Barbican Theatre (The Pit) - October 2015 highlights
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
WHILE Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet continues in the Barbican Theatre, October highlights in The Pit include:
CASA Latin American Theatre Festival: Los Guggenheim – The Love of the Fireflies (El amor de las luciérnagas) – October 6 and 7. Performed in Spanish with English surtitles.
The Love of the Fireflies (El amor de las luciérnagas) is an irreverent comedy taking inspiration from American road movies, yet given a very Mexican twist.
Maria, a would-be writer, escapes to Norway after her long-term boyfriend leaves her. But when bizarre events lead to the appearance of an evil doppelganger, she must return to Mexico in haste, journeying across her country and into her past to win back love.
Written and directed by Alejandro Ricaño, one of Mexico’s leading contemporary playwrights, the piece is characterised by surreal and heartfelt storytelling from a young and vibrant ensemble, conveyed within a sparsely beautiful set.
CASA Latin American Theatre Festival: Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol – I’ll melt the snow off a volcano with a match (Derriteré con un cerillo la nieve de un volcán) – October 9 and 10. Performed in Spanish with English surtitles.
Between 1929 and 2000, one party, the PRI, governed Mexico. As elections loomed in 2012 and it prepared to resume power again, the country’s most politically active artistic collective Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol began to investigate the policies of intimidation and violence that had sustained this democratic regime for so long.
Archive video footage, projections, real statistics and historical sound combine with the imagined account of the final days of ‘disappeared’ writer, Natalia Valdez. This hard-hitting piece of documentary theatre reflects a disturbing period of modern Mexican history and reveals the pent-up tensions of living under a corrupt regime.
Out of India: Modern Moves – October 21 to October 24 at 7.45pm.
Showcasing three of the most inventive contemporary choreographers to have emerged from the country’s arts scene, this trilogy features work with a striking perspective on life in modern India, a long way from either classical or Bollywood dance-styles.
The duet NH7 by Bangalore-born Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy is a political take on India’s rapid urbanisation, depicting its impact on individuals swept up in sudden change.
A mesmerising dancer, Hemabharathy Palani draws on her extensive technique to invent an idiosyncratic solo. In Trikonanga she pulls apart the classical dance form Bharatanatyam, playing on its fascination with triangles in a myriad of ways.
Nerves, Surjit Nongmeikapam’s piece for five men, is influenced by folk traditions and martial arts. Inspired by the corruption and suffering in his home state of Manipur, it blends props, projection and an intense physicality.
SPILL Festival of Performance: Karen Finley – Written in Sand – October 28 to October 31 at 8pm.
Seminal American performance artist Karen Finley makes a rare UK appearance with an elegiac anthology of spoken-word pieces that confronts the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York.
Drawn from performance texts, letters, poetry and fragments compiled by the artist between 1983 and 1994, Written in Sand is a lyrical and highly personal testimony. It recalls a time in which loss, indifference and cruelty came to define the lives of people with AIDS, their friends and families.
Interjecting her narrative with improvised wit, Finley is accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Paul Nebenzahl playing compositions written by musicians who died as a result of the disease.
To compliment Written in Sand, Karen Finley invites visitors to the Barbican to tie a ribbon on a gate installed in the foyers as a public sculpture; a ceremony in memory of someone who has suffered from AIDS. Ribbon Gate runs from Wednesday, October 28 until Tuesday, December 1 (World AIDS Day).
For more information visit www.barbican.org.uk/.