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]]>In collaboration with Trinity Centre and host Dr. Edson Burton, we invite you to join us for an evening celebrating the transformative power of word and sound with Lillian Allen, award-winning Poet and Creative Writing Professor at the Ontario College of Art & Design University in Toronto.
Open mic starts at 7pm, followed by performance and Q&A with Lillian Allen.
Professor Allen has pioneered and specialized in dub poetry, a new genre of English Literature which is a highly politicized form of poetry preferring a black aesthetic and specific cultural codification. Allen is responsible for opening up the form to insist and engrave feminist content and sensibilities. Professor Allen’s work in poetry, theatre, fiction, non-fiction, writing for children, and experimental writing forms has been extensively published, performed, and recorded.
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.
She Called Me Mother is a story of distance. Distance caused by travelling from one continent to another. The distance that secrets create. Distance made by time. Distance between generations. Distance as enforced protection when love is lost to broken trust.
Evangeline is waiting, waiting for a woman, waiting for her black swan. Meanwhile she observes passers by. From her spot at London Bridge station she is only really visible to those who choose to see her. She is asking for money, an interaction and kindness in exchange for a magazine. Evangeline recounts moments in her long life that have led her to this place. Her past is set in Trinidad where she held many roles; she was a wife and, most importantly to the tale, she was a mother. She speaks out to us, explaining her history while the figure of a younger woman casually moves around in background like the ghost of a life lost. The figure is the thought at the front of Evangeline's mind, loitering in her present life, unable or unwilling to be shaken off.
When we finally meet this figure we are not surprised to learn that she is Evangeline's daughter Shirley. Through the Shirley we hear a different side to the tale. The gulf of experience between the two women is evident in their accents, use of language and points of view. Deeper secrets are revealed; alcoholism, abuse, protection and neglect. Could more have been done to prevent a lifetime's worth of damage? Once these buried pains are brought to the surface can a broken relationship be fixed?
When the two women come together their focus on us as an audience ceases. Suddenly they occupy the same space, the same place in time and we, the audience, are redundant. We are no longer listening to a story, we are now witnessing a coming together of a bygone relationship. There is something inharmonious about this jump of focus which is followed by an overly drawn out scene of attempted reconciliation that finds the actors vying for emotional one upmanship. However, She Called Me Mother, overall, feels like something of a breakthrough. As a debut play it more than succeeds in giving voice to traumatic experiences in a palatable fashion. Respect and realism are prioritised where the writing and performances could have easily swayed to sentimentality and the question of blame and accepting accountability is, authentically, never fully resolved. There is no fairy tale ending, no wave of a magic wand. But there is life and, for Shirley at least, the chance to live it.
Saturday 9th January
Workshops: 11am to 6pm
Full workshop timetable coming soon...
Party: 7pm until 3am with DJs Jamil Bacha and Angus Peters and more...
Shows: 9pm
Dress code/theme: Pirates of Bristol
Sunday 10th January
Workshops: 11am to 6pm
Full workshop timetable coming soon...
Party: 7pm until 12am with DJs Mauricio Reyes and Ariel Johnson and more...
Shows: 8pm
Live Music: 9pm details coming soon...
Dress code/theme: Cocktail Party
]]>Social and classes: 8.30pm - 2am
Classes and workshops: 10am - 6pm
Party and shows: 7pm until 4am - with Live Salsa Band and Bristol Salsa Orchestra
Classes and workshops: 10am to 6pm
Party and shows: 9pm until 1am
]]>Miriam is an impressively versatile performer and storyteller, with a love of all things Dickens. Known for her roles in the Harry Potter movies, Blackadder and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, the marvellous Miriam Margolyes also performs widely across the UK and Australia, in her one-woman such as Dickens' Women - in which she plays 23 different roles (men and women) from Dickens' books - and The Importance Of Being Miriam.
Recently returning from filming in Jaipur, India, Miriam will be performing in Bristol for one-night only, in support of Trinity Community Arts, bringing her unique style of entertainment to the city and helping to raise funds toward our youth training programme.
Read a review of Miriam's recent show: The Importance of Being Miriam (April 2015, by Diana Simmonds)
Mince pies and mulled wine available.
Doors: 7pm - Tickets: £18 adv (£16 concessions) - Seated performance.
Fundraiser in aid of Trinity Community Arts - funds raised will go toward supporting Trinity's youth training programme.
Photo: Kyte Photography
]]>2015 is the UNESCO International Year of Light and SWDT are preparing a Sci/Art showcase day to celebrate.
There will be a light lab of talks and workshops to play with ideas behind the physics of light and how they can be used in the arts.
We are also hosting an exhibition where artists and scientists from academia and industry can show off some of their great light-inspired work.
The day will culminate in a show at 7:30pm by several dance companies, including SWDT, performing light inspired repertoire and a video piece.
Light Expo 5pm-7:30pm: Street Art, graphic design, photography, photonics tech, careers
Light Lab 5pm-7:30pm: DIY photonics experiments, light physics & technology talks, physics in art demo
Show 8pm-9:30pm
South West Dance Theatre inc: Wave-practicle duality quantum photosynthesis The Big Bang
Guerilla Dance Projects: LED tap
Katerina Mina & Linda Lamon: Rainbow of Light Official IYOL song live
Joe Stathers: Light in video
Under 16's: FREE entry
]]>The weird and wonderful cast of characters from ATTACK! Pro are back for the spookiest night of professional wrestling you'll ever see! Goblins and ghouls from across the country will flock to the Trinity Centre on Sunday 18th October for the most horrifying offering of the ATTACK! Pro calendar.
Featuring all your ATTACK! favourites including;
24/7 Champion YxB Pete Dunne
The Pride of Wales' Eddie Dennis
The Wild Boar
'Ginger Jesus' Mike Bird
'One Man Wolf-Pack' Kid Lykos
Culture Squad (Luchadora/Brookes)
Anti-Fun Police (Dunne/Smile)
& MUCH MORE!
*Please Note!* No physical tickets will be posted for this show. Please bring a copy of your PayPal transaction number and present this with your name on the door!
]]>When she gon come? I lookin at de people dem but I can’t see her. She a pretty lookin ting, she does stan’ out amongst these faces dripped in dissatisfaction…
Evangeline is waiting; she has been waiting a long time. She waits for the Black Swan to glide through the station and show her a little warmth and kindness. She waits for a ticket home to Trinidad, the sun, the mango trees, and the street vendors selling curry. She waits for Shirley the daughter she let walk away all those years ago.
I try not to tink about she too much, 'cause de pain dem thoughts bring it like a heard of buffalo runnin wild in a field, an I beneath dem foot.
Will her daughter ever return to her and can she ever forgive the Mother that let her go?
She Called Me Mother invites the audience into the life of Evangeline Gardner – a homeless, 70 year old Afro-Caribbean woman, who finds herself living on the streets. The play brings together Evangeline and her estranged daughter Shirley and is written in poetic Trinidadian vernacular rarely heard on our stages.
She Called Me Mother stars BAFTA and Golden Globe nominee Cathy Tyson, best known for her stage work with the RSC and the Liverpool Everyman and on film in Mona Lisa (1986)
She called me Mother is written in poetic Trindadian vernacular rarely heard on British stages.
"I believe She Called Me Mother has the potential to be a modern classic. We are going into territory that hasn't been explored on our stages before. The emotional potential of the play is boundless. I hope this play will be a rewarding experience for our audience and all those with creative involvement." (Cathy Tyson actor/producer)
This debut show from Pitch Lake Productions, founded by actor Cathy Tyson, writer Michelle Inniss and director Cara Nolan will be the second show to tour for the Black Theatre Live consortium, dedicated to bringing inventive BAME theatre to venues across the country. It follows the recently concluded tour of Tara Arts new version of Macbeth.
“I’m delighted that our consortium have selected such an exciting prospect for our first commission. The poetry of the script blew me away” (Sarah Brigham, Artistic Director Derby)
Doors: 7.30pm
Show Start: 8pm
]]>A release-based contemporary technique class which is inspired by the Erick Hawkins contemporary dance technique and encourages efficient, easeful and dynamic dancing. Lisa's practice and teaching is also influenced by her many years of training in Martial Arts, Alexander Technique, Yoga, Contact Improvisation and other somatic practices.
Classes are suitable for professional dancers and experienced movers, as well as those with less experience but open to trying out the technique.
Despite the soft, fluid, serene, almost effortless look, Hawkins’ movement required substantial strength and specialized technique. ... a technique known for its directed, free flow of movement initiating from the center (Renata Celichowska, author of The Erick Hawkins Modern Dance Technique).
Class opened to experienced dancers.
Classes run on the following dates, 10.30am - 12pm:
From simple and short movement sequences we go on to explore more complex phrases, moving through space, playing with flow and dynamic range.
Class opened to experienced dancers.
Classes run on the following dates, 10.30am - 12pm:
Laila is a dance maker living in Bristol. Since 2005, she has been creating dance works - primarily for live performance - that toured across the UK and internationally. Before this she was a dancer with Wayne McGregor|Random Dance for eight years. A recipient of a Rayne Fellowship for Choreographers in 2006, Laïla also was an Associate Artist at ROH2, Royal Opera House, between 2009 and 2012.