PS122 and La MaMa to Present REAL MAGIC as Part of COIL 2017

As part of the twelfth edition of COIL festival, Performance Space 122 and La MaMa co-present the U.S. premiere of Real Magic by UK theater group and recent International Ibsen Award-winners, Forced Entertainment. To the sound of looped applause and canned laughter, a group of performers take part in an impossible illusion - part mind-reading feat, part cabaret act, part chaotic game show - in which they are endlessly replaying moments of defeat and hope creating a world of absurd connection, struggle and comic repetition.

Real Magic continues the exploration of ideas about repetition, replaying and restriction which have been part of Forced Entertainment's work for a long time, but which are present here in a more extreme and focused form. Drawing on material from pop culture, this production seeks to question more broadly, and to further pry open the complex world in which we find ourselves.

Caught in this world of second-chances and second-guesses, variations and changes, distortions and transformations, the performers are constantly reinventing new strategies of interpreting and inhabiting the space in which they are trapped - surviving it, remaking it, trying to break and transcend it. Real Magic takes the audience on a hallucinatory journey in this compelling performance about optimism, individual agency, and the desire for change.

Performances of Real Magic will take place January 5-8 (see schedule above) at La MaMa, Ellen Stewart Theatre at 66 East 4th Street, Manhattan. Tickets are $20 and available online at ps122.org and by phone at 212.352.3101.

The creative team for Real Magic includes Tim Etchells?(Artistic Director), Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon and Claire Marshall?(Performers), Jim Harrison?(Lighting Design), Richard Lowdon (Design), Jim Harrison (Production Management), Greg Akenhurst, Doug Currie?(Sound Technicians), Anna Krauss (Project Assistant). Music Electronics & Sound Editing: John Avery Loops, Tim Etchells 'Grave', from Telemann Fantasia Number 1 in B-Flat Major Aisha Orazbayeva.

Check out a behind-the-scenes look at REAL MAGIC below!

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Forced Entertainment is a Sheffield-based theatre company founded in 1984. Touring and presenting their ground-breaking provocative performances across the UK, mainland Europe, North America, Japan, Australia and further afield, the group has sustained a unique collaborative practice for more than thirty years. Led by the artist and writer Tim Etchells, the Forced Entertainment company includes designer and performer Richard Lowdon alongside performers Robin Arthur, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O'Connor. Over the years this core ensemble has been augmented by contributions from many guest artists and performers.

Forced Entertainment's work explores and often explodes the conventions of genre, narrative and theatre itself, drawing influence not just from drama but from dance, performance art, music culture and popular forms such as cabaret and stand-up. The group operates at different scales, shifting from intimate two-performer works focused on text, to spectacular productions with large numbers of people onstage. Exciting, challenging, entertaining and questioning their audiences, Forced Entertainment have been key players in the development of a truly Contemporary Theatre language, and have inspired and influenced generations of UK, European and North American theatre makers. Each of the group's original projects is developed through a deeply collaborative process that combines writing, improvisation, discussion and rehearsal. Their focus on creating an innovative theatre which addresses contemporary experience, issues and questions in a language born out of the times, has also grown organically to include gallery installations, site-specific pieces, books, photographic works and videos. The group have also created a series of improvised long durational works, lasting between 6 and 24 hours, which has played a significant part in their oeuvre since the early 90s. Live streams of these marathon performances have, since 2008, played an important role in disseminating the company's work and in building new approaches to dispersed, digital audiences.

"All of our work, for us, approaches the question of what theatre might be now, how it can speak now, how it might make contact with audiences now," says Etchells. "For us theatre is always a kind of negotiation, something that thrives on its liveness and its potential for debate and conversation..."

La MaMa is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. The organization has a worldwide reputation for producing daring performance works that defy form and transcend barriers of ethnic and cultural identity. Founded in 1961 by award-winning theatre pioneer Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has presented more than 5,000 productions by 150,000 artists from more than 70 nations. A recipient of more than 30 Obie Awards and dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie, and Villager Awards, La MaMa has helped launch the careers of countless artists, many of whom have made important contributions to American and international arts milieus.

La MaMa's 55th season celebrates the creative and collective histories of La MaMa's local and global communities Since its beginning, La MaMa has forged creative partnerships with artists based in different parts of the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. In recent years, these long-term relationships have taken on new life through distance collaborations over the Internet. The 55th season embraces new pathways forged in performance and technology to connect the myriad experiences, politics, conflicts, aesthetics, intimacies and dreams of people and communities participating in an increasingly globalized world.

For more information, visit lamama.org.

Performance Space 122 (PS122) provides incomparable experiences for audiences by presenting and commissioning artists whose work challenges boundaries of live performance. PS122 is dedicated to supporting the creative risks taken by artists from diverse genres, cultures and perspectives. We are an innovative local, national and international leader in contemporary performance.

Beginning in 2011, PS122 embarked on one of the most unusual and potentially radical shifts in its history, including a re-structuring of artist support, a business model overhaul, and the renovation of our building. As PS122's East Village home undergoes a much-needed interior renovation supported primarily by the City of New York, DCA and DDC, PS122's core activity continues to be providing audiences with contemporary live performance.

For over 3 decades, Performance Space 122 has been a hub for contemporary performance and an active member of the cultural community. Under the curatorial vision of Vallejo Gantner (Artistic Director 2005 - present) PS122 has developed a set of programs designed to re-establish the value of live performance, provide singular experiences for audiences that inspire critical thinking, and sustain the creative process for artists throughout their career. Largely in partnership with peer organizations, PS122 currently presents artists in all disciplines in spaces all over the city during an annual fall & spring season and Coil festival in January.

In addition to the commissioning and presenting of artists from NYC across the US, and around the globe, PS122 has increased our activity off the stage to provide audiences with a variety of access points and context for the work on stage. These activities include both talkbacks with the artists as well as in depth conversations that bring together luminaries from non-arts disciplines to discuss a variety of topics including everything from religion, to migration, to queer real estate and cultural diplomacy. PS122 encourages the asking of questions and debate of contemporary society's issues in both artistic practice and audience experience. For more, go to ps122.org.

Photo Credit: Hugo Glendinning

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