Physical Fest, Liverpool Physical Theatre Festival.
TMESIS THEATRE TRAINING COMPANY – DAYDREAM BELIEVERS – Hope Street Theatre, 22 Hope St, Liverpool L1 9BY
£3
26th, 27th, 30th MAY, 2nd, 3rd June 6pm and 7pm, 1st June 6.30pm
Tmesis Training Company is an annual training intensive in physical theatre. Daydream Believers is a psychedelic immersive experience inspired by the 1967 ‘Summer of Love’.
8pm FRI 26TH MAY
ONLY BONES – Kallo Collective (FINLAND)
£12/10 – The City of Liverpool College – The Arts Centre
“…extraordinary inventiveness created by a limitless imagination.” – Theatreview
Using body manipulation and a contemporary approach to clowning, performed by an off-the-wall character, Only Bones is an award-winning solo show using one light, one performer and no text.
**** “45 minutes of body-generated invention that will likely send you back out into the night with a spring in your step” (The List)
***** “A glorious salute to one man’s remarkable physicality” (The Herald Scotland)
8pm SAT 27TH MAY
JETLAG – CHALIWATE (BELGIUM)
£14/12 – The City of Liverpool College – The Arts Centre
In between airports, from a crowded transit zone to a confined aeroplane cabin, a man is trying to keep his loneliness at bay. Lost in exhilaration and confusion, as he moves from one place to the next, space and time are blurred; he dreams of a new start. But as he steps forward on his quest, he realises that things might not turn out the way he expected.
A physically impressive, poetic and beautiful spectacle from Belgium’s premiere physical theatre company.
7.30pm MON 29th MAY
THE BAND – INVISIBLE WIND FACTORY
£10
Book here.
Sandy & Bruno met in the seventies. She was fame hungry, he was doomed to follow her. As one hit wonders, this is a story of their big come-back. With Sandy’s determination and Bruno’s blissful devotion to her, they are here; not by popular demand, but by sheer defiance.
With striking aesthetics and a rousing soundtrack, The Band is a quirky, humorous display of desperate ambition and blind affection told through awe-inspiring dance, theatre and circus.
5.30-7.30PM: Fresh Italian street food by Fritto, drink and free entertainment at Invisible Wind Factory
Festival faves Teatro Pomodoro will be on hand to randomly hijack and interrupt proceedings with their own brand of bouffon and clown, and Foolsize Theatre will be introducing the brilliant and blundering soothsayer Madame Sigh-Kick Hunch, who has foreseen your arrival in her caravan of fortune. Come and get cosy, she is expecting you.
Stay after the performance for live music from Donkey Hokey, dancing and bar until late!
8pm TUES 30TH MAY
DOUBLE BILL
£12/10 – The City of Liverpool College – The Arts Centre
STUFF – SEAN KEMPTON (UK)
STUFF is a love story but not one you’ve seen a million times before, this is another kind of love story, maybe everybody’s love story. Playful, funny, sad and familiar, Lead clown for Cirque du Soleil, Sean Kempton, mixes comedy, mime, clowning and the odd bit of dance in this absurdist show about love
‘Adults, teenagers, children… it is a show that everyone will enjoy!’ The Stage
Joanne Tremarco – Dying on My Feet (Work in Progress)
Imagine you have 2 bodies. One you move in every day and one you move in when you dream. Where does the dream body go after death?
Tremarco returns to Physical Fest, after being awarded last year’s bursary, to take a closer look at ‘death’ the elephant in the ‘living’ room. Drawing on end of life conversations with her mother, training as a death doula and adventures as a Lucid Dreamer to invent a comic-tragic odyssey of the soul.
www.the-death-wife-project.com
7.30pm THURS 1ST JUNE
FEST LIVE
£12/10 – The City of Liverpool College – The Arts Centre
Fest Live is a selection of extracts of new work from local, national and international artists, featuring:
VIVA!!! DUNCAN CAMERON
Viva!!! is an intense solo show delivering high octane stupidity you haven’t experienced before, forged using elements of clown, dance, puppetry and lucha libre.
Duncan Cameron is an international performer and theatre maker from Canada who is passionate about making exciting, high energy and hilarous spectacles that he plans to tour the globe with. Viva!!! is suitable for all levels of sanity.
www.duncancameronperformer.com/viva
SURPRISE – LAUREN SILVER
How does a girl with social and anticipation anxiety enjoy a surprise party? Lauren invites you to find out, in a show packed full of party games and hopefully no panic attacks. SURPRISE! is an interactive clown show that looks at how we can confront anxiety, overcome fear, and find freedom from panic through laughter.
‘Her rapport with the audience is tremendous fun.’ – British Theatre Guide
2017 PHYSICAL FEST/MDI BURSARY AWARD
SIREN – KATY-ANNE BELLIS
“Siren” is a new physical performance piece by Katy-Anne Bellis (Caustic Widows) and Barry Han (Artemis). An odd and ethereal mixture of singing, grotesque physical theatre and electronic music exploring the mythology of the mermaid.
www.causticwidows.wordpress.com
UNITY YOUTH THEATRE
An excerpt from Unity Youth Theatre’s show ‘Borned’.
Struggling to choose the right words can stop a conversation before it starts. UYT look at gender, language and finding common ground.
Written: Unity Youth Theatre & Esther Wilson
Directed: Carl Cockram & Laura Campbell
IZUMI ASHIZAWA
“I Cried Because I Had No Shoes Until…” by Izumi Ashizawa and Matthew Austin
A collection of vignettes associated with the theme of “Shoes”. Sometimes funny, sometimes nostalgic, and sometimes dream-like memories all intertwine, collide, and dissolve around the same object.
“The show conjures up an otherworldly atmosphere that makes it intoxicating.” – Washington City Paper
“Dreams in the Arms of the Binding Lady is a triumphant display of some serious artistry. ” – DC Theatre Scene
FRI 2 JUNE 5.30-7.00PM
POST IT!
Join Jo Blowers in Bluecoat’s foyer, gallery and other locations. She will be creating movement-based visual performance, telling stories, asking questions and having conversations with you. Have your say by posting your thoughts on postcards, or online on the Facebook event page.
Post It! is part of INHABIT, a three year programme of new dance taking place at Bluecoat.
There are going to be plenty of ways to interact with Jo in the future. Join her on 15th June for a new performance, On the Way, influenced by the Post It! project.
8pm FRI 2ND JUNE
HAPPY HOUR – TMESIS THEATRE
£14/12 – The City of Liverpool College – The Arts Centre
The workers on Level 3 are racing against the clock to reach their quota of Smiley Faces, but are they really happy enough? A poignant, fast paced, comedy exploring our 21st century obsession with happiness and success, combining Tmesis’ trademark physicality with text from long-term collaborator Chris Fittock.
“Expertly choreographed…. Laugh out loud comedy” – The Stage
“Hysterical…A show like no other” – Urbanista
“Enthralls and intrigues from beginning to end” – Made up on Stage
***** NorthWestEnd ***** The Reviews Hub
8pm SAT 3RD JUNE
I AM A TREE – JAMIE WOOD (UK) EDINBURGH PREVIEW
£14/12 – The City of Liverpool College – The Arts Centre
When I am still for any length of time, someone finds me and tells me about their life.
My girlfriend says this makes me like a tree that all dogs want to piss up.
Slow man tree.
My Granddad taught me how to listen, and one other valuable lesson. But I can’t remember what the second lesson was. There’s a blank.
So this year I walked back to where he was born to try to find out – a homemade pilgrimage, a return to roots, slow motion time travel. The show will be something else entirely.
Still living a dream.
**** “Like being sucked down a rabbit hole of joy” Exeunt (For O No!)