Running time: 90 mins

When people ask me about my brother I usually give them the short answer: he has severe learning disabilities, epilepsy and autism. He Ain’t Heavy is the long answer. As Sean cannot go on a national tour due to a love of routine and no concept of theatre, we are going to bring him into the room in other ways.

Performer Grania Pickard returns to Bristol's Trinity Centre to tell the story of growing up with her brother Sean. Using physical theatre, aerial circus, audience interaction and storytelling she brings the world they share to life. Through puppetry the audience see how Sean walks, talks and interacts with the world and how his unique take on life has shaped and influenced Grania.

“You have to see Grania in action: she is a highly skilled circus performer, storyteller and connector, lighting up the entire stage.” LucyLovesCircus

Please note: there will be a relaxed performance at the 3pm performance on the 26th October

Circus feats to swingin' beat! Come join the swing circus for a day.

You’ll meet specialist Charleston choreographers from BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing and get a chance to have a go yourself, you'll also see the incredible skills of top UK circus performers including high level hulahoop, cyr wheel and juggling.

Swing Circus is passionate about representation and diversity, this means acknowledging the African American roots of Swing as a cultural response to oppression. By working with this joyous artform we seek to bring power to marginalised histories and pleasure to the audiences we share it with.

It’s impossible to hear swing music without a smile on your face or tapping your feet. We want to harness that playful energy to create uplifting, energetic circus and dance shows. Get those happy feet a-movin’, and swing your booty in a hulahoop - guaranteed to leave a smile on your face and a spring on your step, it’s the Swing Circus!

Dress code: vintage swing/circus

Please note: tickets for Swing Circus on Saturday and Sunday include both a workshop and an evening performance, which will start at 4pm. If you wish to only attend the performance, please book for Friday.

You can also book a meal ticket to get some delicious food on Saturday and Sunday!

Running time: 105 mins (Fri - performance only) & 285 mins (Sat/Sun including break)

Paradise City

Over ten days IGNiTE summer residents Back in 5 Minutes Squad and Art in Motion will be creating an evolving installation up in our Fyfle Hall.

This is super exciting as Spike Island Residents  - Back in 5 Minutes Squad and emerging not-for-profit participatory arts organisation Art in Motion (AIM) will be collaborating for the first time for this project.

Evolving over the ten days of the residency these two diverse groups will collaborate to portray their vision of an ideal, egalitarian future in which humans of all types and abilities coexist peacefully and purposefully together - the fabric of this future city will reflect the diverse and idiosyncratic interests of all the artists involved.

From Monday 19 the artists invite you to visit during this exciting process and Paradise City will be open to everyone for a celebration event from 5-7pm in the Graffiti Room at Trinity on Thursday 29 June.

Paradise City is supported by Arts Council England via Grants for the Arts and by Trinity Community Arts.

- No physical tickets will be distributed for this event. Print or screen grab your receipt or alternatively present your name and transaction number on the door. 
- This event will be filmed for VOD release. Filming the event is strictly prohibited! 
- Card subject to change. 
- Ticket sales are non-refundable.

"It’s your world, but I make my way in it..." (Beaumarchais)

In a grand house not too far away, the high melodrama and petty squabbles of its residents are played out in glorious technicolour. Love, jealousy, class struggle, and families lost and found are staged on a household scale. At the centre of it all, an artful Figaro and his beloved Susanna, together with an unhappy Countess, conspire to show a philandering, arrogant Count the error of his ways. As events unfold in escalating absurdity, it will take all of Figaro's wiles to explain away squashed geraniums, boys dressed as girls, and contractual marriage obligations. Will contentment and happiness ever reign again in this household?

Award-winning opera company Opera in a Box bring you their production of Mozart’s "The Marriage of Figaro". Following their recent NODA award for ‘Innovative Production’ for their winter performances of Puccini’s "La bohème", they have brought together a cast and crew of some of the finest young talents in the south-west, both on and off stage, promising for an extremely enjoyable and entertaining show.

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO Performed in English
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, Translated by Thomas Martin, Edited by Ruth Martin.
The Trinity Centre – Trinity Road, Bristol BS2 0NW
Sunday 28th May 2017, Matinee: 2pm & Evening: 6:30pm (approximately 2h 20m)

Enter the Weird and Wonderful World of ATTACK! featuring all your favourites on Saturday,

Doors Open 7:00pm / Show Starts 7:30pm

Important Details; - No physical tickets will be distributed for this event. Print or screen grab your receipt or alternatively present your name and transaction number on the door. - This event will be filmed for VOD release. Filming the event is strictly prohibited! - Card subject to change. - Ticket sales are non-refundable.

As an iconic Arts Centre with forty years of music programming experience under their belt it should come as no surprise to you that the Trinity team are continuing to push boundaries with their IGNiTE programme of performance in 2017.

Ranging from the playful to the sometimes hard-to-swallow realities of life, the newly announced spring selection of programming is destine to challenge and excite audiences. Fergus Evans, Trinity’s theatre and dance producer says that all the shows presented are ‘a celebration of the spaces we make for ourselves when none of the boxes fit quite right.’

Mixing the exciting with the unexpected, the season’s five shows set out to provoke conversations. In I-Dentity Rider Shafique explores being mixed race and what it is like when you are neither but also both. Liz Aggiss’ giddy and sometimes sinister Slap and Tickle cheekily explores female sexuality and growing older. What you see is not always what you get in Alesandra Seutin's  C'eci n'est past Noire (This is not Black) - a journey through identity politics, Beyonce and, a few parlour games. Putting the Band Back Together is a playful story about why we give up on our dreams and how we find them again. Gather the round dinner table in Daughters of the Curry Revolution and find out what it means to be the daughter of a migrant.

At Trinity you're never just a member of the audience, and this carefully selected programming certainly reflects this. From picking up an instrument and joining Unfolding Theatre’s house band to learning new ways to move with Alesandra Seutin (Vocab Dance Company). You can sign up to be a member of one of our test audiences and see work in development from our resident artists. Let us know what you think of the show you’ve seen or volunteer as a steward. The message is clear: Don't just come see a show. Take part. Speak up. Start something.

Alongside our regular programme of live music and community events, we present world-class, innovative artists whose work is about issues that matter to people now, starting conversations and sparking debate. IGNiTE is supported by funding from Arts Council England.

Further Info:

Tickets go on Sale 10am Friday 3rd Feb http://www.3ca.org.uk/ignite ​ ​

Slap and Tickle, Liz Aggis 18th March 7.30pm £10 / £8

Ceci n'est pas Noire (This is not Black), Alesandra Seutin I Vocab Dance Company 25th March, 7.30pm £10 / £8

Putting The Band Back Together, Unfolding Theatre 21st April, 7.30pm £10 / £8

I-Dentity, Rider Shafique 28th April, 7.30pm £10 / £8

Daughters of the Curry Revolution, Afreena Islam 5th/6th/7th May : 3pm / 5pm / 7pm £12 / £10

This high quality performance involves the whole company. Not only do the students perform but they play an instrumental role in the behind the scene organisation, such as designing posters and programmes, making costumes, collecting raffle prizes and raising money to pay for all of this. They’re also an integral part of the creative process, working as soloists, within small groups and entire company collaborations.'

Matinee - 2pm

Evening show 7.30pm

RISE Youth Dance aim to bring you 'Reach' - an exciting showcase of our talented students! | Crowdfunding is a democratic way to support the fundraising needs of your community. Make a contribution today!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/rise-youth-dance-presents-reach-still-i-rise#/

Gas Girls .. excellently researched and performed, powerfully staged and unforgettable, this is community theatre at its very best..’ Cherry Ann Knott, HLF

"It was fantastic, such an incredible story, and performed with sensitivity and an enthusiastic talented cast."

"A fantastic portrayal of a real life story. Very powerful, the more so because it was true."

'Gorilla Pressed and Deep in Conversation'

Our last gazillion Bristol events have been sell outs so get them now or be really disappointed later..

YMT Auditions are for anyone aged 11 to 21 looking to kick-start their career in the performing arts - join the YMT 2017 Company!

You are auditioning to be part of YMT’s 2017 Summer Season where, if successful, you’ll be placed on a two/three-week project to create a brand new piece of music theatre with a team of theatre professionals. YMT projects are residential - so you'll be living away from home - and take place in July/August across the UK. The selection process is not based on geography, so you may not be placed on the course closest to where you live.

The audition is a three-hour group workshop where you’ll be led by a professional director, a musical director and a choreographer - YOU DO NOT NEED TO PREPARE ANYTHING!

BRISTOL AUDITION - SUNDAY 22 JANUARY 2017:

Session 1: 10:00 - 13:00
Session 2: 14:00 - 17:00

WE ARE SORRY TO ANNOUNCE THAT THIS IS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES

Look No Further

Ria Hartley

‘One of the UK’s most exciting performance makers’

Live Art Development Agency

A celebration of (r)evolution and love

On 18th May 2013, Ria Hartley was self-married by civil partnership. This is her life’s commitment.

Look No Further is about a woman of colour raising the stakes in her life to determine her own vision and future. Staged as a post wedding reception dinner, the performance invites an audience as guests to this unique celebration of 'queering' and reclamation.

Time: performance 6 – 7.30pm, followed by party

Dress code: Celebratory

#wildcard #ibt17

WINNER OF IBT WILD CARD AWARD 2017

The Wild Card Award commissions one exceptional UK artist every IBT Festival. From a national open call, the artist is selected on the basis of an outstanding interdisciplinary practice and the urgency of their work.

Produced by In Between Time in partnership with The Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA), Fierce Festival and Trinity Community Arts.

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