Critically-acclaimed arts innovators Upstart Theatre present the second annual DARE Festival at Shoreditch Town Hall, bringing together artists and audiences from across London and beyond in an explosion of new and in-development performance presented at the earliest possible stage. Inventive, unexpected, challenging and joyous, DARE Festival is a place for artists and audiences to come together to make, discover, dream and play.
This year’s Festival brings together theatre, live art, installations and film from artists and makers from a huge range of backgrounds and art forms. It brings together Shoreditch’s largest ever on-stage girl gang, at least three clowns, a life coach, a wolf and a live beetle. All shows presented in the Festival are freshly commissioned by Upstart Theatre with funding from Arts Council England and the support of Shoreditch Town Hall.
The Line-up includes:
Trigger Warning: In an age of information overload and non-stop media coverage of non-stop international tragedies, Marcelo dos Santos (Lionboy, Complicité) and Natasha Nixon’s Trigger Warning is a jet black comedy exploring the politics of ‘trigger warnings’. Can we protect audiences from real life? Should we? Previously seen at the Young Vic Theatre.
Do You Live Alone: What do you do when all hope is gone? Stay in? Go out? Nina’s love life coaching can help YOU out, but can she help herself? A new solo show performed by Rebecca Peyton (Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister, «««« Daily Telegraph) and directed by award-winning Rebecca Hill.
Metamorphosis (after Kafka and Nabokov): “Gregor Samsa awoke from unquiet dreams to find that in his sleep he had turned into a vile and verminous insect.” Simon Watt’s new interpretation of Kafka’s masterpiece stars a live beetle and puts man and insect side by side.
WRESTLELADSWRESTLE: Inspired by Eve professional wrestling, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mixed Martial Arts, Judo, dance and clown. We will play fight for you. So you don’t have to. Get down to your pants lads and let’s f*@£ing wrestle for freedom! Created by Jennifer Jackson, Simon Jones and Tom Hughes, it features a chorus of 30 fighting women – the largest girl gang Shoreditch has ever seen.
Big Teeth: Gripped by the Great Freeze of 1947, with wolf-whistling spivs and other predatory characters skulking round every corner, London could be a dangerous place for an unwary girl. Climb into Elizabeth Dearnley’s immersive installation – a bedtime story with bite.
Freshy: Simon is pissed off at being in a pair with Dawit just because his parents are Eritrean. He doesn’t want to look like a freshy too. He’s got a reputation to protect. Anyway he can’t even speak Tigrinya. Segen Yosife’s (Brainstorm, Company 3 at the National Theatre) new theatre piece combines text written by and with Eritrean performers and contributors, an equal opportunities game and traditional Eritrean hymns and dance.
How to Cope with Embarrassment: How to Cope with Embarrassment from emerging theatre company Two Pale Ladies is almost a cabaret. It is also almost a comedy, and almost a politically and socially engaged performance piece that explores a history of societal blackmail and emotional pressures.
Live Poetry Jukebox: In need of food for thought? Or food for the soul? Looking for exhilaration? Or a moment of contemplation? Wanting to recharge your batteries? Or wind down? Craving for a laugh? Or a cry? Or both? Enter Mueller and Malten’s Live Poetry Jukebox and receive a one-on-one gift of a poem.
DARE Festival is at Shoreditch Town Hall 29th and 30th September, more details here www.upstart-theatre.co.uk
