LIFT’01 Introduces Year-Round Projects, 11 Jun

The London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) this summer celebrates its 20th anniversary and the beginning of a new era. The 2001 outing for the bi-ennial event takes place between 11 June and 8 July 2001, but this year, it won't end there. LIFT'01 marks the beginning of a year-round presence for international theatre in London.

The four-week festival plants the seeds of key developments which will surface over the next three years. Amongst other projects launched in June are a season exploring the link between childhood and creativity and a pilot for a new form of "performance-curation".

Londoners, however, won't miss out on hallmark LIFT events. This year's festival will include its regular large-scale outdoor celebrations (with French fireworks maestro Christophe Berthonneau), site-specific performances and an assembly of established and emerging artists and companies from countries such as Uganda, Hungary, the United States and Israel.

Various performances will be mounted at venues including the King's Cross coach depot (where the Almeida is currently resident), the Battersea Arts Centre, Riverside Studios, the Royal Court, Sadler's Wells, St Luke's Church Islington, Victoria Park and the banks of the River Thames. Once again, the LIFT Club will also be installed aboard the HMS President, moored on the Victoria embankment, where food, drink, discussions and cabaret will be on hand.

Festival highlights include: Box Story, the completion of the five-show Daily Life cycle commissioned by LIFT in 1991; Cheek by Jowl's production of Pushkin's Boris Godunov, performed by a specially assembled company of leading Moscow actors; two works by the renowned Italian company, Societas Raffaello Sanzio/Romeo Castelluci; Laszlo Hudi's Hungarian classic, The Tragedy of Man; staged readings by emerging Ugandan writers; and West Bank Stories, a series of monologues written in response to the troubles in the Palestinian territories.

Tickets for LIFT'01 go on sale from 1 May 2001. For further information, contact the festival organisers on +44-20-7490-3964.

- by Terri Paddock

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