What’s the Story at Battersea Arts Centre?

From Homer to Ben
Haggerty, the strength of a well-spun yarn has never waned and BAC will be showcasing a range of storytelling acts from across the UK in this month-long run from 2 March to 10
April.

Headlining the season is Birmingham spoken word artist Polarbear with the world premiere of his new solo show, Return, a narrative of loss and memory that borrows heavily from the language of film. Polarbear is a BBC Radio regular
and performs all around the world from Glastonbury to California. Also presenting a one-man show is Jon Haynes, one half of critically-acclaimed Bristol
theatre company, Ridiculusmus. In
The Poof Downstairs, Jon shares the
story of one man’s return to the parental nest in adulthood.

Transferring belatedly from Edinburgh, If That’s
All There Is was a sell-out at the Traverse for Inspector Sands, the company behind Total Theatre Award winning Hysteria. And continuing
to make use of the whole building, BAC  hands over its bar to the
wonderful Little Bulb company for Sporadical, an unusual family musical
developed at Edinburgh’s Forest Fringe last summer.

“As our lives
become increasingly complex and fractured, BAC is taking time out to celebrate our
love of a great story well told,” said BAC’s joint artistic director David
Micklem.“We are exploring new stories, new ways of telling stories and
introducing new voices to Lavender Hill this spring.”

Alongside more
traditional storytelling from the UK and Scandinavia, there will also be Scratch
work from Tassos Stevens and Andy Field, who both advocated passionately for
innovative theatre at this month’s State of the Arts conference in London.