Access as Art

Sue MacLaine & Nadia Nadarajah are performers in 'Can I Start Again Please'; the award winning show that explores the capacity of language to represent traumatic experience. The piece is performed in English and British Sign Language

Sue is a qualified & registered interpreter specialising in performance interpreting and Nadia is a native sign language user with a specialism in Visual Vernacular.

The workshop will explore approaches to translation, visual vernacular, creating a BSL script for auto-cue, use of auto-cue. It will be a mixture of practice and theory.

The workshop is aimed at people who are working as professional British Sign Language/English interpreters.

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Mayfest is Bristol’s unique annual festival of contemporary theatre. We are dedicated to presenting a broad range of unusual, playful and ambitious work from leading theatre makers from Bristol, the UK and beyond.

Mayfest is produced by MAYK in collaboration with Bristol Old Vic and works in partnership with other key arts venues across Bristol to present work in both established theatre spaces and non-theatre spaces all over the city.

Mayfest’s Artistic Directors are Matthew Austin and Kate Yedigaroff.

A mix of work  so tasty it makes you want to up sticks and move to Bristol permanently

The Guardian

A pulse-racing programme of work ranging that offers fledgling local companies cheek by jowl with artists of international reputation

The Guardian

Light Steps takes children on a magical journey using light and colour, music and dance.

This interactive performance is for all the family to enjoy. We follow Alex, a kaleidoscopic rag doll, through portal moments in time, tracing a wonder-ful day from sunrise to sunset. We experience the world of the arts through Alex’s wondrous eyes. The piece takes inspiration from artist Spencer Finch’s exhibition; The Skies can’t keep their secret, with live music and dance.

Show 10.30am

For children age 3+ (and their families)

Luca Silvestrini’s Protein is coming to Bristol with its celebrated outdoor show (In)visible Dancing.

Dance Village Bristol are working with Protein Dance to create (in)visible dancing for performance during the week leading up to and at Bristol Harbour Festiva, and they need six local performers to join the cast and be part of this unique live event.

Auditions will be held here at Trinity Centre Sunday 15th May.

Apprentices will work and perform alongside company members and participating community based dance groups.

The opportunity would particularly suit recent dance and performance graduates & experienced under graduates based in and around Bristol.

You could be involved in co-creating a new piece of dance theatre especially for the Dance Village programme at Bristol Harbour Festival and perform alongside Protein’s dancers

Dates of residency performances: 11-16 July 2016.

If you have dance experience and would like more information or to get involved, please contact Katy Noakes on katynoakes@yahoo.com and let us know why you would like to take part. Deadline 30th April.

Please include a contact email and telephone number.

Please note: position is paid expenses only

Get a taste of (In)visible Dancing at https://youtu.be/A0pNP_q_sZc

(In)visible dancing at Dance Village is supported by The Island, Arnolfini, Theatre Bristol, ReStaged, Bristol City Counci and Arts Council England

Performances times 11am & 1pm (two shows, 1hr each)

Some acorns DO fall far from the tree...

Gather under the branches for the biggest day in the woodland calendar, Drop Day! Arnold the acorn is about to drop from his tree and begin his amazing adventure in search of somewhere to put down his roots. Join Arnold as his story flies in the wind, wiggles across the land and splashes into the sea... Who will he meet along the way and will he ever find the perfect spot to call home?

Taking place in a special bell tent, Arnold's Big Adventure features beautiful shadow puppetry, wonderful original music to sing along to and plenty of thrilling surprises along the way...

Following the success of her one-woman show, The Tap Dancing Mermaid, Tessa Bide returns with an intimate, interactive production perfect for a child’s first theatrical experience, with plenty for parents to enjoy too! “Tessa Bide understands children in a way that can’t be taught” (Children’s Theatre Reviews).

Suitable for children aged 3 - 10 years and their grown-ups.

Limited tickets available so do please purchase in advance.

“just brilliant, so creative and engaging with the children (and the adults)...it was pitched just right”
★★★★★ Whatsgoodtodo.com

One day intensive with extended class and the opportunity for a hands-on play within our new virtual reality project 'Immersion'

Please email to book a place.

Can I Start Again Please

Sue MacLaine Company

Can I Start Again Please tells parallel narratives in parallel languages (English & British Sign Language) which intersect, diverge and build to create a mesmerising mix of verbal and visual theatre.

The piece desiccates and dissects childhood trauma via an exploration of Wittgenstein and semantics. Can I start Again Please investigates the power and failings of language – language that tells and hide truths – sparring across the heard and the unheard, the spoken and the unspoken.

The script is poetic and full of humour and is performed by Sue MacLaine and Nadia Nadarajah with a bright, coursing and relaxed reciprocity.

The piece is fully accessible to British Sign Language users.

Winner: Total Theatre Award for ‘Innovation, Experimentation and Playing with Form’ Edinburgh Fringe 2015

“This gracefully intelligent production faces up to so much: trauma, barely articulable feelings, the limits of language. You emerge wondering how a staging so kind can be so devastating.”Maxie Szalwinska, The Sunday Times

“MacLaine’s challenging, devastating and devastatingly good piece…raises pertinent questions.” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

“How do you make sense of abuse? How do you take it apart to process it? This profound and poetic piece—almost a performance sculpture—makes a start.” Matt Trueman, Fest magazine

Booking is now open to MAYK friends, and will open to the public at 10am on Friday 11 March. Become a MAYK friend and get priority booking, too.

Thu 19 – Fri 20 May, 6.30pm

All ages

The Castle Builder

Vic Llewellyn and Kid Carpet

An emotional and hard rocking journey into the hearts and souls on the outer limits of creativity and building regulations.

The Castle Builder tells the true story of an inmate in a Norwegian psychiatric institute who over five years built a castle on a remote headland.

The show spirals outwards from personal accounts into tales of other outsider artists who’ve been inspired to build gigantic extraordinary structures, alone, in secret, and without artistic validation from the real world.

Vic Llewellyn and Kid Carpet re-imagine these stories and tell them with live music, projection and heartfelt storytelling.

“Mark E Smith could have been their co-writer; that’s a compliment” – Pilot Nights, Coventry

“The Castle Builder is already total magic. What a world.” Tanuja Amarasuriya, Sleepdogs

“gorgeous collision of the daft & profound” – Kate Yedigaroff (MAYK/Mayfest)

Booking is now open to MAYK friends, and will open to the public at 10am on Friday 11 March. Become a MAYK friend and get priority booking, too.

Developed with support from MAYK and Bristol Old Vic Ferment.

Thu 12 – Sat 14 May, 7pm Thu & Fri, 6pm Sat

All ages

Emergenc(i)es

Control and Calculation : Inheriting Liberation : Improvised Publics

The exhibition will explore how the emergence of alternative social possibilities has become an emergency in our current historical moment.

Performance, education activities, visual art, screenings, installations, workshops and a library-cum-pharmacy will examine how we approach and diagnose the problems we collectively face.

Emergenc(i)es will exhibit creative practices and educational sessions that can help resist and transform challenging conditions within and between our communities.

Between 12-2 every week day there will be a hosted lunchtime 'Gathering' that will provide an opportunity to practice improvisation with others.

Performances, art and facilitation from: Anushiye Yarnell, Shannon Woodcock, Madhu Krishnan, Martin Crowley, Bela Emerson, Lidia Pereira / the Immaterial Labour Union Zine, Alex Wardrop, Maggie Nicols, Ben Owen + friends, Corey Mwamba, Charlotte Cooper, Ann Heilmann, Alix Hyde, Katia Barrett, Hannah Schling, Dusan Mihajlovic, Rosie Lewis and more tbc!

Exhibition and events run from Monday 6th June - Friday 17th June.

All events free thanks to funding from Awards for All, no booking required, just turn up.

Celebrating 40yrs of music at Trinity

Showcasing the best of Bristol so join us for what is always a great day out.

Garden Stage:

Master's of ceremonies: Alice Taylor-Matthews & Edson Burton

Trinity Music Training / Temple Records- 12:00pm
Bodywork - 12:30pm
Luui - 1:20pm
Yama Warashi - 2:30pm
Many Monika - 3:45pm
The Evil Usses - 5:00pm
Bristol Samba - Bloco Carnavalesco - 5:45pm
The Most Trio ft Lil Rhys & Eva Lazarus - 6:15pm
Lionpulse Official - 7:15pm
RSD - 8pm

This year we have more exciting activities to get involved in...

Arnold's Big Adventure - by Tessa Bide: Taking place in a special bell tent, Arnold's Big Adventure features beautiful shadow puppetry, wonderful original music to sing along to & plenty of thrilling surprises along the way... 11am & 1pm / £5 / ages 3+ (due to limited capacity for Arnold's Big Adventure advance tickets are recommended)

Cinco Coisas: Is a solo show structured around the five basic needs of a child – Place, Nurture, Support, Protection and Limitation. Through dance, play, clowning and improvisation it proposes to lead the audience on a purely human experience.

Jimmy Cauty’s (The ADP Riot Tour 2016): Following the ADP's critically-acclaimed appearance at Banksy's Dismaland last summer, the installation has taken to the road, re-housed in a specially converted shipping container, which will open its doors to visitors across the country, at the sites of historic riots. Trinity will be its home from 29th April: 6pm - 8th May: 9pm. open daily 10am - 7pm

Drumming Workshops of India: A positive, enthusiastic Indian drumming session that teaches a group of children about Indian drumming culture. They cover the basic Indian rhythms and drumming techniques using a wide variety of percussion. Covering the basic Indian rhythms and drumming techniques using a wide variety of percussion. They also cover a brief history of drumming culture in India, including teaching the Indian drumming language.

Bristol Samba: We will have an amazing performance from Bristol Samba. They're one of our resident groups and its always great to have them perform at our events.

Pixel Whipped: Will be joining us again this year with their amazing array of retro games consoles for you all to play.

Trinity's Garden Party is free but we welcome donations in support of of the ongoing charitable work of Trinity Community Arts. You can donate on the day or beforehand via Bristol Ticket Shop (donation does not guarantee entry)

Trinity is sorry to announce that, due to a mistake on our part, Daddy G is unavailable to perform at this year's Garden Party, Sunday 8th May.

We are sorry to have caused confusion. Daddy G is a long-standing supporter of the Trinity Centre and we look forward to working with him on future events.

We will be announcing the change of lineup and new headline shortly and look forward to seeing you all for our '40 Years of Music' celebration.

Please be advised that, due to the small size of our site and large anticipated crowd numbers, dogs will not be permitted entry, with the exception of guide dogs.

Auguste and The Moon

The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder, according to Miller, is his only composition to draw inspiration "from the blue". The complex story follows the journey of Auguste, the famous clown who finds nothing easier than to make his audience laugh, but suffers dissatisfaction night after night. Through his performance, instead he seeks more, stopping at nothing less than attempting to bestow a lasting joy to his audience. It intricately explores the nature of work, the essence of happiness, and the longing to shake free of everyday life and to find something more.

This short story has been adapted by Up The Ante, who have developed the piece attentively using their explorative approach. Auguste and The Moon is a contemporary piece that melds physical theatre, improvisation and clowning with media and composition.

Show dates: 14th, 15th & 16th April.

Show times: 7.30pm / Doors 7pm

Matinee Saturday 16th April: 2pm / Doors 1.30pm

Tickets for this event have sold out.

As flashing neon lights descend upon the tracks, a boxing gloved boy with a death wish comes head to head with a white suited locomotive and a deer in black patent stilettos.

Castle Rock is a new story inspired by three of the voiceless characters in Stephen King's novella The Body, most famously adapted by Rob Reiner into the 1986 cult film, Stand By Me.

Expect looped voice, rhythmic physicality and projected words, as Massive Owl twist the film's soundtrack and contort the book's characters into a re-imagined story about friendship, loss and the things we fail to tell each other.

Welcome to Castle Rock!

Supported by Arts Council England, the Barbican Centre, Bristol Ferment, ICIA Bath, The Island, Arnolfini and our partners in Ireland: Project Arts Centre, Live Collision, Fringe Lab and the British Council (Ireland).

With special thanks to Jane Duffy.

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About the company

Massive Owl are a collaborative theatre company based in Bristol. They tell stories and in the process challenge how a story can look, sound and feel. Their work sits somewhere in the space between theatre, live art and the language of cinema. Massive Owl are Jenny Duffy, Sam Powell and Danny Prosser. They are associate artists of Live Collision and members of artist-led collective, Interval.

Nine Lives is a one-man show about asylum seeker Ishmael, played by Lladel Bryant, from Zimbabwe and his struggle to gain asylum in Armley. Bryant does a superb job of bringing the character to life, he is animated and convincingly plays Ishmael, and the characters he comes across, with lightness and ease.

The play explores what happens when Ishmael, who is seeking asylum because he is gay, starts the asylum process in Britain. The production focuses on the loss, creation and slippage of identity when faced with such a situation. How much of himself does Ishmael leave in Zimbabwe, how much does he hang onto and how much does he make himself anew?

This production, with beautiful African music introducing new aspects of the story, is a very honest and human account of this confusing, heart breaking and totally transformational time in Ishmael’s life. The script is excellent, the performance strong and honest and the design is elegant. There are no theatrical fireworks here, but there do not need to be, a simple story of Ishmael’s arrival and the difficulty in the decisions he has to make are powerful enough.

The script is written by Zodwan Nyoni, for Leeds playhouse where she was writer in residence in 2014. One of the effective aspects of Ishmael’s story is that it is entirely individual, prompting audience members to realise that asylum seekers are not a homogenous group in the same situation with the same concerns and problems, but each one is a person with their own very particular set of circumstances. Ishmael has to decide if he tells other African asylum seekers about why he is seeking asylum with the knowledge that he might be persecuted by his own countrymen or keep it quiet so he can seek the comfort of those with a shared background.

The narrative never rests, Ishmael is not allowed to settle, his story has no resolution. This echoes the transient, ever changing and never-resolved state that he is in. While he awaits the government’s decision as to whether Britain can harbour him, he has no firm ground to stand on. This production is very pertinent and has a lightness of touch that allows it to transcend the media coverage of this plight and depict one person’s difficult journey to a new start.