Full LIFT 2018 festival programme is announced


LIFT, London’s biennial festival of international theatre, has today announced the full programme for June 2018 and beyond. David Binder recently announced as Artistic Director of Brooklyn Academy of Music curates a festival which spans disciplines and fearlessly plays with form. Through exploring London’s local, national and international identity, LIFT opens doors to cultures from across the globe, celebrates shared humanity and challenges preconceptions.  In a city whose beating heart is diversity and at a time that our plural society is under threat, LIFT 2018 will celebrate community in all its forms.

Those who are increasingly at risk of marginalisation will be placed at the forefront; stories of displacement from the Congo; revelations of a lost generation in the school-to-prison pipeline in the USA and migrant workers in Qatar. Audiences will confront Dries Verhoeven’s societal fears in Phobiarama, dance under the stars to effervescent afrobeats in SESSION and experience a collision of theatre, contemporary music, opera and Korean pansori in contemporary musical Trojan Women.  LIFT last burst across the city in June 2016, the month that saw the Brexit vote passed in the UK and the beginnings of a startling shift in the social-political climate of our world.

In the two years that have followed, LIFT has commissioned and programmed works that speak to these changes in a festival of contemporary, international art; a global offering of radically open work to celebrate a multitude of diverse communities and all that unites us rather than divides.   

David Binder, Guest Artistic Director, said: “As a New Yorker I’ve always felt an affinity with London but never more so than in the last two years. Both of these great cities have had their identities challenged by their own countries and are fighting to remain, in all ways, open. It seemed irrefutable that LIFT 2018 would be more urgent and necessary than ever before in its 37-year history. “We want to offer an antidote to the recent times, giving chances to celebrate our diverse communities, dispel seeded fears and confront preconceptions.

From the iconic buildings, renowned stages and unusual, hidden spaces in which our festival takes place, we welcome global citizens to create work as a signifier to everyone; whether you were born here, have made it your home or are just passing through, you belong here.”  Halfway through its six-year LIFT Tottenham programme, the LIFT 2018 festival features three Tottenham Original commissions: SESSION, Nightwalks with Teenagers and Small Wonders - works made in collaboration with local artists and communities that demonstrate the diverse and creative power of this area of London.

The Tottenham UpLIFTers - a group of 30 teenagers from Duke’s Aldridge Academy and The Vale School based on the Northumberland Park Estate, return to the festival following 2016’s The Children’s Choice Awards, this time with an evening walking tour of the City. 

#LIFT2018 SHOW-BY-SHOW Fly by Night Duke Riley USA European Premiere East Thamesmead, 21 - 23 June

American artist Duke Riley’s epic outdoor work will see over 1,500 LED-lit, trained pigeons soar into the skies above the River Thames in a glorious spectacle of unprecedented scale and beauty. In its first international performance since its premiere at New York City’s Brooklyn Navy Yard in 2016, Riley’s world-class airborne installation has been reimagined for London’s historical military location of Thamesmead, paying beautiful homage to some of the First World War’s unsung heroes who played crucial roles delivering messages between distant personnel. The work is part of 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary.

Fly by Night follows in a LIFT lineage of exceptional large-scale outdoor productions that have helped to bring London to life. From Sky Orchestra which saw hot air balloons broadcast a dawn symphony over the city’s rooftops, to One Extraordinary Day for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad which saw acrobats scaling London landmarks such as City Hall, the Millennium Bridge, and the London Eye.

Co-commissioned by LIFT, Greenwich+Docklands International Festival and London Borough of Bexley and 14-18 NOW: WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England, and by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport. Hosted by Peabody. Originally commissioned by Creative Time. LEDs designed and supplied by 10xBeta.

Notes From the Field Anna Deavere Smith USA UK Premiere Royal Court Theatre, 13 - 24 June Press performance: 15 June

‘For 40 years, I have been creating plays out of fragments of conversations with diverse groups of people from all over the country. When I was a girl, my paternal grandfather and I used to spend hours talking. He said, “If you say a word often enough it becomes you”.’ Anna Deavere Smith

One of the most hailed and provocative theatre artists of our time, the award-winning Anna Deavere Smith returns to the Royal Court Theatre’s stage for her first London appearance in over 25 years, with her Obie-Award-winning Notes From the Field.

Drawn from interviews with more than 250 students, parents, teachers and staff caught up in the USA’s school-to-prison pipeline, this powerful solo performance shines a light on a lost generation of American youth and exposes a justice system that pushes underprivileged minority communities out of the classroom and into incarceration. Best known for her role in The West Wing, playwright and actor Anna Deavere Smith uses her singular brand of theatre to explore issues of community, character, and diversity. In 2012 she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama who praised her for her talent to ‘open up minds and nourish souls, and help us understand what it means to be human’.

Presented by LIFT and The Royal Court Theatre with support from Jordan Roth. Produced in Partnership with ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann. Part of The Anna Deavere Smith Pipeline Project, produced by Anna Deavere Smith. Originally produced by American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, MA and Second Stage Theatre, New York City.

Note to editors: The recently announced LIFT and Royal Court Theatre co-commission by Belgian theatre-maker Lies Pauwels is now expected to happen at a later date. Further details to be announced.
In Search of Dinozord Faustin Linyekula Democratic Republic of Congo UK Premiere The Place, 15 - 16 June

Scored with fragments of Mozart’s requiem, guitar riffs from Jimi Hendrix, metronomic taps on a typewriter and live vocals by South Africa’s Hlengiwe Lushaba, Linyekula’s piece is a poetic, political fairy tale that delves into the wrenching history of the Congo and searches for forgotten childhood dreams.

Faustin Linyekula is an artist with a ‘live-wire intensity’ (The New York Times). His riveting work often addresses themes of memory, forgetting, and dreams. With his country’s history as a catalyst, he considers the impact that decades of war, trauma, and economic uncertainty have on people’s lives. His work Statue of Loss was presented as part of LIFT’s After A War programme in 2014.

Presented by LIFT and The Place. A Studios Kabako co-production with KVS Brussels, supported by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication and the Institut Français du Royaume Uni, as part of its En Scène! programme.

Phobiarama Dries Verhoeven The Netherlands UK Premiere King’s Cross, West Handyside Canopy, 8 - 18 June

Dutch theatre maker and visual artist Dries Verhoeven bring his theatrical ghost train to the middle of King’s Cross in this immersive excursion into our contemporary culture of fear. Sat in fairground cars, audience members are taken through a tour of today’s angst-fuelling media landscape exploited by politicians, terrorists, marketeers and fake newsmongers. This 21st century theatrical haunted house comes to London for the first time following sell-out performances at festivals across Europe. Dries Verhoeven is a world-renowned artist who makes installations and performances highlighting the socio-political reality we live in. His work Life Streaming was presented at LIFT 2010.

Presented by LIFT, co-commissioned by Onassis Cultural Centre Athens and Holland Festival. Supported by King’s Cross, the Fonds Podiumkunsten and the Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. An Imagine 2020 (2.0) project, supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. This production is part of Season for Change, a UK-wide programme of cultural responses celebrating the environment and inspiring urgent action on climate change.

Taylor Mac : A 24-Decade History of Popular Music: The First Act Taylor Mac USA European Premiere Barbican (Theatre), 28 - 30 June

Fabulous and fearless, Taylor Mac reframes the social history of the USA through three decades of song in this no-holds-barred extravaganza of music, art, activism and hugely entertaining mass ritual. Joined onstage by a 24-piece orchestra and a host of local special guests drawn from London’s own performance community, New York’s Mac has created a Pulitzer Prize-nominated, oncein-a-lifetime performance in a quest to chronicle how communities grow stronger as they are being torn apart. Charting the years 1776–1806, Mac asks the audience to conspire together to reimagine rebellions, revolutions, triumphs, and tragedies. Bawdy pub songs, sea shanties and subversive anthems are rearranged as musical mashups to take on a chapter of the defining early years of the USA’s history.

Presented by LIFT and the Barbican, produced by Pomegranate Arts and Nature’s Darlings with Support from Sharon Karmazin.

Lady Eats Apple Back to Back Theatre Australia UK Premiere Barbican (Theatre), 14 - 16 June Press Night: Fri 15 June

One of the most exciting and urgent companies in contemporary theatre today, Australia’s Back to Back Theatre is driven by an ensemble of actors with perceived intellectual disabilities who are co-authors and performers of the work. Lady Eats Apple is a large-scale, experiential production, featuring ingenious binaural sound and epic visuals, which exposes us to the fragility of existence while challenging the assumptions we hold about others and ourselves.

Back to Back Theatre return to LIFT following their previous productions Ganesh Versus the Third Reich (LIFT 2012) and Food Court (LIFT 2010).

Presented by LIFT and the Barbican. Supported by the Australian High Commission in London, Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria and City of Greater Geelong, co-commissioned by Holland Festival. Supported by Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation (Eldon and Anne Foote Trust Donor Advised Program 2016).

Both Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music: The First Act and Lady Eats Apple are part of the Barbican’s 2018 Season, The Art of Change, which explores how artists respond to, reflect and can potentially effect change in the social and political landscape.

SESSION Still House / Empire Sounds / Steppaz UK World Premiere / Tottenham Original Bernie Grant Arts Centre Courtyard, 22 - 30 June

Made in collaboration with an extraordinary group of young performers, SESSION is a battle cry and a love song, celebrating community, youth, and belonging. In this explosive outdoor gathering Still, House’s Dan Canham joins forces with Tottenham’s Steppaz Performing Arts Academy and North London’s Afrobeats powerhouse, Empire Sounds to create an exhilarating night of dance and live music where everyone is welcome.

Soaring up above the streets of Tottenham, this visceral performance will be a part gig, part social, part dance party as it moves across hip-hop, contemporary folk and Afrobeats vocabularies to create a new movement completely owned by its makers.

Commissioned by LIFT, produced by MAYK and LIFT. Presented by LIFT and Bernie Grant Arts Centre. Supported by Arts Council England.

Nightwalks with Teenagers Mammalian Diving Reflex / Darren O'Donnell / UpLIFTers Canada / UK / Germany London Premiere City of London, 1-3 June Created in collaboration with the UpLIFTers, a group of teenagers from Tottenham who have been working with LIFT since 2015, their German counterparts, MIT OHNE ALLES from Ruhrtriennale, and their Canadian counterparts, The Young Mammals, this poignant, rebellious walk on the wild side will show a different side to the city. Audience members will be guided on an animated tour through the streets of London at night, uncovering undiscovered sights and untapped talents along the way. Founded in 1993, Mammalian Diving Reflex (MDR) is cherished in Canada and famous around the world for creating artistic interventions that often put children and young people in the driver’s seat as a way to trigger generosity and equity across the universe. Their work has been recognised through numerous international awards and in 2012 they received the Children’s Rights Supporter Award from the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children. Their previous LIFT interventions include Haircuts By Children (LIFT 2010) and The Children’s Choice Awards (LIFT 2016).

A Mammalian Diving Reflex/Darren O'Donnell production commissioned and presented by LIFT in collaboration with the Tottenham UpLIFTers, MIT OHNE ALLES (Ruhrtriennale) and The Young Mammals with Guest Tottenham Artists and Güneş Güven and Elsabet Yonas. Supported by Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Goethe-Institut. Small Wonders Punchdrunk UK World Premiere Bernie Grant Arts Centre, 2 June - 13 July

LIFT’s first collaboration with Punchdrunk, pioneers of a unique form of theatre where audiences explore epic sensory worlds, is a brand-new show for families and children aged 511 years.

Conceived by Punchdrunk, written by Nessah Muthy and inspired by the local stories and dreams of the Tottenham UpLIFTers, Small Wonders shows the power of our imagination and how the little things in life are sometimes the most important.

Inside Nanny Lacey’s flat are a collection of miniatures. These homemade creations capture the adventures she’s shared with her daughter Bella over the years. Like tiny 3D photographs, they’re treasured moments of time that fit in the palm of your hand. But Nanny Lacey’s getting older and soon she’ll have to leave her flat and her beloved miniatures behind, surely there’s time for one final adventure?

Commissioned by Punchdrunk, LIFT and Bernie Grant Arts Centre.

Small Wonders, SESSION and Nightwalks with Teenagers are all LIFT Tottenham Originals, made in collaboration with artists and communities from Tottenham. LIFT Tottenham is supported by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Jerwood Charitable Foundation, The Sackler Trust, Foyle Foundation, Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust and Noël Coward Foundation.

Trojan Women National Theater of Korea / National Changgeuk Company of Korea South Korea UK Premiere Southbank Centre (Queen Elizabeth Hall), 2 - 3 June

Marking their first performance in the UK, National Changgeuk Company of Korea presents the European premiere of Trojan Women. Filling the Queen Elizabeth Hall stage with 25 singers, actors and musicians, visionary Singaporean director Ong Ken Sen fuses modern music and pansori, the ancient Korean genre of musical storytelling, in this world-class contemporary opera. Composed by a producer at the forefront of the K-pop scene, Jung Jae-il, in collaboration with the renowned Pansori master Ahn Sook-sun, Trojan Women brings both the ancient and modern art forms together to breath new life into Euripides’ tragedy. Drawing parallels between the trauma faced by the Trojan women and the pain of Korean women who have lived through war and division, the epic performance celebrates the importance of female solidarity in the face of adversity, through powerful music and movement. A National Changgeuk Company of Korea performance, co-produced by National Theater of Korea and Singapore International Festival of Arts, presented by LIFT and Southbank Centre. Supported by Arts Council England and Arts Council Korea.

Creation (Pictures for Dorian) Gob Squad UK/Germany London Premiere Southbank Centre (Purcell Room), 4 - 7 June

Gob Squad has travelled the world for the past 25 years, in Creation (Pictures for Dorian), they are joined onstage by local performers from a generation younger and a generation older than themselves. With an aim to peep behind the vanity-mirror and search for answers to questions of beauty, morality, ageing, and power, Gob Squad’s latest production playfully asks why we so crave the eye of the beholder. Inspired by Oscar Wilde’s character, Dorian Gray, who suspends the process of ageing at a cost to his soul, Creation (Pictures for Dorian) asks, what happens when we are denied the limelight forever?

Gob Squad return to LIFT following their previous productions Before Your Very Eyes (LIFT 2014) and Revolution Now (LIFT 2010).

Co-commissioned by LIFT and presented by LIFT and Southbank Centre. A production by Gob Squad and HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin. Developed with support from Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles, CA. A co-production with Münchner Kammerspiele, Schauspiel Leipzig, Schlachthaus Theater Bern. A LIFT, Brighton Festival and Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts commission. An Imagine 2020 (2.0) project, supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Funded by the state of Berlin, Chancellery of the Berlin Senate for Culture and Europe and TippingPoint. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England. This production is part of Season for Change, a UK-wide programme of cultural responses celebrating the environment and inspiring urgent action on climate change.

Mercenary Ahil Ratnamohan Belgium/Australia World Premiere Battersea Arts Centre, 21 - 23 June

Travelling across Qatar, Nepal and Sri Lanka in 2018, performance-maker and footballer Ahilan Ratnamohan expected to come face to face with the reality of what it takes to build the stadiums of the FIFA World Cup. Through interviews with the workers themselves, he glimpsed behind the Western media headlines and into the lives of those on the ground, discovering that much like the beautiful game itself, the truth is often a fallacy.

Mercenary is a collaboration between Ratnamohan, a Sri Lankan-Australian footballer-artist, and Mutamassik, an Egyptian-Italian-American musician. The performance features Ratnamohan’s distinctive football-dance movement seen in his LIFT 2014 production, Michael Essien, I want to play as you..., fused with Mutamassik's trademark first-generation, punk jaw, electronic pan-African derivatives.

Commissioned by LIFT and presented by LIFT and Battersea Arts Centre. Supported by the Fare Network, the Government of Flanders, Australian Government through the Australia Council and the City of Antwerp. A BespectACTive project, supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

These Rooms ANU / CoisCéim Dance Theatre Ireland UK Premiere Shoreditch Town Hall, 4 - 22 June

Taking place across the entire basement of Shoreditch Town Hall, this thrillingly immersive blend of theatre, dance and visual art brings unresolved history back to life with intricate detail. Part of 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary, created by David Bolger, Owen Boss and Louise Lowe, These Rooms tells two stories: those of the civilians who were victims of and witnesses to 1916’s North King Street Massacre, and those of the men of the South Staffordshire Regiment who committed this act – their identities largely anonymous, their actions controversially exonerated at a military enquiry.

These Rooms is accompanied by Beyond These Rooms, an installation touring the UK in 2018.

Co-commissioned by LIFT, Shoreditch Town Hall and 14-18 NOW: WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, with support from the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund, and from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Supported by Culture Ireland as part of GB18: Promoting Irish Arts in Britain.

Nocturne Krista Burāne & Andy Field with collaborators Ieva Kaulina & Erik Eriksson Latvia / UK World Premiere The Albany, Deptford (promenade performance), 27 - 29 June

Starting at dusk and ending at dawn, Nocturne is a journey into the wild side of the city and the creatures that reside there.

Created by an international team of artists and choreographers including Ieva Kaulina and Erik Eriksson and developed in collaboration with local night workers in the city, Nocturne is a different kind of theatrical encounter. Part performance, part walk, part workshop, it is a song of the night and the creatures that inhabit it leading us across Deptford and New Cross in search of the edges of the city.

Presented and produced by LIFT and The Albany, Deptford. Co-commissioned by LIFT, Lokal and Homo Novus. An Urban Heat project, supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Fatherland Scott Graham (for Frantic Assembly), Karl Hyde and Simon Stephens UK London Premiere Lyric Hammersmith, 25 May - 23 June

Fatherland is a bold, ambitious show about contemporary fatherhood in all its complexities and contradictions. Created by Scott Graham, Karl Hyde from Underworld and playwright Simon Stephens (Punk Rock, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), this daring collage of words, music and movement is animated by a 13-strong cast and a multitude of voices. Fatherland first premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre as part of Manchester International Festival in 2017. Commissioned and produced by Lyric Hammersmith, Manchester International Festival, Frantic Assembly, the Royal Exchange Theatre and LIFT.

New International Voices Poetra Asantewa and Kwame Boafo Ghana Battersea Arts Centre, 22 - 23 June
LIFT’s long-standing partnership with Battersea Arts Centre offers in-festival research time and space to emerging artists. Working with the British Council, LIFT 2018 invites West African artists Poetra Asantewa and Kwame Boafo to develop new work in their chosen art form, as well as having access to everything the festival has to offer. The residency will result in an informal sharing of their works, part of Battersea Arts Centre’s Scratch programme. Poetra Asantewa is a poet, writer, spoken word artist and vocalist from Ghana. Her work as a performer and youth mentor engages issues of feminism, inequality and mental health in her community. During her residency, she will be exploring the contrasts and parallels between dynamic performance poetry and the power static poetry on the page.

Kwame Boafo is a performance and movement artist who explores the idea of the body as a vessel of historical memory. During his residency, he will continue his investigation into how people make (dis)connection with everyday material objects and how it reminds them of past experiences.

A LIFT and Battersea Arts Centre project in partnership with the British Council

East Wall A unique partnership between East London Dance, Hofesh Shechter Company, Historic Royal Palaces and LIFT UK World Premiere Tower of London, 18 - 22 July

Taking place in the grounds of one of London’s most iconic buildings, East Wall will see a cast of over 150 dancers and musicians fill the Tower of London’s West Moat in an extraordinary outdoor performance inspired by the stories of the communities that have grown up around the Tower.

Directed by the internationally-celebrated Hofesh Shechter in collaboration with four brilliant young choreographers, Becky Namgauds, Duwane Taylor, James Finnemore and Joseph Toonga, this epic event will weave together a tapestry of music and dance that embraces east London’s diversity and puts its rich cultural heritage centre stage. From grime to gospel, krump to contemporary - this mashup of old and new will come together in a large-scale spectacle like no other.

East Wall is the culmination of a four-year talent development programme led by Hofesh Shechter Company and East London Dance, working with young choreographers, dancers, and community groups. It will be the first major public art event in the Tower of London moat since the Poppies installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red in 2014.

Produced by East London Dance and Hofesh Shechter Company, commissioned by Historic Royal Palaces and presented by Historic Royal Palaces and LIFT. Costume Design Partner: London College of Fashion, UAL. Supporting Partner: Performing Arts Department, UEL. Funded by Arts Council England, Backstage Trust, Cockayne - Grants for the Arts, The London Community Foundation and Tower Hamlets Arts & Music Education Service (THAMES). Supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

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