The UK’s only international physical theatre festival returns to Liverpool this June for a 6-day extravaganza of performance, workshops and more.
Physical Fest, brought to you by Liverpool’s Tmesis Theatre, is a celebration of the rich variety of local, national and international contemporary physical work. Physical Fest will take over the Unity Theatre from 10th-15th June, as well as venturing out further afield to The Capstone Theatre at Liverpool Hope University and the Royal Albert Dock.
Following a break last year, the festival returns as an officially bi-annual event from 2019, featuring a range of performers from across the globe.
Highlights include Izumi Ashizawa, who incorporates traditional Japanese performance styles and puppetry into her show ‘I Cried Because I Had No Shoes Until…‘, as well as the Butt Kapinski, a master of gender trickery and audience immersion, who will invite Liverpool audiences to co-star in a choose-your-own-adventure murder mystery.
Further highlights from the performance programme come from the two winners of Physical Fest’s Female Artist Bursary Award. Manchester-based Meraki Collective will showcase their new dance theatre work ‘Kill a Witch or Die Trying‘, whilst Liverpool’s own Rowena Gander will explore femininity in her new piece ‘The Ten Inch Heels’.
A new outdoor performance featuring a cast of 14 women from Tmesis Training Company – a professional performance project for emerging physical performers – entitled ‘Wicked Women’ also features in the line-up.
Another coup for the festival, Herald Angel award winners Gandini Juggling will bring a mix of circus and theatre to the festival with their global hit, ‘SMASHED’.
In addition to the packed line-up of performances, Physical Fest will also feature a programme of workshops, with practitioners from Japan, USA, Finland and the UK providing training on a variety of physical theatre disciplines, as well as giving attendees the chance to meet new people and see physical performance work up close and personal.
The festival will also feature a Devoted & Disgruntled Open Space event with an invitation from Claire Bigley, Producer of Physical Fest: “I believe we need to make sure there are ways into the sector for female, working class, artists. We need people in leadership roles; AD’s, CEO’s, board members, Venue Managers. So how can we, together, fundamentally change the make-up of those making and watching theatre for the better? Come along to this event and let’s do some work . See you there!”
Physical Fest is Tmesis Theatre’s international physical theatre festival. A 6-day festival presenting performance, workshops, a conference and bursaries for the creation of new work. A celebration of the rich variety of local, national and international contemporary physical work, the only festival of it’s kind in the UK.
For more information on Physical Fest, visit www.physicalfest.com
