Royal Court Theatre / LIFT 2016 partnership programme announced

Published on Mon 8 Feb 2016
Throughout June 2016 the Royal Court Theatre will partner with LIFT as part of their biennial international festival to present a series of works exploring real experiences which have been developed in collaboration with international communities.

ON THE MOVE

Responding to one of the greatest humanitarian issues of our time, this collection of new works features artists from Germany, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Syria and the UK as they uncover the stories of people forced to leave their homes.
The work includes a durational piece by Chris Thorpe (Confirmation, BAC) delving into the great British public’s attitude towards migrants and refugees; short plays exploring the impact of the migration crisis in Greece and Italy; a one-on-one experience in conversation with a refugee through a wall; a continually growing installation outside the building; a miniature museum of migrations; a Syrian filmmaker exploring loss, an installation and a promenade audio-tour created between London, Berlin, Beirut and Damascus mapping ideas of exile and belonging in the city.
Many events are free. See show page here

A LIFT co-commission with the Royal Court Theatre.
A House on Fire project, supported by the Culture Programme of the European Union.

MINEFIELD

In her trademark political and playful style, Lola Arias brings together British and Argentinian veterans of the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas war to share their first-hand experience of the conflict and life since.
This collaboratively created new work merges theatre and film to blur the lines between truth and fiction, on a stage 8,000 miles from their remembered battlefield.
“When I got back from the war I was a stone. I couldn’t feel anything. ” Argentinian veteran
“The islands looked very beautiful, much like Scotland with barren land and mountains. But that was just a blurred image through my binoculars.” British veteran

Lola Arias is a writer, director, actress and songwriter and a leading voice in Argentinean theatre. Her productions play with the overlap between reality and fiction and have seen her work with actors, non actors, musicians, dancers, children, babies, and animals. Lola has a long term relationship with LIFT, most recently with her acclaimed The Year I Was Born (Southbank Centre, 2014).
In English and Spanish with English surtitles. See show page here

A LIFT co-commission with Royal Court Theatre, Brighton Festival, Le Quai Angers and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm.
Produced by LIFT.
A House on Fire project, supported by the Culture Programme of the European Union.

OPEN FOR EVERYTHING

Musicians, performers and dancers explode out of a packed Louis Vuitton clad car and straight into a journey through the Roma communities of Europe in this unexpected celebration of life and music. From the prejudices, clichés, traditions, poverty and violence – they honour the dwindling communities that they themselves belong to.

“An evening full of lust for life and music” Wiener Zeitung
“On a journey across Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, she sought out the 17 Roma musicians, dancers and amateur performers who along with five dancers from her own company (from Israel, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and South Korea) have pulled off a weird, wild and wonderful show.” tanz.at

Constanza Macras studied dance at the Merce Cunningham Studio in New York and founded her first dance company, Tamagotchi Y2K, in 1997. In 2003 she founded the dance theatre company Constanza Macras | DorkyPark in collaboration with the dramaturge Carmen Mehnert. In 2008, Constanza Macras’ production Hell on Earth was awarded the Goethe-Institut’s prize for the best German piece. In 2010 she received the Arts at MIT William L. Abramowitz Residency at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the German theatre prize Der Faust for Megalopolis.

See show page here

For the full LIFT press release see here