shows but most would say they are amateurs and in it for the love of it. Bassists, singers, strummers, make-up artists, dressers and funky twigs all feature in the ‘Workforce’. Doug’s in town for Mayfest, dig it.

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I Fear Working Class Men Scottee, writer of Bravado Sometimes you have to say things that may annoy folk because it’s the only way into discussing a painful truth. My painful truth is that I fear working class men. I don’t like being around them, especially when they are drunk. I fear their capabilities, their loose tongues, banter, unpredictability, fast tempers and their appetite for violence. I don’t like being on a train or bus, or waiting in public when groups of working class blokes are present. I fear encountering football supporters, stag dos and lads on a night out – I worry what they might do to me, what they might say, what might happen – I fear their potential. I hate talking to working class men, being in changing rooms or public toilets with them, going into boozers, greasy spoons or DIY shops. Any space working class blokes dominate creates a recognisable response of sweaty palms, my eyes darting around the room pre-empting danger and an umbrella of worry. However, this fear isn’t one sided, it’s a mutual exchange of fear. They fear me and my effeminacy and they find it hard to hide it. They stare, they point, they laugh and nudge each other. Sometimes they take photos of me, sometimes they chant insults or point me out of a crowd. I pose a threat – I look like a man but I’ve abandoned the rules of so-called normative masculinities. To borrow the thinking of Nando Messias, I ‘misalign masculinity’ and in doing so I wonderfully fail at traditional maleness; men are competitive and so this failure, this weakness cannot go unnoticed. It’s exposed because, in their eyes – why or how could someone get it wrong? This exposure is a veiled misogyny – why would you devalue yourself from maleness? Why would you ‘choose’ effeminacy? To complicate matters, I also love working class men, I am working class and some people might call me a man (an identifier I refuse). I’m married to a working class man and I’m sexually attracted to working class men. For the record, I refute this to be fetishisation – I’m not a middle class tourist seeking some rough trade in Adidas tracksuit bottoms. I am rough, I am common, they are me, I am them – perhaps that’s where the biggest threat exists, that I represent the fragility of their commandments. I equally loathe and love working class men – I live with a complex version of Stockholm syndrome or ‘trauma bond’ because of my violent, dominant encounters with blokes. These thoughts are often only truly understood by working class femmes who sleep with men – an unspoken contract of love and hatred we share but cannot shake, leaving us in a complex headspace of feeling simultaneously loved and used. In 2016, sat in a pub in Yorkshire, I opened my laptop and decided I would attempt to cleanse myself of this unearthed fear, dread and worry. I purged all of my early, formative experiences with working class masculinity into a document. The result is my first text for stage: Bravado.

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Bravado SCOTTEE Venue: Jack of Diamonds Wed 16 — Fri 18 May, 7pm £14/£10 Running time 1 hour Ages 18+ scottee.co.uk @ScotteeisFat

★★★★ “Bravado is an astonishing show. It’s an open wound that bleeds painful truths... an unsparing dissection of male identity – of its tribalism, insecurity and oppression.”

Scottee grew up around strong, brave and violent men and boys. Bravado is his memoir of working class masculinity from 1991 to 1999 as seen by a sheep in wolf’s clothing. Bravado explores the graphic nature of maleness and the extent it will go to succeed. Blood, spit and tears are set against the drunken backdrop of aggressive sensitivity and Oasis songs. This show is not for the weak hearted – it includes graphic accounts of violence, abuse, assault and sex.

The Stage Photo: Holly Revell

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Ridiculusmus Mental Health Trilogy:

Dialogue as the Embodiment of Love

Ridiculusmus has been producing seriously funny theatre for over 20 years. The company is led by co-artistic directors David Woods and Jon Haynes, who write, direct and perform.

Supported by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award and Arts Council England

Since 2014 Ridiculusmus have been forging a reputation for transforming complex mental health issues into warm, witty and accessible performance. Engaging with some of our last taboos, this deeply human trilogy depicts the collision between psychiatry, psychology and the pharmaceutical industry, exploring the healing potential of altered states of consciousness. A clarion call for social inclusion. You can book tickets for individual shows, or if you are feeling adventurous there is the chance to see all three in one day on Saturday 19 May for £30/£20. This also includes a panel discussion.

Give Me Your Love Venue: Tobacco Factory Theatres Wed 16 — Sat 19 May Wed 8pm, Thu 8pm, Fri 6.30pm, Sat 12pm £15/£11 Running time approx. 1 hour Ages 13+ ridiculusmus.com

A funny, fragile and profound fable based on ground breaking medical research and real-life war testimonies. Ex-soldier and budding rock star Zach has withdrawn into a cardboard box in a kitchen in West Wales. His friend Ieuan arrives offering recovery – in the form of a capsule containing 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine, with which he claims to have successfully treated his own post-traumatic stress.

Photo: Sarah Walker

Parachuted into their recently fractured pasts, Zach and Ieuan swing between dreamboat heroism and woozy enlightenment, via a head-warping exchange on patriotism, conflict and supermarket shopping that will tickle, move and appal you in equal measure.

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Complicated Grief Venue: Tobacco Factory Theatres Fri 18 — Sat 19 May, Fri 9pm, Sat 8pm £15/£11 Running time approx. 1 hour Ages 13+ Indie theatre legends David Woods and Jon Haynes of Ridiculusmus play two crustaceous elders putting off death in a snail-paced farce. A slapstick comedy 45 about hanging on, dying and grieving, played at 33rpm by two ancient insect types.

Photo: Stuart Patterson

Photo: Jemima Yong

The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland Venue: The Southville Centre Sat 19 May, 3pm £15/£11 Running time approx. 1 hour Ages 13+ The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland is a dual family drama about recovery from schizophrenia. It simultaneously stages the first psychotic episodes of a mother and son as they navigate stress and change with fantastical results involving Finnish Folk, Margaret Drabble, Adolf Hitler and the knitted cover for a toilet roll. Their two interconnected stories are performed to separate but adjoining auditoria in the same theatre space, audible but unseen to each other. At half time they switch seats and the action is replayed, mapping a pathway to recovery through dialogical understanding of their situation.

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PALMYRA BERTRAND LESCA AND NASI VOUTSAS Venue: Arnolfini Auditorium Wed 16 — Sun 20 May, 8pm £14/£10 Running time 55 mins Ages 14+ bertandnasi.com @lesca_b @nasi_v #blnvPalmyra

PALMYRA is an exploration of revenge, the politics of destruction and what we consider to be barbaric, inviting people to step back from the news and look at what lies beneath, and beyond, civilisation. Following an extended, unanimously-acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Fringe and touring Spain with BEST OF BE 2017, Bert and Nasi’s Total Theatre Awardwinning, “weird, wonderful and strangely stressful” PALMYRA (★★★★ The Stage) returns.

Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas (France/UK) are the creators of EUROHOUSE (2016) and PALMYRA (2017). They are Associate Artists of MAYK (Bristol). They have been working together since 2015. In 2017 PALMYRA won a Total Theatre Award (Innovation, Experimentation & Playing with Form) and was included in Lyn Gardner’s ‘Top 10 Theatre of 2017’ in the Guardian.

Photo by Alex Brenner

★★★★ “The duo who created Eurohouse shift from comic to tragic in a brilliant piece that reflects on Syria and the breakdown of relationships… A rewarding show to watch.” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

Photo by Mel Hattie

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Let’s Not Beat Each Other to Death THE ACCIDENTAL MECHANICS GROUP Venue: The Loco Klub Fri 18 – Sat 19 May, 9.30pm £14/£10 70 minutes plus dance party Ages 14+ accidentalmechanics.com

“Powerful and cathartic” The Chronicle Herald

The Accidental Mechanics Group creates new work that explores and celebrates the nature of performance, persona and queer identity, employing whatever means necessary: storytelling, music, dance, media. At the centre of each event is an intimate act of direct contact between the performer and the audience. A chance to say what we really think and feel. Right now. The Accidental Mechanics Group’s Stewart Legere was last seen in Bristol at Mayfest 2015’s Pop Up Love Party by Zuppa Theatre.

UK PREMIERE Let’s Not Beat Each Other To Death is a genre-defying play/memorial/electro-pop dance party. Inspired in part by the brutal killing of a Halifax queer activist and an attack against an outspoken gay musician, its scope expands outward and becomes a search for explanation, compassion and catharsis on a global scale. Part monologue, part concert, part treatise on personal accountability, the show is a tribute to and celebration of LGBTQ people around the world who have been affected by violence, asking us to search for the roots of violence within ourselves. As a participatory event that combines dance, theatre, and music, the piece offers audiences the chance to remember, celebrate, think and dance. Let’s Not Beat Each Other To Death has since toured to the Stages Festival (Halifax), Intrepid Theatre’s inaugural OUTstages Festival (Victoria), the SummerWorks Performance Festival (Toronto), the PuSh Festival (Vancouver), the Festival TransAmériques (Montréal), and the IMPACT Festival (Kitchener).

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Fleur Darkin, Scottish Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director on Velvet Petal I’m always invigorated by my time at festivals and each year seeing talented performers come of age during a celebration of artistic endeavour is very special. It’s this transformation that fascinated me when I read Patti Smith’s memoir Just Kids, which tells the story of how she and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe found themselves making art in 1980s New York, surrounded by drag queens, rock stars and Factory Girls. Together they were working to forge their own identity in a heady atmosphere surrounded by people doing the same. This idea of metamorphosis and how we find the confidence to create became the starting point for Scottish Dance Theatre’s latest production, Velvet Petal. As a choreographer I wanted to capture that feeling of flux between confidence and shyness and how we steel ourselves to change (life takes guts!). How tough girls and pretty boys present themselves to the world, changing themselves and their clothes; never quite wearing the right outfit. Our route into that place of self expression is the music we play to ourselves, when nobody is listening. Like so many of us, I listened to a lot of music in my bedroom and those artists became guides. The show has a soundtrack featuring LCD Sound System, Four Tet, Leonard Cohen and The Cure. There’s something about music that takes the audience on the dancers’ journey and makes us think about how we change ourselves. Through researching this piece we found out that caterpillars choose the timing of their metamorphosis. Biologically, they must change, but they have some control over the timing and tend to wait until their environment is most supportive. For humans it seems change is a private act. The theatre is our trusted environment and Velvet Petal becomes something sexy, with heart, fragility and a sense of purpose. For me, Velvet Petal is a reminder that we can continually recreate ourselves, that it’s OK to be vulnerable and that change is empowering. It’s six years since I joined Scottish Dance Theatre as Artistic Director and as a company we embrace change, outside talents and influences while still being grounded by our roots in the local community, making work that those new or not new to dance can enjoy. I can’t wait to see what audiences think of the full-length show.

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Scottish Dance Theatre is Scotland’s principal contemporary dance company and is fast becoming one of the foremost contemporary dance companies in Europe. SDT is a research engine for dance, and commission the most exciting choreographers to make original and exclusive works that they bring to Scotland and the world.

Photos: Brian Hartley

Velvet Petal SCOTTISH DANCE THEATRE Venue: Trinity Fyfe Hall Wed 16 – Fri 18 May, 7pm £14/£10 Running time 65 mins Ages 14+ scottishdancetheatre.com @SDTDance #velvetpetal Choreography by Fleur Darkin

Tough girls and pretty boys living life in the margins, dreaming about being at the centre. Velvet Petal explores the transformative power of beauty, created out of whatever is on the bedroom floor. The dancers experiment, seduce and philosophise through their bodies, clothing and ideas. This fresh new work from Scottish Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Fleur Darkin is inspired by the life-cycle of the monarch butterfly and Robert Mapplethorpe’s polaroids. Set to a fresh dance-punk score arranged by Torben Lars Sylvest, including music by LCD Soundsystem, Spoek Mathambo and Four Tet.

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Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story 2b theatre company Venue: Bristol Old Vic Thu 17 — Sat 19 May, 7.30pm Sat mat 2.30pm £5 — £21 Running time 85 mins Ages 13+ 2btheatre.com @2btheatre

Photos: Stoo Metz

2b is a Halifax-based, internationally-acclaimed theatre company creating works for the regional, national, and international stages. Artistic co-directors Christian Barry and Anthony Black share a commitment to create, develop, and produce new work that is distinguished by innovation in staging, polished in design, and virtuosity in performance.

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Direct from Off-Broadway, Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story is a humourously dark folktale woven together with a high-energy concert. This Klezmer-folk music-theatre hybrid starring genre-bending sensation Ben Caplan is inspired by the true stories of two Jewish Romanian refugees coming to Canada in 1908. It’s about how to love after being broken by the horrors of war. It’s about refugees who get out before it’s too late, and those who get out after it’s too late. And it’s about looking into the eyes of God. Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story thrilled audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 and comes to Bristol after an acclaimed off-Broadway run.

★★★★ “Playful, mysterious, brave and astonishingly captivating.” Musical Theatre Review

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“Spirited and defiant.” Melbourne Arts

“Whole lotta love for the spirit of live music” The AGE, Melbourne

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WE ARE LIGHTNING! SAM HALMARACK & JOSEPH O’FARRELL (JOF) Venue: Trinity Main Hall Tue 15 May, 9pm, Wed 16 May, 4pm Thu 17 May, 9pm, Fri 18 May, 9pm £17/£13 Running time 65 mins Ages 13+ jofmakesart.com halmarack.com @jofmakesart

UK PREMIERE You are invited to the final requiem for the last music joint left in town. Acclaimed Australian artist Joseph O’Farrell (JOF) and Sam Halmarack combine theatre with the fist-pumping euphoria and power ballads of a stadium gig, in WE ARE LIGHTNING!, a darkly comical work that reflects on the importance of communal spaces where people can come together and express themselves.

Photo by Pia Johnson

Trinity Downstairs is transformed into a music venue on the brink of closure. A teen band, brass band and community choir join JOF’s drums and Sam’s guitar to mark and protest its demise, leading audiences through a strange ceremony and heartfelt celebration of how music shapes the lives of the people who play it. Join us for our last chance to come together and be saved by music. WE ARE LIGHTNING! will tour to Gloucester and Folkestone after Mayfest 2018. Produced in association with MAYK .

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Live Before You Die BYRON VINCENT AND DAVE MCGINN Venue: The Loco Klub Wed 16 — Thu 17 May, 6.30pm £14/£10 Running time 65 mins Ages 16+ livebeforeyoudie.co.uk @iambyronvincent

Byron Vincent is writer, performer, journalist and broadcaster. He has written and presented several documentaries including Hell Is Other People, How To Turn Your Life Around and The Glasgow Boys for BBC Radio Four. He has written for The RSC, the BBC, BAC and several other acronyms.

What do you do when you have a best mate who is so sad he might die? Especially considering up until now your friendship has mostly consisted of a mutual appreciation of 90s hip hop, borderline alcoholism and finding creative ways to call each other dickhead. Byron is a bipolar performance artist, Dave only communicates in insults. Together they must find a way to fix Byron’s broken soul before it’s too late. Funny, tragic and shockingly honest, this is a true story of hopelessness and friendship told by two men on a desperate quest for happiness.

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Mashirika Residency at Mayfest 2018 Last year MAYK collaborated with Mashirika Arts (Rwanda) and Theatre Factory (Uganda) and artist Caroline Williams to create Can You Hear Me Now, a show about the relationship young people have with technology. Hope Azeda from Mashirika and three Rwandan artists will be resident at Mayfest, seeing shows, making theatre and meeting artists from the South West. We’ll be sharing their experience on social media, and at the end of their residency there’ll be a chance to see what they’ve been making. For further details, see mayfestbristol.co.uk.

Hope Azeda, Artistic Director of Mashirika Performing Arts and Media Company, interviewed by

Matthew Austin, MAYK co-Artistic Director.

MA: In some ways, Mashirika sounds a little bit like a Rwandan version of MAYK. You’re an arts organisation that also produces a festival – Ubumuntu. Tell us a little bit about what you do. HA: Our main activities are music, dance and drama. The unique thing about Mashirika is that we constantly explore new ways to develop, learn and create exciting theatre. Mashirika uses art as a tool for social transformation. We started Ubumuntu Arts Festival in 2015 because we realised there was a need for public introspection. The word Ubumuntu can be defined as ‘being human.’ The festival aims to create an avenue where people from different walks of life can come together and speak in the common language of art, and in doing so, echo the festival tagline borrowed from Desmond Tutu: “I am because you are, you are because I am: we are human together”. MA: In the process of making Can You Hear Me Now, you spoke about a mental health crisis amongst young people in Rwanda. What can theatre do to address this? A: Theatre is a great tool for unlocking difficult conversations. It creates a safe space of trust and comfort. H Once trust is achieved participants open up and talk about untouched wounds through different artistic expressions. It starts with one individual unpacking the baggage they carry and like a fire everyone starts connecting with some else’s experiences. Eventually a circle of trust takes shape and when it does the chocked conversations spill like a bursting wound and that’s when the journey of healing starts. MA: You’ve spoken about how theatre has helped heal the scars of genocide in your country. Are there any stories that you can share about this? HA: Healing the scars of genocide is not like healing a headache, it is a process and the period it takes depends on an individual. The first steps of healing are to talk about a situation, which in most cases sparks a lot of pain that results in trauma. When an individual accepts the situation and becomes acquainted with how to manage, then they have started a slow journey of healing and can no longer be slaves to their past, pain, burden or wounds; they become resilient and begin to move on. MA: What do you hope to take away from your time in Bristol? HA: I hope to learn about how the arts engage young people in becoming responsible citizens of purpose. How is art being used to reclaim values of humanity in a world where these values seem to be slipping through our fingers? Funded by British Council.

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UNLIMITED CONNECTS FRIDAY 11 MAY, WATERSHED What is Unlimited? It’s an arts commissioning programme that enables new work by disabled artists to reach UK and international audiences.

“We put the artists at the centre of Unlimited – not just funding awards, but development activities and working within the whole arts ecology to make change happen so that disabled artists can be equally respected and represented within all events and activities.” Jo Verrent, Senior Producer, Unlimited For Mayfest, MAYK and Watershed are collaborating with Unlimited on an event for artists and organisations associated with Unlimited since 2013 – Unlimited Alumni and Unlimited Allies. Taking place at Watershed on Friday 11 May, this event will include professional development opportunities, networking and a celebratory party showcasing more of Unlimited-commissioned artists. We are producing two Unlimited-commissioned projects in 2018. You can catch the world premiere of one of them, The Nature of Why, by The British Paraorchestra, over the first weekend of Mayfest, and we’re also cooking up a new show by Jo Bannon, We Are Fucked, which will open in Autumn 2018. To find out more about Unlimited check out weareunlimited.org.uk Catch The Nature of Why on 10 – 12 May at Bristol Old Vic, plus another Unlimited-commissioned artist Caroline Bowditch’s Snigel and Friends at We The Curious on Friday 11 May.

Photo by Rachel Cherry

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FRIENDS HELP US MAYK EXTRAORDINARY THINGS HAPPEN “I support organisations that produce contemporary artistic work that doesn’t sit within a simple genre and can appeal to the widest audience. MAYK deliver this more than any other organisation I know.”

MAYK Friend

MAYK Theatre CIC is a small organisation with big ideas. As well as Mayfest we deliver many other public projects throughout the year for audiences around the world. We are only able to continue doing the work we do through the generosity of our funders and supporters. Ticket sales make up about 30% of our annual income, with a further 30% from public funding. We need to raise the rest ourselves in order to continue supporting and presenting the most inspiring artists for our audiences everywhere. Make a real difference and consider directly supporting the work we do by visiting our website at

mayk.org.uk/support-us/ You can support us with a one-off or monthly donation, or a regular donation from as little as £5 a month. In return we’ll give you priority booking to all of our events and you will have exclusive access to an annual friends event.

SAVE MONEY ON MAYFEST TOO… Want to see lots of shows and spend less on tickets? Sign up to be a MAYK Friend via standing order and we’ll give you a 20% discount on tickets for this year’s festival. You can become a MAYK friend from as little as £5 per month. On top of a discount to this year’s festival, you’ll get priority booking for all MAYK events, a unique MAYK tote bag and an invitation to our annual supporters’ event. Sign up online:

mayk.org.uk/support-us/ (Offer available for new MAYK Friends subscriptions. Minimum 6 months donations)

With thanks to all of our current MAYK friends. Without you we can’t do what we do.

Photo by Paul Blakemore, Fashion Machine, Mayfest 2016

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HOW TO BOOK Bristol Old Vic Book tickets for all shows except Ridiculumus’ Saturday Triple Bill* at:

Bristol Old Vic Box Office 0117 987 7877 bristololdvic.org.uk No booking fees

Tobacco Factory Theatres Book tickets for Ridiculusmus at:

Tobacco Factory Theatres Box Office *The Triple Bill can only be booked in person or over the phone. Concessions for shows in the Ridiculusmus Trilogy apply to Children (16 and under) only as per Tobacco Factory Theatres’s policy, whether booking through Tobacco Factory Theatres or Bristol Old Vic.

0117 902 0344 tobaccofactorytheatres.com No booking fees

TICKET DEALS SUPPORT MAYK AND SAVE MONEY Sign up to be a MAYK Friend via standing order and we’ll give you a 20% discount on tickets for this year’s festival. You can become a MAYK friend from as little as £5 per month. On top of a discount to this year’s festival, you’ll get priority booking for all MAYK events, a unique MAYK tote bag and an invitation to our annual supporters’ event. Sign up online mayk.org.uk/support-us/

MAYFEST 4-FOR-3 Need an excuse to see more of Mayfest? Book to see four different shows and receive 25% off the total ticket price.

GROUPS Club together with friends and save money: get one ticket free in every 20, with one in 10 free for new group bookers.

MAYFEST FESTIVAL PASS See as many shows as you can in the Mayfest programme for £175. (All offers subject to availability. Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.)

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VENUES ARNOLFINI GALLERY

JACOB’S WELLS BATHS

16 Narrow Quay Bristol BS1 4QA

Jacob’s Wells Road Bristol BS8 1DZ

arnolfini.org.uk

artspacelifespace.com

BARTON HILL SETTLEMENT 43 Ducie Road Bristol BS5 0AX

THE LOCO KLUB

bartonhillsettlement.org.uk

locobristol.com

BRISTOL CATHEDRAL CHAPTER HOUSE

THE REGENT WESTON

College Green, Bristol BS1 5TJ bristol-cathedral.co.uk BRISTOL OLD VIC King Street Bristol BS1 4ED bristololdvic.org.uk THE CUBE CINEMA 4 Princess Row Bristol BS2 8NQ cubecinema.com EXTRACT COFFEE ROASTERS Unit 1 Gatton Road Bristol BS2 9SH extractcoffee.co.uk ST GEORGE’S BRISTOL Great George Street Bristol BS1 5RR stgeorgesbristol.co.uk JACK OF DIAMONDS 46 West St Bristol BS2 0BH

Clock Tower Yard Bristol BS1 6QH

13 Regent Street Weston-super-Mare BS23 1SF THE SOUTHVILLE CENTRE Beauley Road Bristol BS3 1QG bs3community.org.uk TOBACCO FACTORY THEATRES Raleigh Rd Bristol BS3 1TF tobaccofactorytheatres.com TRINITY CENTRE Trinity Road Bristol BS2 0NW 3ca.org.uk WATERSHED 1 Canons Road Bristol BS1 5TX watershed.co.uk WE THE CURIOUS Anchor Rd Harbourside Bristol BS1 5DB wethecurious.org

ACCESS All festival venues are wheelchair accessible. Please contact MAYK on 0117 925 9999 or email matthewandkate@mayk. org.uk if you have access needs. Please visit mayfestbristol.co.uk for BSL interpreted, captioned performances and audio described performances.

mayfestbristol.co.uk

The MAYK Team Kate Yedigaroff & Matthew Austin: Artistic Directors Graham Bennett: Website Developer Paul Blakemore: Festival Photographer Teja Boocock: Producing and Marketing Placement Gemma Brooks: Production Manager Charlotte Coleman: Producing and Marketing Placement Anwen Cooper: Audience Development Manager (Strategic Touring) Liz Counsell: Producer (Mayfest and Strategic Touring) Polly Davis: Administrative Producer Amanda Fawcett: Assistant Producer Victoria Jones: UWE MA Creative Producing Placement Marisa Lopes: Producing and Marketing Placement Peter Moffat: Graphic Designer Hannah Nicholls: Engagement Producer (Strategic Touring) Claire Skelcey: Marketing Manager Ellen Wilkinson: Marketing Officer MAYK Board Angie Bual (Vice Chair) Lottie Donovan Jon Dovey Alison O’Neill Gary Hills Seth Honnor (Chair) Sarah Jane Murray

Thank You Adam at Jack of Diamonds All our many festival volunteers Andreas and all at The Regent Anagram Anna Starkey at We The Curious Annie Oliver at Barton Hill Settlement Arthur Tibbs Ben Capp Ben Spencer and Suzanne Rolt at St George’s Bush, Ben and Aisling at Dead Centre Cheryl Pierce at Quarterhouse Claire Doherty, Keiran Swann and all at Arnolfini Clare Reddington, Dick Penny, Verity McIntosh and all at Watershed The Cube David Hendy Deborah Pearson Emma Bettridge Emma Cole Emma Jane Benning at Strike a Light Emma Stenning, Tom Morris and all at Bristol Old Vic Fiona Matthews at Theatre Orchard Jacqui Pitter at Full Circle James Tyson at British Council Jo Bannon Joseph Jo Verrant and Clara Giraud at Unlimited Kathryn Chiswell Jones and Joel Ashley and all at Artspace Lifespace Laura Pye and Elise Hurcombe at Bristol City Council Liz Harkman and Marietta Kirkbride at Bristol Festivals Luke Emery Mark Slater and Daisy Moon at Qu Junktions Mike Tweddle, Lauren Scholey, Kerrie Avery and all at Tobacco Factory Theatres Naomi Miller at Bristol Cathedral Phil Gibby and Adam Gent at Arts Council England Rhiannon Jones at Trinity Doug Francisco and Sarah Pugh at Loco Klub Ruby Glaskin at In Good Company Silkie at The Forge Sophie Jerrold Southville Centre Todd Wills at Colston Hall Tom Marshman Tom Price

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Funders