Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF), London’s leading festival of outdoor theatre and performing arts, today announces highlights of the 2019 festival, running from 21 June – 6 July in locations across Royal Greenwich, East London and, for the first time, the City of London.
Responding to a time of national uncertainty with a determination to make fun and conviviality a central focus, highlights include the Greenwich Fair, an intensive, two-day programme of street theatre in Greenwich Town Centre; the UK première of a major street theatre adaptation of Moby Dick by the Italian company Teatro Dei Venti in the City of London; a captivating site specific theatre production in the Royal Docks entitled Passenger by Jessica Wilson exploring the tangled relationship between local and global; an innovative union of circus and community created in Thamesmead with the French Compagnie XY; the UK’s largest annual programme of outdoor dance, Dancing City, across the squares and public spaces of Canary Wharf; and the French street theatre company L’Homme Debout’s MO and the Red Ribbon, a spectacular promenade production in Bow, featuring a giant child puppet on a journey of migration and discovery.
The full programme, which will include new commissions, co-productions and UK premières, will be announced in March. GDIF promises something different, and in the words of The Guardian, makes an “unrivalled contribution to the happiness of the people of London”.
Artistic Director Bradley Hemmings MBE said, “This year, at a time of national division and uncertainty regarding the UK’s relationship with Europe, GDIF will offer an antidote of fun, conviviality and togetherness, bringing Londoners together as never before with a joyously spectacular international programme of free outdoor arts.
“I’m particularly proud that we’re welcoming so many international artists and companies to London, whose work will bring audiences together in these difficult times, inspiring wonder, celebration and optimism”.
Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF) is London’s free, annual outdoor theatre and performing arts festival. GDIF is committed to breaking new ground in outdoor performance and raising the ambition, quality and diversity of outdoor work produced in the UK.
