Graeae piece to feature in 14-18 NOW WWI centenary
© Tod Seelie
Graeae Theatre Company is to create and stage a new piece as part of the 14-18 NOW WWI centenary art commissions.
The show, This Is Not for You is a new show written by Mike Kenny and directed by Jenny Sealey. It pays tribute to Britain's wounded war veterans and will be a large-scale outdoor work performed by Blesma, the Limbless Veterans. The company has trained with Graeae in aerial performance and will be joined by professional performers and a local choir. The piece opens as part of Greenwich and Docklands International Festival in July.
Elsewhere in the line-up, Australia's Brink Productions brings its staging of Alice Oswald's poem Memorial to the Barbican Centre between 27 and 30 September. The poem is inspired by The Iliad and focuses on the fates of the soldiers within it. The piece is directed by Chris Drummond with movement from Circa's Yaron Lifschitz. A choral army of 215 people – one for every soldier in Oswald's work – will appear on stage.
South African theatre company Isango Ensemble will stage SS Mendi: Dancing the Death Drill at Nuffield Southampton from 29 June to 14 July. Celebrating the role of carrier pigeons in the first world war is Fly By Night by Duke Riley, which is a performance at dusk where he conducts a flock of pigeons flying with an LED light.
Marc Rees' immersive piece Nawr Yr Arwr/Now The Hero will run as part of Swansea Internatonal Festival and takes audience members on a journey through three intertwining narratives of war.
WildWorks returns to Cornwall's Lost Gardens of Heligan with site specific work 100: UnEarth from 3 to 22 July. The 306: Dusk is the concluding part of Oliver Emanuel and Gareth Williams' WWI trilogy and will be directed by Wils Wilson. It opens in the newly restored Perth Theatre on 12 October. Poets Selina Thompson and Debris Stevenson will stage work in Bristol and at the Royal Court as part of Represent commissions.
The commissions also include works from Danny Boyle, Akram Khan, Artichoke and a new statue of Millicent Fawcett by Gillian Wearing in Parliament Square.
14-18 NOW is a programme of arts experiences which mark the anniversary of the First World War. In 2016 Jeremy Deller's We're Here Because We're Here had volunteers dressed as soldiers and unexpectedly appeared across the UK to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.
