As part of the Gate’s 40th Anniversary season, Artistic Director Ellen McDougall is continuing the venue’s renowned reputation for championing European Theatre with rare opportunity to see the best of Danish theatre in a mini-showcase.
Two major shows will be making their UK premieres at the West London venue this Autumn; multi award-winning Fix&Foxy’s Land Without Dreams and at Christmas acclaimed performance artist Anika Barkan’s We Open Our Mouth – and Listen.
In recent years Denmark has become recognised for producing cutting edge drama on both film and television with the success of Scandi-Noir dramas such as Borgen and The Killing, as well as acclaimed storytelling in genre literature. In this showcase of work, the Gate offers a unique glimpse into Scandinavian contemporary theatre and performance, which is at once provocative, challenging, mischievous and funny but overall, intellectually thrilling.
European work is a rarity on British stages but the Gate has led the vanguard by including international work from around the world as part of its core mission. As a theatre, it has always been synonymous with radical performance – consistently producing uncompromising, eclectic and surprising new work- and this 40th anniversary season celebrates this tradition which just opened with Kirsty Housley’s remarkable and critically acclaimed Mephisto [A Rhapsody].
Artistic Director Ellen McDougall said ‘One of the most thrilling aspects of running the Gate is being able to bring cutting edge international theatre-makers to make work for our intimate space, and to introduce them to a London audience. I am absolutely thrilled to be presenting the work of Tue Biering and Lise Lauenblad of Danish theatre company Fix&Foxy. Fix&Foxy’s work spans popular culture (past productions include adaptations of Friends and Pretty Woman) with a playful and rigorous examination of social and political questions. Land without Dreams is a joyful investigation of how we think about the future. Following that, I’m delighted to be able to invite Anika Barkan, another Danish artist with their show, We Open Our Mouth – And Listen as a Gate Guest this December. This gig-theatre show about solidarity and togetherness is a heart-warming piece that will provide an edgy alternative to the traditional Christmas show.”
