Eclipse Theatre Premieres First Season of Work Under Artistic Director Lekan Lawal

Eclipse Theatre, one of the UK's most innovative, Black-led production companies, presents two world premières of the first productions programmed by award-winning Artistic Director Lekan Lawal, alongside an amplified return of the Eclipse Award, an initiative created by Eclipse Theatre and Summerhall which puts under-represented artists centre stage at the world's largest arts festival. 

 

Pilot is a dynamic new piece of work examining what might be gained if we let go of the stories that we tell ourselves. An interactive and intimate solo show led by Lekan Lawal, it follows a former investigator gathering fragments of an old manuscript that illustrate an untold story. As he pieces together recollections, writing, and footage, the lines between fact and fiction increasingly blur as a difficult truth emerges. 

 

Based on the EP Kingdom Coming by Brit Award-winning singer and songwriter Emeli Sandé, Soon is the genesis of a new musical experiment which takes a groundbreaking, music-first approach to creating a live, performed event – part play, part music gig, part narrative. Jumping through time, from the 80s to the present day, an artist explores their past life experiences, mining gems to help define their artistic future. Eclipse will capture insights and learnings to influence the crafting of this innovative musical theatre piece, due for full production, and national and international touring in 2024/25.  

 

Alongside its own work, Eclipse Theatre Company presents the winners of the Eclipse Award, now in its third year, in a showcase of new work being presented at Summerhall. 2023 marks the expansion of the Eclipse Award, an initiative created by Eclipse Theatre and Summerhall, which aims to help UK-based Black and Global Majority artists making boundary-pushing performance work undertake an Edinburgh Festival Fringe run. This year's expanded Eclipse Award consists of a programme of seven shows, created by artists of colour and supported by both Eclipse Theatre and Summerhall, which explore themes of discrimination from police; displacement; colonisation; controlling relationships; queer self-love; and good, good food.  

 

Kill The Cop Inside Your Head, from spoken word artist and performer Subira Joy, explores their experience being targeted by the police as a Black, queer, and trans person living in the UK. This new work combines striking visual imagery with powerful language to examine the impact of the police in our communities. Tracing narratives of police encounters, while centring on themes of violence, gaslighting and abuse of power, Subira Joy exposes how we internalise the role of a police officer to suppress and repress ourselves into submission. 

 

First-generation immigrant Lula Mebrahtu brings her show OommoO to Summerhall, depicting her experience navigating the duality of her Habesha heritage and her British identity. The story is stitched together live with visuals, music and soundscape to teleport you to a different world. It is an emotionally visceral, poetic reflection of an experience unpacked through an Afro-Futuristic East African lens. OommoO is an acronym standing for “One-of-many-many-of-One”, and the show looks at the effects of memory loss on displaced communities. 

 

Siapa Yang Bawa Melayu Aku Pergi? (Who Took My Malay Away) is Faizal Abdullah's love letter to Singapore, the country of his birth. Addressing themes of colonisation, identity, indigenous displacement, and the loss of culture, heritage and language, Siapa Yang Bawa Melayu Aku Pergi? is a lecture-performance that investigates Faizal's Muslim-Malay-Singaporean identity. Mixing visuals with a fascinating presentation of Malay culture, colonial history and Jawi lesson (the reading and writing system of the Malay language), the show explores perceptions that the wider world has about what it means to be 'Singaporean' and what it means to be 'Malay-Muslim'. 

 

Multi-award-winning playwright Mwansa Phiri makes her Edinburgh Fringe debut with her new show waiting for a train at the bus stop, following Chilufya - whose name literally means 'the lost one' and lost is exactly how she's felt most of her life. Struggling with low self-esteem and a waning sense of self, she finds herself being drawn into a dangerously controlling relationship. Interweaving spoken word theatre with Zambian oral traditions, this dark comedy is a solo show exploring coercive control, cultural identity, and mental health. 

 

Produced by Journey to the East Productions in association with Summerhall/Eclipse and Tramway - Weathervanes is an immersive multimedia visual exhibit and ritual dance-theatre experience by multidisciplinary performance artist, Jian Yi.  Drawing on Western art history and classical depictions of the nude body in paintings and figurative sculpture, Weathervanes asks us to reframe concepts of the beautiful and what is holy through re-envisioning contemporary 'living sculptures' that centre Queer People of Colour. 

 

Elvis Died of Burgers is made and performed by the food-obsessed directors of Blink Dance Theatre. With a non-linear narrative and using semi-improvised dance, theatre and spoken word to create an exciting edge of your seat experience for audience and cast alike, Elvis Died of Burgers dives deep into the King of Rock'n'roll at the end of his life. Replete with their signature sensory and bizarre tangents, the cast also share their own food stories.  

 

Lekan Lawal, Eclipse Theatre Company Artistic Director commented: “The Festival is a microcosm of the sector, reflecting the same lack of representation from marginalised groups. At Eclipse, we are committed to highlighting, sharing, and celebrating stories from Black and Global Majority communities. We also understand how difficult it can be to even get to Edinburgh, so, as in previous years, we seek to mitigate some of these challenges with the Eclipse Award. This year, in collaboration with Summerhall, we are expanding the award to provide practical resource and support to allow multiple, diverse artists opportunity and access to showcase talent, develop and experiment with their practice, and to make with the audience in mind and in the room, in turn shaping how and why they make work. We hope also to create space for community and connection within a wider company of peers, as well as with the dynamic Summerhall programme.” 

 

Sam Gough, Summerhall Chief Executive added: “We couldn't be more excited to welcome back and work with the team at Eclipse for a third year, our relationship is going from strength to strength, and the programme will be both ground-breaking and unforgettable. The additional opportunities, which we can't wait to unveil, will add meaningful benefit well after the fringe has finished for all involved.” 

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