Tree House

By Chris Fogg

Tree House is a story of love and dreams, promises and betrayals, hope and redemption, shot through with warmth, humour and compassion.

It relates the fortunes of three people – Robbie, Jane and Alan – whom we first encounter as children playing in a tree house on a piece of waste ground on the edge of a village. We then follow each of them as they navigate their way along the different rungs of the social and property ladder: Jane goes into law, politics and the media; Alan pursues a career in property, finance and the City; while Robbie joins the Army, carries out a number of tours of duty in Afghanistan, defusing roadside bombs, where a spontaneous act of kindness leads to a sudden and unexpected tragedy.

Some years later fate conspires to bring all three back to the waste ground, back to the tree house, where old scores are settled in a final act of reckoning.

A story for our times. A play for today.

Responses to Tree House:

“… looks at life’s moving parts through a watchmaker’s loupe. Shows how the tiniest elements can affect the whole mechanism, meshing apparently disparate details, making them not just tick, but unexpectedly chime.” Quentin Cooper, broadcaster and journalist, former presenter of BBC Radio 4’s The Material World

“Gripping and poignant.” Kate Wood, Artistic Director, Activate

“Evokes fundamental questions of now, who we are and where we are inside ourselves…” Mark Bruce, winner of Sky Arts/South Bank Award 2014

“Chris Fogg is a master at seeing the extraordinary in the everyday bits and pieces of modern life. I have an inextinguishable admiration for his gentle politic, for his ability to weave an apparently simple idea into a thoughtful reflection of what we should value most. This is quietly urgent work.” Gavin Stride, Director Farnham Maltings, house and caravan

Transference

Have you ever wanted to wear a robot? Or wondered how the lyrics in songs get you dancing? Perhaps you've found yourself moving in sync with everyone around you?

We're looking for curious and playful participants to come and take part in a one off and groundbreaking live research event that might just get everyone dancing. Created by the award-winning Guerilla Dance Project, no previous dance or movement experience is necessary in order to take part. Just bring along with you an energy and openness to see what happens on the night!

Please Note: Participants should be aware that the event is being filmed and that any data gathered will be used for non-commercial academic research. The Trinity Centre is accessible to wheelchair users. For more information please click HERE.

Transference is a collaborative project created by Guerilla Dance Project, Cambridge University, Exeter University and Watershed. It has been funded through the Being There EPSRC research project.

Tickets are free but should be reserved in advance.

Last year we very excitedly launched our in- house Theatre and Dance and programme - IGNiTE. Our aim - to curate  an exciting programme of work that would resonate with everyone who uses and lives around Trinity.

Thanks to funding from Arts Council, an amazing team,  our programming forum (who have helped steer the programme throughout the year) and every artist, audience member and participant our first step into the world of programming world class theatre and dance , supporting artists to crete new work and ensuring our community benefits from artistic excellence .... has been great.

So while we sit back and make plans for our next programme we thought we'd share some of the best moments and successes.

1.Vicki Igbokwe talking to us about the power of dance

2.  Cardboard Citizens challenging us all in the Forum Theatre section of Cathy.

3. Selling nearly half of all our ticket at concessions rate

4. Meaning that our audiences are reflective of Bristol's inclusive and diverse communities

5. Rider Shafique blowing us away with his solo performance of I-Dentity

6. 1500+ people watching, taking part, dancing, asking questions and celebrating with us

7.  Afreena Islam's honest performance to a room full of our regular centre users

8. Supporting six artists and companies with community & participation at the core of their practice to develop work and deliver workshops at Trinity

9. All the people who stayed for the Q+A's and took part in sometimes difficult but always provoking conversations

Read more about IGNiTE here

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Part TED talk, part history lecture, part folk club sing-a-long, part storytelling session… Come and share in these tales as they have been shared for generations.

See here for more information and frequently asked questions page.

Part TED talk, part history lecture, part folk club sing-a-long, part storytelling session… Come and share in these tales as they have been shared for generations.

See here for more information and frequently asked questions page.

The evening will include a sharing from ongoing theatre workshops with migrant women in collaboration with Borderlands and a screening of the work being done by project SuFIA (Sudanese Folklore-Inspired Arts) by Hiba. The 45-min panel discussion will feature topics such as the ethics of participation, making theatre from lived experience and working with migrants followed by a Q&A.

Carlota recently partnered with Bristol-based charity Borderlands to offer free weekly theatre workshops for migrant women starting in September 2023. This participatory theatre project addresses language barriers and explores identity and what it means to be a woman in different cultures.

Theatre of Migration with Carlota Matos and Hiba Elhindi will take place on Thursday 12th October, 6.30-8PM at the Trinity Centre, Trinity Road, Bristol, BS2 0NW.

Doors will open at 6.15PM and the event will start promptly at 6.30PM. Refreshments will be provided. Please note there won’t be any alcohol served.

ACCESS: This is a relaxed event and will have BSL interpretation throughout. Trinity is wheelchair accessible.

Families are welcome and there will be a non-staffed breakout space available with children's toys and activities.

About Trinity Presents

This event is part of Trinity Presents - our in-house programme of music and performance, bringing world-class artists and emerging talent to inner-city audiences.

Celebrate flab, double chins and getting semi-naked in Scottee’s Fat Blokes (22 Feb). Laugh at the hilarious Confessions of a Cockney Temple Dancer, Shane Shambhu's biographical story of cultural fusion and clashes in an East London playground (10 March). Join Darren Pritchard Dance, their artist friends – dancers, singers, musicians and poets in the 1920’s Harlem Renaissance Inspired: Rent Party (16 Mar). Then, explore issues around migration in Toussaint To Move’s autobiographically sourced Windows of Displacement (23 March) where the shifting (and increasingly urgent) politics surrounding the movement of people takes centre-stage.

Explore issues around migration in Toussaint To Move’s autobiographically sourced Windows of Displacement (23 March)

Rent Party (16 Mar): a kaleidoscopic picture of what it means today to be young, gifted, and black – and poor, and gay.

From post-show talk backs (Fat Blokes 22 Feb, Windows of Displacement 23 March) to workshops (Making Stuff About Stuff, Scottee; Creative Dance with Akeim Toussaint Buck; Contemporary Dance workshop with Shane Shambu) there are plenty of ways to stand up and get involved in the season.

Sign up to: Contemporary Dance workshop with Shane Shambu, 10 March, £5

All IGNiTE tickets are £11 / £9 concs (including booking fee) and workshops of £5 (including booking fee). Communities who use Trinity regularly could benefit from subsided tickets, please email marketing officer sarahb@3ca.org.uk to find out more.

Get involved with IGNiTE

Volunteering - from stewarding to photography there are many ways to get involved in IGNiTE. Find out more about the opportunities on offer here.

Test audiences - help shape the work artists and companies create by signing up to be part of an IGNiTE test audience.

Residencies - find out more about our IGNiTE artists in residence here.

The Unknown Soldier reveals the hidden histories of black British servicemen and women who fought for Britain during the First and Second World Wars.

Presented by Alison Ray Dance Company, the show explores the personal stories of the brave men and women of Black British heritage and the part they played in Britain’s successful war effort.

Told through a variety of dance styles including Lindy Hop, African, Caribbean, and contemporary dance, this emotive dance theatre show weaves together visuals and live music to bring the narrative to life, offering a compelling tribute to Black British War Veterans.

In a world where the past often threatens to fade into obscurity, The Unknown Soldier stands as a beacon of remembrance, as told through dance, ensuring that the legacy of Black British War Veterans lives on for generations to come.

Schedule

Doors - 5:30pm

Show - 6:00pm

Break - 7pm

Q&A - 7:15pm

This is part of Trinity Presents - our in-house programme of music and performance, bringing world-class artists and emerging talent to inner-city audiences.

These arms of mine they are burning

Burning from wanting you, these arms of mine.

They are wanting, wanting to hold you.

And if you would let them hold you,

Oh how grateful I will be'

Otis Reading

The Secret Slowness of Movement is an invitation to slow dance, or slow be.

A refuge for quiet contemplation, a dance floor for anonymous embodied slowness.

Bring a lover, friend or nemesis, or come alone.

And together let us surrender to the secret slowness.

This is The Secret Slowness of Movement's first incarnation. It is part of Laura Dannequin's on-going investigation into the creation of participatory dance installation work, first explored in Dance Dark Dance (Mayfest 2013).

Drop in at any time.

Laura Dannequin is a French-born Bristol based artist working predominantly in & with movement. As a maker she is interested in creating work that is present, live, raw and explores bodily being in the world: the dancing body, the social body, the diseased body. She is currently touring her solo Hardy Animal and is associate director at Still House(stillhouse.co.uk).

One day, a baby clown accidentally bounces off a passing circus train and is left in the middle of nowhere, separated from family and friends.

A little reluctantly at first, the farmer takes the clown in. As time passes, they discover that by being with each other, they find something new in themselves.

Made with consultation from Deaf Access and Visual Language consultants, Flibbertigibbet Theatre has adapted this picture book by award-winning author and illustrator, Marla Frazee, into a new wordless play for all ages.

Playing without words, the show is accessible to a wide range of audiences. They worked with  a Visual Language consultant and Deaf Access Support consultant, to ensure that the physical language created for the storytelling is clear and accessible for all audiences, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Anyone who does not speak English can still enjoy the show as language is not an issue.

The story delicately explores themes of loneliness, friendship, and care, across the divisions of age and community.

‘UTTERLY HEARTWARMING AND RELATABLE…. What Flibbertigibbet have created is a beautiful, simple, and charming piece of theatre, suitable for all.” Bristol 24/7

Buy Tickets

12pm Ticket Link

3pm Ticket Link

This is a Trinity Presents event.

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

The Bristol Ballroom Community are inviting everyone to Bristol's First Official Ballroom Function. Bear witness to this spectacular fusion of dance, fashion, performance, and gender expression. The public are invited as spectators, or if you have the nerve, you can participate or ‘walk’ the Ball. There are different tickets for walkers and spectators so please be careful when choosing. There is a category for everyone – some will be dance performance based, some performance art, and others just feeling yourself!

Originating in Harlem, New York in the 1920s, Ballroom Culture has since spread across the globe. With its racial inclusivity pioneered by Trans figureheads such as Crystal Labeija, the Ballroom Scene celebrates and prioritises LGBTQIA+ people of colour. Members of the Ballroom Scene come together for Balls, where individuals and Houses compete in fashion, beauty, realness, and performance categories for prizes. The Bristol Ballroom Community formed in 2019, as they were obsessed with Ballroom Culture and wanted to make a safe space for Queer People of Colour. They eventually reached out to the wider UK Ballroom Scene.

Anyone is welcome to participate, but if you’re new to Ballroom Culture and want to walk any the of categories, why not do some research before you walk? Reach out to the Bristol Ballroom Community or join one of their weekly Training sessions, and please be respectful of who the space was created for.

Please press the 'More Info' on the left of the screen, or copy the Facebook link below into your browser for a full breakdown of the categories and their criteria:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1334609100372266/

If you would like to participate in this event as a 'Walker' please contact @BristolBallroomCommunity via Instagram, so that they can provide you with the Walkers Ticket Discount Code. Walkers tickets cost £7

https://www.instagram.com/bristolballroomcommunity/?hl=en

We hope to see you on the Floor!

Come The Revolution presents in Partnership with Bristol Radical Film Festival:

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

A film by Director Stanley Nelson

Change was coming to America and the fault lines could no longer be ignored—cities were burning, Vietnam was exploding, and disputes raged over equality and civil rights. A new revolutionary culture was emerging and it sought to drastically transform the system.

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would, for a short time, put itself at the vanguard of that change. THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION is the first feature length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it. Featuring Kathleen Cleaver, Jamal Joseph, and many others, THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION is an essential history and a vibrant chronicle of this pivotal movement that birthed a new revolutionary culture in America.

1hr 55mins

You Might also be interested in 3 1/2 Minutes: 10 Bullets

Credits:

Directed, Produced, and Written By STANLEY NELSON

Producer LAURENS GRANT

Editor ALJERNON TUNSIL

Associate Producer NICOLE LONDON

Assistant Producer / Researcher SAM ALESHINLOYE

Assistant Editor REBECCA SHERWOOD

Cinematographers ANTONIO ROSSI /RICK BUTLER

Composer TOM PHILLIPS Sound JT TAKAGI

Animators MOLLY SCHWARTZ / GARRY WALLER

The Beach is by Stephen Lightbrown, was presented as part of our inclusive cabaret What Words Are Ours? originally live streamed via Zoom and Facebook, Nov 2020 as part of Trinity Presents Online, funded by The Culture Recovery Fund.

Funds have been made available by the Government to support organisations like Trinity to weather the impact of coronavirus and come back even stronger, whilst also providing a much needed arts offer.

What Words Are Ours? was an exciting D/deaf inclusive poetry cabaret performance, featuring BSL interpreter Becky Barry.

Keep an eye out on our website and social media channels for other upcoming performances as part of #CultureRecoveryFund.

#TrinityPresents

#HereForCulture