Battersea Arts Centre is Going Global in spring 2020,
Tarek Iskander’s first season as Artistic Director
Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) is Going Global in spring 2020 (February to May), with a season of work which brings together the best of international performance and UK artists telling global stories. At a time of national introspection, Battersea Arts Centre reaches outwards, creating connections between the UK and the world.
Going Global is Tarek Iskander’s inaugural season as Artistic Director and CEO of Battersea Arts Centre and features bold new approaches to digital storytelling, uncompromising work wrestling with today’s most urgent issues, and platforms for young people to showcase their creativity and activism. Every ticket for every show across the season is available for £10 until the end of October 2019, booking is open now for Battersea Arts Centre Friends and Members, with booking open to all from Monday 21 October.
Battersea Arts Centre remains a hub for everyone’s creativity. The Agency, BAC’s flagship co-creation project supporting young people’s social entrepreneurship, will hold a weekend-long national conference on making change during Homegrown Festival, a 10 day celebration of big ideas from young voices. The Co-Creating Change network will also expand, supporting organisations around the country to shift power into the hands of the communities they serve.
This spring also sees the official opening of a new community garden in the heart of Wandsworth, the thirteenth and final heritage installation around Battersea Arts Centre’s building, which visitors can explore via a map or on free trails. Designed by award-winning architects Haworth Tompkins, the garden will transform the road which runs alongside Battersea Arts Centre’s building into a new public space to be enjoyed by all - featuring planters for use by community groups, artist commissions and increased seating for people to enjoy the greener space.
Further afield, the Touretteshero and Battersea Arts Centre production of Not I by Samuel Beckett will tour in North America in early 2020, followed by further UK dates in spring. The revolutionary production is the first to be performed by someone with Tourettes Syndrome and is presented in a uniquely relaxed fashion. Battersea Arts Centre continues working with Touretteshero towards becoming a Relaxed Venue - a new initiative that builds on the principles of relaxed performances. Over 98% of all announced performances in the Going Global season are relaxed, which at BAC means there is a relaxed attitude to noise and movement in the auditorium, a designated 'chill-out space' is provided for guests who may need time away from the performance, and ear defenders are available for those with sensory sensitivities.
Tarek Iskander, Artistic Director and CEO of Battersea Arts Centre, said:
“While developing and curating the season, we had a simple idea that we kept coming back to: Connections Matter. Divisions in the UK are becoming so entrenched, it feels like the ideal time to reach out... across boundaries, across borders, across opinions and across ideologies. I’m immensely proud to have collaborated with Battersea Arts Centre’s committed team of producers and programmers to present Going Global– a season full of remarkable international performers making their London debuts, complemented by brilliant UK artists grappling with global themes.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Battersea Arts Centre season without being current, radical, and a bit mischievous. unReal City and Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran use digital technologies to excavate new truths about our world. Contrasting takes on challenging modern topics are brilliantly encountered in both Daughter and Cock Cock.. Who’s There? There are pieces that are just achingly beautiful in their own ways and sit with you long after they’ve gone: The Spirit, Neither Here Nor There, Autoreverse, Swimming Pools. Lucy McCormick’s anarchic, pop concert Life: LIVE! and the improvised face-offs of Outrageous Behaviour simply can’t be topped for exuberant fun. And the real new power in the world, Youth Activism, is embodied by the 16 young Brazilians of coletivA ocupação and their unforgettable When it Breaks it Burns, coupled with the exceptional local talent on show in our Homegrown Festival.”
- Daughter (written by Adam Lazarus, directed by Ann-Marie Kerr) – London premiere of the Canadian show that confronts toxic masculinity head-on. Adam Lazarus plays The Father in an intimate and desperate confession. One of the most talked-about shows of 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
- Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran (Javaad Alipoor) – London premiere of a darkly comedic, dizzying new show about entitlement, consumption and digital technology, from the company behind the Fringe First award-winning The Believers Are But Brothers. Audiences are invited to use Instagram to connect the dots between elite youth of Iran, the global gap between rich and poor, and a world in decay.
- When It Breaks It Burns (coletivA ocupação) – London premiere of the dynamic retelling of the high school occupations that rocked Brazil in 2015 and 2016, co-created and performed by 16 of the young people who participated in the original protests. Using dance, music and performance, When It Breaks It Burns envelops the audience in a party, a protest and an uprising.
- Life: LIVE! (Lucy McCormick) – London premiere of the subversive, immersive, pop concert spectacular imagined by nu-pop sensation Lucy McCormick, and her electrotrash Girl Squad. Featuring an album of original music, Life: LIVE! straddles stardom, self-care and redemption in a hilarious, crumbling, musical extravaganza. Life: LIVE! is Lucy McCormick’s latest show following her smash-hits Post-Popular (2019) and Triple Threat (2016)
- unReal city (dreamthinkspeak and Access All Areas) – first phase of a brand new work-in-progress collaboration between two of the UK’s leading performing arts companies, unReal city blends live performance by learning disabled artists with virtual and mixed reality, exploring what personal connection means in a world that is increasingly digital.
- Cock Cock..Who’s There? (Samira Elagoz) – London premiere of the Total Theatre Award winner, Cock Cock..Who’s There? is not your average show about female bodies, feminism or the male gaze. A trip across three continents, from online platforms like Tinder and Chatroulette to close encounters, Samira examines the full spectrum of male–female relations from intimacy to brutality, and takes the audience on her journey of regaining power and attempts to relate to men. Confrontational, funny yet touching, Samira presents an unflinching look at the power of femininity and the female gaze in a world in which the virtual and the real are inextricably intertwined.
- HOMEGROWN FESTIVAL: Going Global – Over 10 days, every corner of Battersea Arts Centre’s building will burst with bold theatre, dance, gigs, parties and workshops exploring big ideas from young voices.
- The Spirit (Thibault Delferiere) – World premiere and a rare UK appearance of one of Europe’s most distinctive and radical disabled artists, Belgian performer Thibault Delferiere and director Jack McNamara create a visceral, provocative new trio of works exploring the changing state of the human spirit, each accompanied by a live improvised score.
- Autoreverse (Florencia Cordeu and Omar Elerian) – World premiere of the story of Florencia Cordeu’s family, who fled Argentina for Chile in the 70s and communicated via mailed audiotapes. Mixing analogue and digital recordings, performer Florencia Cordeu and director Omar Elerian (Misty, Going Through, NASSIM, One Cold Dark Night, Islands)create a unique audio-visual experience interrogating what it means to remember: as an individual, as a family, and as a country.
- Swimming Pools (Sleepwalk Collective) – UK premiere of experimental Anglo-Spanish theatre company Sleepwalk Collective’s most creatively ambitious project to date, taking their trademark dreamlike aesthetic and combining it with video projections and visuals that hark back to early video games, complete with power ups, level maps and energy bars.
- Neither Here Nor There (Jo Fong and Sonia Hughes) – Conversation takes centre stage, as audiences are encouraged to talk, listen, make unexpected connections, and – weather permitting – take a walk around the local area. Jo Fong and Sonia Hughes invite us to slow down and make real-life contact in an age of superficial online communications.
- Outrageous Behaviour (Impact Dance)– a weekend festival featuring the best of street and hip-hop dance with influences from the African Diaspora. Expect performances, workshops that breakdown what it means to be outrageous in today’s world and a Saturday night pitting dancers, musicians, actors and DJs against each other in a raucous improv battle.
SHOW INFO
Autoreverse
Florencia Cordeu and Omar Elerian
Florencia Cordeu and Omar Elerian
Mon 3 – Sat 22 Feb 2020
Press performance: Wed 5 Feb 2020, 8pm
#autoreverse #BACGoingGlobal
From the director of Misty, Autoreverse is the true story of one family’s determination to find a place to call home.
Florencia has an old box full of cassette tapes from her family home in Chile. As she starts listening to them in her room in London, she travels back in time and space, to when her family fled Argentina’s dictatorship and started recording audio letters to stay in touch with their loved ones.
Spanning four decades, Florencia Cordeu and director Omar Elerian (Misty, Going Through, NASSIM, One Cold Dark Night, Islands) create a moving and uplifting audio-visual experience that asks what it means to remember: as an individual, as a family, and as a country.
Created with the support of Battersea Arts Centre, Roundhouse and CASA
Spanning four decades, Florencia Cordeu and director Omar Elerian (Misty, Going Through, NASSIM, One Cold Dark Night, Islands) create a moving and uplifting audio-visual experience that asks what it means to remember: as an individual, as a family, and as a country.
Created with the support of Battersea Arts Centre, Roundhouse and CASA
All performances are relaxed, further access performance information can be found in the listings.
Impact Dance
Fri 7 - 8 Feb 2020
#OutrageousBehavior #BACGoingGlobal
Impact Dance presents a festival weekender featuring the best of street and hip-hop dance, with influences from the African Diaspora.
Expect performances, workshops that break down what it means to be outrageous in today’s world and a Saturday night pitting dancers, musicians, actors and DJs against each other in a raucous improv battle.
Impact Dance have motivated and inspired young people through hip-hop and street dance for 25 years.
All performances are relaxed, further access performance information can be found in the listings.
coletivA ocupaçãoWed 19 – Sat 29 Feb 2020
Press performance: Fri 21 Feb, 7:30pm
#WhenItBreaksItBurns #BACGoingGlobal
#WhenItBreaksItBurns #BACGoingGlobal
Let’s occupy the schools. Let’s occupy the theatres. Let’s occupy everything.
When It Breaks It Burns is an intervention, a cry, a fight.
In 2015, sixteen lives were changed forever when they occupied their high schools, as part of protests that happened across Brazil. Now, they occupy this space using dance, live music and performance to tell their extraordinary story.
Get up close to the action as real life invades the stage. When It Breaks It Burns envelops the audience in a party, a protest and an uprising.
All performances are relaxed, further access performance information can be found in the listings.
Directed by Martha Kiss Perrone.
The Spirit
New Perspectives presents Thibault Delferiere in collaboration with Jack McNamara
Thu 27 Feb – Sat 14 Mar 2020
New Perspectives presents Thibault Delferiere in collaboration with Jack McNamara
Thu 27 Feb – Sat 14 Mar 2020
Press performance: Thu 27 Feb 2020, 8pm
#SpiritNP #BACGoingGlobal
A rare UK appearance from one of Europe’s most distinctive and radical disabled artists. Belgian performer Thibault Delferiere and director Jack McNamara (Sisyphus) create a visceral, provocative trio of performances exploring the changing state of the human spirit.
Combining physical theatre with visual art and live music, Delferiere pushes at the limits of experience in a way that few artists would dare.
A new part of the trio will be performed each week. See them individually or experience all three.
All performances are relaxed, further access performance information can be found in the listings.
unReal City
dreamthinkspeak and Access all Areas
dreamthinkspeak and Access all Areas
Mon 2–Sat 28 Mar 2020
#unRealcity #BACGoingGlobal
A virtual reality experience for two audience members at a time
Discover your new home at our Virtual Reality showroom, with a private viewing of our fully accessible, hi-tech apartments. Opening soon in London’s latest Smart City district, our virtual apartments put the city at your doorstep.
Once immersed in our virtual-living world, you’ll meet other guests, connect with future residents, and explore the virtual city using the latest technology on the market.
Blending intimate live performance by learning disabled artists with virtual and mixed reality, unReal City explores what personal connection means in a world that is increasingly digital.
The performance you will see is the experimental first phase of a work-in-progress collaboration between two of the UK’s leading performing arts companies.
All performances are relaxed, further access performance information can be found in the listings.
Commissioned by Battersea Arts Centre.
Developed with the National Theatre Studio and Battersea Arts Centre.
Developed with the National Theatre Studio and Battersea Arts Centre.
By Adam Lazarus
Tue 3 – Sat 28 Mar 2020
Press performance: Thu 5 Mar, 7:30pm
#DaughterOnTour #GoingGlobal
Adam Lazarus plays The Father in this darkly satirical piece distilled into the figure of a very funny, engaging and deeply troubled man.
Through his powerful account of fatherhood, violence and love, we come to recognize the ingrained misogyny we see everywhere — within society, within our communities, and perhaps, for some of us, within ourselves.
Performed by Adam Lazarus and directed by Ann-Marie Kerr, Daughter became one of the most talked about shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018. This powerhouse performance pulls no punches as it confronts toxic masculinity head on.
All performances are relaxed, further access performance information can be found in the listings.
Produced by The Theatre Centre in association with Glynis Henderson Productions.
Battersea Arts Centre
Mon 30 Mar – Thu 9 Apr 2020
#BACHG20 #BACGoingGlobal
Our annual festival is back – and it’s going global.
Over 10 days, every nook and cranny of our building will burst with bold theatre, dance, gigs, parties and workshops exploring big ideas from young voices.
Battersea Arts Centre’s building will burst with bold theatre, dance, gigs, parties and workshops exploring big ideas from young voices on the climate crisis, migration, and the digital world. Events include a national conference for young changemakers led by The Agency, a youth culture panel curated by Youth Music Entrepreneur 2019 winner IAMNEXT, inclusive clubbing collective DeafRave and a new Exit Productions work on the climate crisis, giving audiences the chance to run their own eco-protest.
Stay tuned for the full festival line-up.
Javaad Alipoor
Tue 14 Apr- Sat 2 May 2020
Press performance: Thu 16 April, 7:30pm
#RichKidsPlay #BACGoingGlobal
The global gap between rich and poor is growing. As the world decays, the spawn of the powerful dance like everyone is watching.
From the company behind the award-winning The Believers Are But Brothers, this darkly comedic, dizzying show about entitlement, consumption and digital technology invites audiences to use Instagram to explore what's happening in the world around in interactive, innovative new ways.
Winner: 2019 Scotsman Fringe First award
All performances are relaxed, further access performance information can be found in the listings.
Presented by Javaad Alipoor and HOME in association with Traverse Theatre Company
Co-commissioned by Diverse Actions, Theatre in the Mill, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Battersea Arts Centre and Bush Theatre
Cock Cock..Who’s There?Samira Elagoz
Tue 14 Apr-Sat 2 May
Press performance: Tue 14 Apr, 8pm
#CockCockWhosThere #BACGoingGlobal
Cock Cock..Who’s There? is not your average show about female bodies, feminism or the male gaze.
A trip across three continents, from online platforms like Tinder and Chatroulette to close encounters, Samira examines the full spectrum of male–female relations from intimacy to brutality, and takes the audience on her journey of regaining power and attempts to relate to men. Confrontational, funny yet touching, Samira presents an unflinching look at the power of femininity and the female gaze in a world in which the virtual and the real are inextricably intertwined.
Winner of a Total Theatre Award 2018, Cock, Cock.. Who’s There? Is an international hit, having toured to Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Paris, Dublin, Rome, Vienna, Mexico City, Reykjavik, Brussels and Warsaw and more, to wide critical acclaim.
All performances are relaxed, further access performance information can be found in the listings.
Performed by Samira Elagoz, with Tashi Iwaoka and Yuriri Naka
Swimming Pools
Sleepwalk Collective
Sleepwalk Collective
Tue 5 – Fri 7 May 2020
Press performance: Wed 6 May 2020, 7:30pm
#SCPools #BACGoingGlobal
This psychedelic new dance theatre is Sleepwalk Collective’s most ambitious show to date.
Wrestling fearlessly with the demons of the early 21st century – rampant capitalism, toxic masculinity, internet boredom– Swimming Pools is about how we might live together in the blinding brightness of the future.
Across a series of imagined swimming pools, arranged like the ascending levels of a retro videogame, a sequence of intimate, confessional monologues are whispered out by four women onstage. Sleepwalk Collective is the award-winning creator of Amusements, Karaoke, Domestica and Kourtney Kardashian.
All performances are relaxed, further access performance information can be found in the listings.
A Teatro de La Abadía co-production. Supported by Battersea Arts Centre, Graner Creation Centre for Dance and Live Art Barcelona, Shift Key/Creative Europe, and the Basque Government.
Life: LIVE!
Lucy McCormick
Lucy McCormick
Tue 19 May – Sat 30 May 2020
Press performance: Thu 21 May 2020, 7:30pm
#LifeLIVE #BACGoingGlobal
A subversive, immersive, pop concert spectacular imagined by nu-pop sensation Lucy McCormick, and her electrotrash Girl Squad.
Featuring shonky-spectacular, stadium-chic live visuals created with artist Morven Mulgrew, and an album of original music, Life: LIVE! straddles stardom, self-care and redemption in a hilarious, crumbling, musical extravaganza.
Co-Commissioned by Fierce, Teatro do Bairro Alto and Cambridge Junction with support from Alkantara, Tramway, Civic House Glasgow and Battersea Arts Centre with funding from Arts Council England.
All performances are relaxed, further access performance information can be found in the listings.
Jo Fong and Sonia Hughes
Mon 4 – Sat 9 May 2020
Press performance: Mon 4 May, 7pm
#NeitherHereNorThere #BACGoingGlobal
When was the last time you made time to talk?
Life is hectic, and real human connection feels increasingly rare. Sonia Hughes and Jo Fong invite you to slow down in Neither Here Nor There.
Join Sonia and Jo for a short walk, followed by a series of six-minute conversations designed to make ‘a leap of faith’ (CCQ Magazine). Described by audiences as ‘inspiring’ and ‘heartfelt’, expect an intimate, refreshing look at the power of speaking and listening in an age of superficial online contact.
This performance includes a short walk which audiences are invited to participate in. If you have mobility requirements, please get in touch.
This performance includes a short walk which audiences are invited to participate in. If you have mobility requirements, please get in touch.
All performances are relaxed, further access performance information can be found in the listings.
Commissioned by Chapter and LAUK Diverse Actions, an initiative which champions culturally diverse ambition, excellence and talent in Live Art.
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