Fuel Announces a Programme of Work For 2021

Fuel Director Kate McGrath has today announced a new programme of live and digital work that the company will undertake during 2021. Four new live projects will premiere this year all across the UK. Featuring a range of artforms and practitioners, the programme represents the culmination of months of planning and preparation. Alongside the live work, McGrath has announced a permanent addition to the Fuel rosta - Fuel Digital. A place where digital streams of new and existing work are presented through Fuel's own web platform.

Kate McGrath said: "Fuel is committed to supporting extraordinary live performance makers who open our eyes to new perspectives and awaken our empathy for each other. In the coming months, we're incredibly proud to be producing the work of these artists, working in collaboration with young people, communities, human rights charities, venues and festivals. Their work will light up car parks, galleries, theatres and city streets as we reconnect with each other in public space this year. And what's more we're very excited to be launching Fuel Digital, bringing podcasts, films and streams to your homes wherever you are."

Full Lineup:

PEACEOPHOBIA

Co-created by Common Wealth, Speakers Corner and Bradford Modified Club

Written by Zia Ahmed

Conceived in Bradford and co-directed by young women from Speakers Corner Collective and award-winning theatre company Common Wealth, co-written by acclaimed playwright Zia Ahmed and Bradford Modified Club, Peaceophobia is a new immersive theatrical experience that will be performed in a car park in Bradford and then Manchester this autumn.

Peaceophobia is an unapologetic response to rising Islamophobia around the world. Part car-meet part-theatre, the show explores how you find peace in a world that tells you who you are. Growing up in the shadow of the Bradford Riots, 9/11 and police harassment, cars and faith are a sanctuary, an escape, an expression for three Muslim Pakistani men. Ali, Sohail and Casper are taking control of the narratives around their religion, their city, and their cars. Staged in a carpark with a Supra, a Golf and a classic Nova, Peaceophobia brings together cars and theatre with cinematic lighting and an original electronic sound score.

The production was conceived by members of the collective Speakers Corner, a group of women and teenage girls who wanted to tell the story of young Muslim men and their experiences of Islamophobia. Working with theatre company Common Wealth and acclaimed writer Zia Ahmed and Bradford Modified Club they have created an uncompromising, and thrilling theatrical experience.

Peaceophobia is supported by Bradford 2025, Blueprint: Without Walls R&D Investment Fund, Co-Creating Change, Arts Council England, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Pears Foundation and Fenton Arts.

Bradford Box Office Information

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peaceophobia-tickets-155940362823

Oastler Market Car Park, Bradford City Centre

£10 full price, £5 concession

Friday 10th September 8.30pm

Saturday 11th September 6pm & 8.30pm

Sunday 12th September 8.30pm

Tuesday 14th September 8.30pm (BSL performance)

Wednesday 15th September 8.30pm

Thursday 16th September 8.30pm

Friday 17th September 6pm & 8.30pm

Saturday 18th September 8.30pm

Contact Manchester Box Office Information

Book through https://contactmcr.com/shows/peaceophobia/or box office phone line 0161 274 0600

Tickets £15 full price/£10 Under-35s/£5 Concessions.

Wednesday 29th September 8.30pm
Thursday 30th September 8.30pm
Friday 1st October 6pm & 8.30pm

Saturday 2nd October 6pm & 8.30pm

60 minutes, no interval

Recommended 12+ due to mild swearing

FLY THE FLAG

Fly The Flag continues in 2021, a UK-wide collaboration between arts organisations and human rights charities. This year dance artist Oona Doherty will create work with young people in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales in response to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Fuel will produce this work with Belfast International Arts Festival and The MAC, Eden Court Highlands and Dancebase, Sadler's Wells, and Wales Millennium Centre.

Fuel will also work with 200 nationwide partners in autumn 2021 to engage with schools and local communities with a screening of the work on Human Rights Day, 10th December 2021.

Full details will be announced in due course.

THE BODY REMEMBERS

Heather Agyepong - Creator / Performer
Gail Babb - Co-creator (dramaturgy)
Imogen Knight - Co-creator (movement)

The Body Remembers is a solo performance that uses movement, projection and a series of audio testimonies created and performed by Heather Agyepong, co-created by Imogen Knight (movement) and Gail Babb (dramaturgy). It will be performed indoors for socially distanced audiences.

The technique of Authentic Movement has allowed Heather to process what her body has been trying to communicate for years and most importantly brought gentle attention to the self. Authentic Movement consists of the mover and the witness. The mover without restriction, through impulse reclaims space. The witness observes, reflects and notes what is happening in their own bodies.

The Body Remembers creates a space for audience and artist to attend to themselves and each other through authentic movement, testimonies from 20 Black women living in the UK, soundscapes and projections. The piece focuses on the six parts of her body that speak the loudest; head, throat, heart, stomach, womb and hands.

The Body Remembers is produced by Fuel, with support from Arts Council England, Wellcome Trust and the Jerwood New Work Fund.

Tour and booking information will be announced soon. Please check www.fueltheatre.com for updates.

THE MIDNIGHT RUN

The Midnight Run is a walking, arts-filled, night-time cultural journey through urban spaces. It gathers strangers and local artists together to explore, play and create, whilst the city sleeps. The MNR aims to break down social barriers and provide a platform for established and emerging creatives, bringing moments of genuine interactive creativity. Past MNRunners have enjoyed a spectrum/huge variety of activities including life-drawing, choral singing, puppetry, wrestling, cocktail making and tai chi, all whilst exploring a city as a group. The Midnight Run was established by Inua Ellams in 2005, since then, there have been 42 events nationally and internationally.

Appearing in Coventry and London. Dates to be announced soon.

AN EVENING WITH AN IMMIGRANT

Born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother in what is now considered by many to be Boko Haram territory, award-winning poet and playwright Inua Ellams left Nigeria for England in 1996 aged 12, moved to Ireland for three years, before returning to London and starting work as a writer and graphic designer.

Part of this story was documented in his autobiographical Fringe First Award-winning play The 14th Tale, but much of it is untold. Littered with poems, stories and anecdotes, Inua tells his ridiculous, fantastic, poignant immigrant-story of escaping fundamentalist Islam, experiencing prejudice and friendship in Dublin, performing solo at the National Theatre, and drinking wine with the Queen of England, all the while without a country to belong to or place to call home.

As part of the act of sharing stories and experiences of migration and global human movement across borders, An Evening with an Immigrant will coincide with Refugee Week 2021.

The show is being presented in partnership with multiple venues from across the UK including: the Albany, ArtsDepot, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Derby Theatre, Leeds Playhouse, Norwich Arts Centre, Omnibus Theatre, Pound Arts, Rose Theatre and Stratford Circus. Free tickets will be available to schools and community groups who support refugees, via Fuel's Community Ticket Scheme, delivered in partnership with each partner venue.

An Evening with an Immigrant was filmed at The Bridge Theatre in November 2020, and is presented on Fuel Digital. English captions available. Written and Performed by Inua Ellams. Music Selection by DJ Sid Mercutio.

The production will be streamed over 5 nights from 15th June 2021.

· 15/6/2021: Stream 1 (7.30pm)

· 16/6/2021: Stream 2 (7.30pm)

· 17/6/2021: Stream 3 (7.30pm)

· 18/6/2021: Stream 4 (9.00pm)

· 19/6/2021: Stream 5 (7.30pm)

A Theatre Club hosted by Maddy Costa for audiences who have seen the show will take place after the performance on 17th June 2021 (9.10pm).

Tickets will be available to book from w/c Monday 24 May 2021 from Fuel's website, and partner venue websites respectively.

Tickets: £10

LOCK HER UP

A series of three individual audio pieces created in response to the archival histories of incarcerated women. Prompted by research by professor Hilary Marland and Dr. Rachel Bennett, the pieces look at the social, ethical, physical and mental issues faced by women in prison over the past 150 years. The project is a collaboration between the academics and three performance makers: Rachel Mars, who explores women's experience of solitary confinement and mental health, Paula Varjack, who looks back on the history of women's resistance against institutional control, and Sabrina Mahfouz, who addresses the pressing subject of maternity and motherhood in prison.

Lock Her Up will be made available to listen over three consecutive weeks. This first installment comes out on 3rd November.

BODY PODS

Body Pods is a series of 12 podcasts by artists and scientists, each one exploring a different part of the body. From the ear to the liver, the brain to the appendix and the skin to the eyes, each podcast allows listeners to discover the weird, beautiful, and surprising human body. Originally a project where listening stations were created to tour the UK, going to theatres and science institutions, Fuel now brings these explorations straight to your listening device.

Featuring artists Francesca Beard, Amanda Boyle, Gemma Brockis, David Harradine, Terje Isungset, Stacy Makishi, Silvia Mercurali, Alice Oswald, Deborah Pearson, David Rosenberg, Richard Thomas and Chris Thorpe and scientists Paul Borks, Graham Foster, Allie Garland, David McAlpine and Tilli Tansey.

The first episode will be available from 7th September.

EVERYDAY MOMENTS

Imagine there was a soundtrack to those small moments when you find yourself alone, brushing your teeth, in the bath, watching the rain stream down your living room window, or when you're tucked up in bed unable to sleep.

Everyday Moments is a series of podcasts from different artists inspired by their favourite everyday moment, designed to be listened to at a particular time and in a particular place.

Featuring Bobby Baker, Inua Ellams, Nic Green, John Hegley, Kazuko Hohki, Adrian Howells, Josie Long, Peggy Shaw, Hofesh Shechter, Lemn Sissay, Nick Whitfield and Melanie Wilson. Everyday Moments was originally presented by Fuel and Roundhouse Radio in 2011. Originally funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Arts Council England.

Everyday Moments is a series of 12 podcasts with a new episode becoming available to each listener bi-weekly. The first episode will be available on Fuel Digital from 13th June.

THE LITTEN TREES

The Litten Trees is a short film documenting the work of eight lighting designers who created projects all across the country. Theatre stopped in its tracks for a year and whilst innovations abound, some aspects of theatre work were easier to repurpose than others. For those whose chosen field is to design with light, it wasn't easy to persevere. Lighting designers cannot hibernate and compose work on laptops, nor can they present on zoom from their bedrooms or pop light in the post to earn a few pounds.

The Litten Trees was a project seeking to nourish the desire to design with light in what seemed a never-ending darkness. It offered the chance for those designers to exchange ideas and to reconnect with each other, each designer creating a lighting installation in a tree that was memorable to them. A chance occurrence for an unknowing audience member. This film follows each of those installations and brings the end results from across the country.

Lighting designers: Jason Addison, Daniella Beattie, Chuma Emembolu, Kristina Hjelm, Katy Morison, Joshua Pharo, Lizzie Powell and Jackie Shemesh.

Available from 7th June.

WHILE YOU WAIT

While You Wait is a series of podcasts that was first released throughout 2013, each of which was a different meditation on the idea of waiting created by artists in collaboration with academics from King's College London.

Installed in 4 bespoke listening stations, they were designed to delight, surprise and intrigue audiences while they waited. Artists were Stefan Kaegi, The Company, Rachel Mars, Chris Fittock, Victoria Melody, Paul Clark, Lewis Gibson, Caroline Horton, Dave Price, Brian Lobel, Toby Jones and Malika Booker. You had to listen to the podcasts, each 10-15 minutes long, via bespoke listening stations designed by Barnaby Stone, which you could find scattered across Brighton in surprising places.

A podcast series by artists and academics on the idea of waiting. Featuring Stefan Kaegi, The Company, Rachel Mars, Chris Fittock, Victoria Melody, Paul Clark, Lewis Gibson, Caroline Horton, Dave Price, Brain Lobel, Toby Jones and Malika Booker, with academics Maria Alvarez, Bill Brewer, Peter Giese, Alan Latham and Hope Wolf

The first episode will be available on Fuel Digital from 1st October.

MUSIC TO MOVE TO

Exploring our relentless impulse to move, Music to Move to is a series of dance films that delights in casual dancing, improvised movement, and hyper-stylised choreography alike.

In 2014, Fuel asked nine composers to create new music that anyone could dance to. As a response to the tracks, professional choreographers created dance films set to music from electro-folk to contemporary classical, hip-hop to gypsy ska, each offering up a different mood in movement. The resulting pieces are an invitation for you to dance, wherever you are.

Music tracks by Michael 'Mikey J' Asante, Jon Boden, Rosario La Tremendita, Soweto Kinch, Little Boots, Nico Muhly, and Xiao He. Choreography by Vicki Igbokwe, Jamila Johnson-Small, Junior Laniyan, Jenna Lee, Levantes Dance Theatre, Irven Lewis, Hemabharathy Palani, and Huang Yi.

Music to Move to is a series of dance films, with the first film becoming available on Fuel Digital from 7th August.

SIGNAL FIRES

Following the Signal Fires project which took place around the UK, with Fuel's contribution taking place in Devon and Inverness, during lockdown, this project is a series of audio pieces with a new piece becoming available to each listener every week. Fuel, Coombe Farm Studios and Eden Court Highlands present Signal Fires in collaboration with The Woodlands Presents. Written by Kiki Katese, Alice Oswald, Hema Palani, Kim Scott and Sara Sharaawi. Directed by Adura Onashile. Signal Fires premiered live in south Devon in October 2020 and was presented by Fuel and Coombe Farm Studios in collaboration with Woodlands Presents. Signal Fires by phone was presented by Fuel and Eden Court Highlands in November 2020. Signal Fires was supported by CVC.

The first episode will be available on Fuel Digital from 9th June.

TOUCHING THE VOID

What happens when you look death squarely in the face and how do we find the strength to crawl back towards life?

Following its sold-out world premiere in Bristol and critically acclaimed West End run, Touching The Void returns for one week only for a global broadcast, live from Bristol Old Vic. Be transported from the comfort of your living room to the freezing heights of the Peruvian Andes, as Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' perilous descent of Siula Grande becomes a breathtaking struggle for survival. Bringing the thrill of live theatre to your home, experience the death-defying heights and life-changing decisions from a more intimate angle than ever with our unique multi-camera set-up and an engrossing 3D soundscape. Directed by Tony Award-winning Tom Morris (War Horse) and based on Joe Simpson's bestselling memoir turned BAFTA-winning film, David Greig's thrilling adaptation charts this astonishing feat of human endurance. Perched on an unstable snow-cliff and battered by freezing winds, Simon is desperate to rescue his injured partner who hangs from a rope below him. Meanwhile, Joe teeters on the brink of death and despair in a crevasse from which he can't possibly climb to safety. Life-affirming and often darkly funny, Touching The Void takes the audience on an epic adventure that asks how far you'd be willing to go to survive.

Join us in person at Bristol Old Vic and become a crucial part of the filming process. This won't be like watching a normal show: the Pit will be home to the broadcast team and cameras will be following the action on stage as well as in the audience - a bit like being on a TV set. The show will be performed primarily for audiences at home, but we're certain the experience in the auditorium will be one not to be missed. Please note audiences in the theatre may be filmed.

Performances are from 26th May. Book here.

SALT & SUGAR

Salt & Sugar is an abstract dance film by Hema Palani that looks at the complexities of Indian culture through classical and contemporary movement. Using classical Indian dance, contemporary movement, spoken word and cultural references, Hema's performance explores feminism and what it means to be an Indian outside of India. Original music composed by Jasmin Kent Rodgman.

Date to be announced soon. Check www.fueltheatre.com for updates

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