LONDON INTERNATIONAL
MIME FESTIVAL 2002

VENUES INDEX
BAC (Ishka, Theatre O, Marcello Magni, Ridiculusmus)
The Circus Space (Circus Space Cabaret)
Croydon Clocktower (Diquis Tiquis)
ICA (Fabrik, Basil Twist, Lightwork, Conservas)
Royal Festival Hall
incorporating The Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall
(Diquis Tiquis, Spymonkey, Avner The Eccentric, Compagnie 111, Leandre-Claire)
Royal National Theatre (Sharmanka)

THE SHOWS

Diquis Tiquis
Shy Shining Walls

Devised and performed by Sandra Trejos and Alejandro Tosatti
Sensual, delicate and surprising, possessed with seemingly weightless qualities, Shy Shining Walls uses mime and movement to create an unusual physical language, inspired by Hispanic culture, martial arts, and the clowning, theatre and dance techniques of artists such as Pilobolus, Grotowski, Bolek Polivka and Martha Graham.
‘Astonishingly moving and highly original’. Ballet International
Runs approx 60 mins
Presented in association with SBC 

Purcell Room, London: Sat 12-Tue 15 Jan 8pm
£12.00 (£8.50 concs)
020 7960 4242
booking details

PLUS:
Brighton, Komedia: Thu 17-Fri 18 Jan, 8pm Tel 01273 647 100
Croydon Clocktower: Sat 19 Jan, 8pm Tel 020 8253 1030
Leicester, Phoenix Arts: Tue 22-Wed 23 Jan, Tel 8pm 0116 255 4854

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Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre
Noah's Ark

Amazing kinetic performance art. Hundreds of tiny carved figures and pieces of old scrap perform an incredible Heath-Robinson-meets-Hieronymous Bosch choreography to haunting music and synchronised lighting.

Based in Glasgow since 1996, Sharmanka was established by sculptor Eduard Bersudsky and director Tatyana Jakovskaya in St. Petersburg in 1990. Their beautiful mechanical sculptures have been seen at festivals and galleries throughout Europe whilst others are in the permanent collections of such museums as Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art and The Royal Museum of Scotland. Sharmanka makes its London debut with Noah’s Ark, a piece specially created for the Mime Festival.

‘Bizarre, hilarious, ghoulish, unmissable’. The Sunday Times
‘An icon painter for our times’. The Scotsman

FREE - Each performance runs 3 mins.
Presented in association with the Royal National Theatre 

Royal National Theatre Foyer, ground floor.
Sat 12-Sat 26 Jan (closed Suns):
11am, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.45 and 10.45pm FREE
more venue details

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Fabrik
Petrified Skin

Devised and performed by Benno Voorham and Wolfgang Hoffmann.
Music: Shostakovich

Made shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Petrified Skin is the story of two former antagonists, victims of Cold War apartheid and separated by a hideous material obstacle. Breaking through brick and thought barriers, overcoming suspicions and prejudices, the two reach out to embrace each other in a friendship without fear. Movement, music and visual projection combine in a powerful work of physical theatre, its stark and universal message today more relevant than ever.

Scotsman Fringe First winner in 1999 for Hopeless Games (in collaboration with St.Petersburg's DO Theatre), Fabrik was literally born from the wreckage of the Berlin wall - its founders selling chunks of it to finance their theatre dreams.

‘Exuberant physicality underpinned by practised precision, and there's also gentle humour as well as social comment’. The Herald

‘Sometimes in the theatre simpler ideas produce better results. That is the case here. What I love about this performance is its unaffected honesty - and the sheer sweat of it’. The Guardian

Runs approx 60 mins

Supported by the Goethe-Institut London

ICA: Sun 13-Tue 15 Jan 8pm £11.00 (£8 concs) inc day membership
020 7930 3647
booking details

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Spymonkey
Cooped

Director: Cal McCrystal
A 'hit' at last year's Festival with Stiff, Brighton-based Spymonkey returns FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY with it's new show, once again set in a gothic world somewhere between Daphne du Maurier and Edgar Allen Poe.
A young girl arrives at the Cornish mansion of Count Murdston. Rich, beautiful, fawn-like, swinging...but a hostage to love, Laura du Lay knew the first day she met her mysterious new employer that life - and love - would never be the same again. And her an orphan! Is it too late? Is she already...cooped?
Non-stop gags, hilarious script devised by Cal McCrystal and the company - Total Theatre Award-winner Spymonkey comes up with another classic physical comedy spoof.
‘Utterly infectious - a perfectly paced hybrid of The Pink Panther and Psycho’.
The Independent
'I laughed so much my throat hurt'.
The Times

Please note, this production contains nudity.

Runs approx 70 mins
Presented in association with SBC

Purcell Room: Wed 16 Jan 8pm £12.00 (£8.50 concs)
020 7960 4201
booking details

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Basil Twist
The Araneidae Show and Other Pieces

Following his recent commissioned production of Petrushka for The Lincoln Center, cutting edge New York puppeteer, Basil Twist, returns to the Festival with this acclaimed solo extravaganza of showgirls, lonely streets, cats, deconstructing theatres, sex, despair, magic, metamorphosis, and the fragile web of illusion sometimes called reality. From deep inside his puppet stage and himself, one lone puppeteer unravels, unveils, and unleashes this vulgar and spectacular story through the power of surreal imagery, baroque machinery, and the heartbreaking tiny gestures of his miniature actors.
'An uncanny experience that generates passion, daring and pure pleasure'.
New York Times

Runs approx 55 mins

ICA: Thu 17 - Sat 19 Jan
Thu and Sat 8pm, Fri 7.30pm and 9.30pm
£11.00 (£8 concs) inc day membership
020 7930 3647
booking details

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Avner Eisenberg
Avner The Eccentric

American showbiz bible Variety calls him 'one of the world's greatest theatre clowns'.
He's starred in productions at The Lincoln Center and on Broadway, with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in the movie Jewel of the Nile, and has taken his solo show to festivals and theatres around the world. In an evening of sublime, skilled and sophisticated theatre clowning, Avner proves himself a dazzling magician, master of just about all the circus arts and a superbly gifted entertainer.
'Astonishing and funny. A clown for the thinking man'. New York Magazine

Runs approx 80 mins
Presented in association with SBC

Purcell Room: Thu 17-Sun 20 Jan
Thu-Sat 8pm, Sun 4pm £12.00 (£8.50 concs)
020 7960 4201
booking details
workshop : Sat 19 Jan 11am-1pm at the Diorama Arts Centre 020 7916 5467

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Ishka Theatre Company
A Red Day

Intriguing visual theatre from Ireland. A cult hit at the Dublin Fringe Festival, Ishka's debut production brings to life some of Picasso's most famous Cubist images in a kaleidoscope of light, colour, movement, sound and amazing body-masks. Ephemeral and fleeting, unfolding in a land of surreal and incredible happenings, A Red Day moves from playfulness to the tragedy of Guernica. Deviser-designer Elaine Bastible trained as a sculptor, and then at the Lecoq School where she developed her passion for mask theatre.
'You have to hand it to Ishka for daring ambition and originality. What extraordinary creations those huge body-masks are, realised stunningly by Bastible and the Company.' Irish Times
'Beautiful and striking theatre. A talent to watch and encourage'.
New York Theatre Wire

Supported by the Cultural Relations Committee of the Irish Department of
Foreign Affairs
Runs approx 60 mins

BAC: Thu 17-Sat 19 Jan 8pm £10.75 (£6.50 concs)
020 7223 2223
booking details

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Compagnie Josef Nadj
Comedia Tempio

Three years since his acclaimed Woyzek, Josef Nadj returns to the Mime Festival with his international company from the Centre Choregraphique National d'Orleans.
Inspired by the life and works of Hungarian artist, writer, psychiatrist and opium addict Geza Csath who died at 32 at the turn of the 20th century, Comedia Tempio evokes the mysterious, hallucinatory world of Freud, Csath and Kafka's Central Europe. Somewhere between dance and theatre, with furniture, props and set having fantastic lives of their own, Nadj's visionary production - to the accompaniment of a haunting soundtrack by Gyorgy Kurtag collaborator Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer - takes you on an unforgettable rollercoaster journey through dream and nightmare.
Born in Vojvodina in former Yugoslavia, Josef Nadj moved to France in the 1980's, studying with Marceau and working with choreographers Mark Tompkins, Catherine Diverres and Francois Verret. He created the hugely successful Cri du Camelon for the French National Circus School, has been director of the Centre Choregraphique National d'Orleans since 1995 and with his own ensemble has toured all over the world. Don't miss this rare chance to see the work of one of Europe's most sought after choreographers.

'Wild, outrageous design…incredible balancing and acrobatics...Nadj's inexhaustible imagination has created an enchanted world of marvels'.
Le Figaro

Co-production: Centre Choregraphique National d'Orleans, Theatre de la Ville - Paris, Festival d'Automne - Paris, Hebbel Theatre - Berlin, Les Gemeaux - Sceaux - Scene Nationale.
Supported by the French Embassy in London/Institut Français du Royaume-Uni.
Runs approx 80 mins

Queen Elizabeth Hall: Fri 18-Sun 20 Jan
Fri-Sat 7.45pm, Sun 6pm £10.00/£12.50/£15.00
020 7960 4201
booking details

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Eric Bouvron
Pantsula Jive

A wickedly, wittily, entertaining tale of Eric's native South Africa, from rugby to rhinos, giraffes to gumboot dancers.

Unusual and charming, performed by a master of physical comedy who trained with Lindsay Kemp, Ariane Mnouchkine and Jacques Lecoq.

Runs approx 45 mins
Presented in association with SBC

Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer:
Sat 19-Sun 20 Jan 1pm. Free
more venue details

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The Circus Space Cabaret

Love is in the air as The Circus Space embraces romance for this year's Mime Festival Cabaret. There's a sublime aerial duet by The Generating Company's Dane Clarke and Laura Pero; a juggling tango to swoon to by Sean Gandini and Kati Yla-Hokkala; a cocktail of contortion, acrobatics and clown from Kicking the Moon; aerial excitement from The Flying Dudes and the and the visually ravishing swinging cerceau of Susan Voyticky.
The venue is unique; an old power station that has become Britain's top circus training centre. Overnight it is transformed into a strange but welcoming emporium of entertainment with rope ladders and trapezes dangling from the roof. Come along and be seduced by the events unfolding before you, around you and above you.

Circus Space
Sat 19-Sun 20 Jan 8pm. £14.00 (£10 concs)
020 7613 4141
booking details

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Maybellene in Cabaret

There is simply no stopping this gal. Join Maybellene and friends on her glamour crusade, as she spreads a little happiness (and twice as much glitter) in Battersea for one night only.
A camp cabaret spectacular featuring Maybellene in her own mini-musical extravaganzas and supported by a full cast featuring some of the UK’s most extraordinary cabaret acts including the fabulous fat fairy, Ballet-hoo.

'Barbie better watch her back: this girl is going to be BIG!'
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian.

Runs approx 80 mins

BAC: Sun 20 Jan 6pm
£10.75 (£6.50 concs)
020 7223 2223
booking details

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Compagnie 111
I.J.K.

A unique, new, eye-popping spectacle in which juggling balls become instruments of sound. Sensational to see, amazing to hear. You will be astonished. Jugglers Aurelien Bory, Olivier Alenda, and Katja Wehrlin who also plays accordeon, are graduates of France's famous Lido Circus School. Their performing experience embraced work with Archaos, the World Circus Festival and Mladen Materic's Tattoo Theatre before setting up their own company in 1999.
Choregraphed by specialist circus-theatre director, Christian Coumin (Les Acrostiches / LIMF 1998) I.J.K has rapidly become one of the most sought after shows on the international festival scene.'Magical..a new circus form... an astonishing blend of performance and sound installation'. Le Republicain

Supported by the French Embassy in London/Institut Français du Royaume-Uni.

Runs approx 55 mins
Presented in association with SBC

Purcell Room, London:
Mon 21 - Wed 23 Jan 8pm £12.00 (£8.50 concs)
020 7960 4201
booking details

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Lightwork
London/My Lover

Director: Andy Lavender
London/My Lover follows two people through the course of a day in the city - the day on which they meet and become lovers.
Mixing video and physical performance, Andy Lavender's new show for Lightwork takes a close look at the ordinary detail of a life-changing day. Screened images show the texture of London as we never normally see it. The movement score of the two performers throws everyday activity into sharp relief. And in a series of flashforwards, the lovers' intimate observation of each other is presented by way of live camerawork.
London/My Lover is about the city made flesh and the body as a place of discovery. Made in London, it is a homage to the beauty, the dirt - the sheer presence of a modern metropolis. And it savours the erotics of desire, in a visual realm where every detail counts.
The performers are David Annen (work with Katie Mitchell, Mike Alfreds and Polish ensemble, Gardzienice) and ex-Snarling Beastie, Lucy Richardson.
On Lightwork's last production, Blavatsky:
'the new face of British drama'.
The Observer
'A really intelligent piece of theatre that wholeheartedly embraces multi-media, but which is always characterised by its complete theatricality'.
The Guardian

ICA: Mon 21-Wed 23 Jan 8pm £11.00 (£8 concs) inc day membership
020 7930 3647
booking details

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Leandre-Claire
Madame et Monsieur

Inspired by the great silent movie era, Madame et Monsieur is a poignant tale of love in adversity. Two innocent waifs, rootless and homeless, imagine a home together filled with love, tenderness and joy. From this simple idea, mime-clown Leandre Ribera, dancer Clare Ducreux, and their company have created a heart-warming story touched with poetry and magic. Not a word spoken, live piano accompaniment by David Moreno.
Leandre is 'a master of ingenuity and transformation'. The Independent
'Nothing I've seen has more power than this mixture of poetry, humour and movement. It moves us, makes us smile, even laugh'. La Marseilleise

Supported by CoPEC
(Culture from Catalonia)

Runs approx 70 mins
Presented in association with SBC

Purcell Room, London:
Thu 24 - Sun 27 Jan Thu - Sat 8pm, Sun 6pm £12.00 (£8.50 concs)
020 7960 4201
booking details

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Conservas
Femina Ex Machina

Italian born Simona Levi has been based in Spain since 1990, working with such celebrated groups as Fura Dels Baus and General Electrica, and most recently with her own company, Conservas. She is one of the most dynamic personalities in Barcelona's spectacular performance scene. In typically uninhibited style, Simona's Femina Ex Machina takes an ironic, lucid and occasionally cruel look at the female condition. Complex machines, films, live music and an acute sense of the absurd combine in creating images of striking originality. The woman who freezes her own tears to savour them later in suckable ice-cube form is just one such memorable figure in a show which throws convention out of the window.

‘Vital and intelligent theatre looking for new ways of expression..imaginative and daring’. El Pais

Supported by CoPEC
(Culture from Catalonia)
Runs approx 55 mins

This is an adult show containing nudity and material which may offend some people

ICA: Fri 25 - Sun 27 Jan Fri - Sat 8pm, Sun 6pm
£11.00 (£8 concs) inc day membership
020 7930 3647
booking details

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DESMOND JONES SCHOOL OF MIME
Physical Story-Telling for the Theatre
Originally an actor, trained by Etienne Decroux, Desmond Jones runs Britain's longest-established School of Mime and Physical Theatre. As performer, director and teacher he has worked on Hollywood movies, West-End theatre, opera, television and with Jacques Lecoq, Keith Johnstone, Mike Alfreds and Monty Python to name just a few. Using story-telling as its basis, this course opens up the enormously wide variety of styles and approaches to mime and physical theatre, from straight theatre to street theatre, with illusion, commedia, corporeal and dynamic physical acting techniques.
Sat 26-Sun 27 Jan 10am-5pm £120
The Desmond Jones School of Mime and Physical Theatre St. Luke's Church Hall, Uxbridge Road, London W12 (nearest tube: Shepherd's Bush).
Bookings and information: 020 8747 3537 (phone/fax)
The Registrar, 20 Thornton Avenue, London W4 1QG
e-mail: enquiries@desmondjones.co.uk

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NOLA RAE Broaden Your Mime
An intensive workshop on the art of letting the body do the talking.
Physical and mental articulation for those who want to expand their comic
theatre skills. Previous performance experience desirable.
Nola Rae is one of this country's most distinguished performing
artists. Since founding her company, London Mime/Theatre, in 1975,
she has performed, taught and directed across the globe.
Diorama Arts Centre: Sat 12 & Sun 13 Jan 11am-4pm. £120 for 2 days.
Location: Diorama Arts Centre - see Avner info above for all venue details.
Bookings: as for Avner, but using e-mail address of Nola@diorama-arts.org.uk
www.nolarae.btinternet.co.uk

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Critical Practice 12

Music in Physical and Visual Performance
The role of the musician in the creation of new work is frequently overlooked. In the physical and visual performance sector, the spoken word is less important and music and sound are essential ingredients when creating atmosphere. This discussion will focus on the importance of music and how it affects the other elements of a performance. Speakers include: Mat Costain (Generating Company), David Lasserson (Gogmagogs, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra) John Martin (Pan Centre For Intercultural Arts). Back by popular demand, the discussion will be chaired by Dick McCaw.

The Voice Box, Royal Festival Hall:
Sat 19 Jan 3.00-5.00pm
£5 (£3 concs). Free for Total Theatre members. For further details and to book tickets call 020 7729 7944 or email admin@totaltheatre.org.uk

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BOOKING DETAILS 2002

VENUES INDEX
BAC (Ishka, Maybellene, Theatre O, Marcello Magni, Ridiculusmus)
The Circus Space (Circus Space Cabaret)
Croydon Clocktower (Diquis Tiquis)
ICA (Fabrik, Basil Twist, Lightwork, Conservas)
Royal Festival Hall
incorporating The Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall (Diquis Tiquis, Spymonkey, Avner The Eccentric, Josef Nadj, Eric Bouvron (free), Compagnie 111, Leandre-Claire)
Royal National Theatre (Sharmanka)

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BAC
Lavender Hill SW11 5TN
020 7223 2223
Shows:
Ishka Theatre Company
Maybellene
Theatre 0 scratch night
Marcello Magni scratch night
Ridiculusmus scratch night

In Person: Mon 10.30am-6pm, Tue-Sat 10.30am-9pm, Sun 4-7pm.
Christmas closure: 24-26 Dec and 31 Dec-1 Jan, inclusive.
By Phone: 020 7223 2223 until 6pm (7pm on Sundays). Mastercard, Visa and Switch welcome.
By Post: Send cheque payable to ‘BAC’ to the above address, enclosing a first class s.a.e.
By Email: boxoffice@bac.org.uk
Reservations: Unpaid reservations should be collected one hour before the performance. BAC cannot guarantee late admission.
Transport: Clapham Junction main line station from Waterloo and Victoria. Exit on Lavender Hill, turn left out of the station and walk down the hill. Cross the junctions with Falcon Road and Latchmere Road. BAC is on the left just after Theatre Street. Allow 10 mins.
Buses: 35, 37, 345, 77, 77a 115, 319, 337, C3, G1.
Tube: Victoria Line to Vauxhall, then 77 or 77a bus (allow 20 mins for bus journey) to Lavender Hill.

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The Circus Space
Coronet Street N1 6HD
020 7613 4141

Show:
The Circus Space Cabaret

Open Mon-Fri 9am-10pm,
Sat 1.30pm-6pm, Sun 1.30pm-9pm (answering machine at other times)
Christmas Closure: 22 Dec to 1 Jan, inclusive.
Email: enquiries@thecircusspace.co.uk
Web Site: www.thecircusspace.co.uk
Transport:
By Tube: Old Street (Northern Line, City Branch). Take Exit 2, then a 4 minute walk east along Old Street, past the fire station on the left, towards the Holiday Inn Express hotel. Turn left into Pitfield Street, then right into Coronet Street. The Circus Space is at the end on the left.
By Bus: 26, 43, 55, 242, 243, 271
Disabled Access: all shows are accessible to wheelchair users and there is an adapted toilet on the ground floor.

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Croydon Clocktower
Katharine St, Croydon CR9 1ET
020 8253 1030

Show:
Diquis Tiquis

In Person: Mon-Sat 10am-8.30pm, Sun 12 noon-8.30pm. Christmas closure: 24-26 December and 31 Dec-1 Jan, inclusive.
Website: www.croydon.gov.uk/clocktower
By Train: A 10 minute walk from either East or West Croydon stations. Frequent trains run from Victoria, London Bridge, and Kings Cross-Thameslink.
By Bus: Close to the major Croydon bus routes and 10 minutes walk from West Croydon bus station.
By Tram: Nearest stop is George Street.
By Car: Nearest car park is Fairfield in Barclay Road, or Surry Street in Scarbrook Road.
Disabled Access: Ramped access from street level and lifts to all floors. Accessible adapted toilets on both ground and first floors. Wheelchair users should advise the venue management of their visit, in advance. Minicom bookings: 020 8253 1027.

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ICA
The Mall SW1Y 5AH
020 7930 3647

Shows:
Fabrik
Basil Twist
Lightwork
Conservas

In Person and By Phone: Mon-Sun 12 noon-9.30pm (most busy between 6-9pm).
By Fax: 020 7873 0051 allow 24 hours for processing.
Web Site:www.ica.org.uk
By Email: tickets@ica.org.uk allow 24 hours for processing
By Post: Send cheque made payable to ‘ICA Ltd.’ with a first class s.a.e. to above address, or provide credit card details adding 50p for processing to: Ticket Office, ICA, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH.
Christmas closure: 24-26 Dec and 31 Dec-1 Jan, inclusive.
Transport: The ICA is at the foot of the Duke of York steps, 5 minutes from Piccadilly Circus and 3 minutes from Trafalgar Square.
Nearest Tubes: Charing Cross or Piccadilly Circus.

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Royal Festival Hall
incorporating The Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall
Belvedere Road SE1 8XX
020 7960 4242

Shows:
Diquis Tiquis
Avner The Eccentric
Josef Nadj
Eric Bouvron (free)
Compagnie 111
Leandre-Claire

In Person: RFH Mon-Sun 10am-9pm. QEH/Purcell Room 45 mins before performance.
By Phone: 020 7960 4201 from 9am-9pm (Sun 9.30am-9pm). Handling charge £1.50 per phone transaction.
By Email: boxoffice@rfh.org.uk
By Fax: 020 7921 0821
On-Line: www.rfh.org.uk No booking fee. Direct links to the correct page are given on our individual show pages (see show list above)
By Post: Cheques should be made payable to ‘South Bank Centre’ and sent with first class s.a.e. or add 50p postage to: Box Office, Royal Festival Hall, London SE1 8XX. Leave amount blank but indicate upper limit. Please quote your name, address and phone numbers.
Minicom Textphone for deaf or hard-of-hearing: 020 7921 0921
Christmas Closure: from 5pm on 24 Dec, re-opening at 1pm on 26 Dec and from 6pm on 31 Dec, re-opening at 2pm on New Year’s Day.
Transport: as for Royal National Theatre.

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Royal National Theatre
South Bank SE1
Information: 020 7452 3400

Show:
Sharmanka

It is not necessary to book for this event. The foyer is open from 10am, Monday to Saturday. Performances are on the hour until 5pm, then at 6.45pm and 10.45pm Transport:
By Tube: Waterloo, or cross the river from Temple, Embankment or Charing Cross.
By Bus: 1,4,26,68,76,77,149,168,171,176,88,211,341,501,505,507,521,D1,P11,X68. By Train: Waterloo
Web Site: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

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