Anti-War Piece by Mark Anderson, FURIOUS FOLLY, Set for UK-Wide Tour

FURIOUS FOLLY, created by Mark Anderson, takes place as night falls in a no-man's land on the battle front. Audiences of up to 2,000 people per night find themselves immersed within an open-air collage of sound, light, pyrotechnics and performance. Commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the UK's arts programme for the First World War centenary, FURIOUS FOLLY is one of 27 new commissions exploring how the Great War has impacted on the society we live in now.

The production will play Oxford: Friday 17th - Saturday 18th June 2016; Birmingham: Friday 8th - Saturday 9th July 2016; and Stockton: Thursday 4th - Friday 5th August 2016.

Anderson, a specialist in multimedia and site-specific performance who has created work for tens of thousands of people at major arts festivals across the world, leads a team of artists, who draw on the anti-war spirit of the early 20th Century Dadaist movement. Railing against the futility of war and the madness of the battlefield, Furious Folly challenges the inhumanity and senselessness of conflicts past and present.

With 2016 being the centenary of Cabaret Voltaire, the birthplace of Dadaism, Furious Folly is partly inspired by the artistic language of the Dadaists and eschews structure to place the audience amidst a powerful, anti-war performance with themes of dissent and desertion. Anderson comments, Furious Folly is inspired by the Dadaists, and the writers, poets, philosophers, radicals and ordinary people who rejected the propaganda and jingoism peddled by leaders, politicians, big business and the privileged elite of countries and empires as they squabbled for power with their usual contempt for the lives of ordinary people and the destruction wrought in the process.

Twice Turner Prize-nominated artist Richard Wilson, who has collaborated with Anderson on a number of projects, comments, Anderson has spent his professional career creating audio visual alchemy that uses light, heat, vibrations, electricity, oscillating chemicals and paraphernalia to dazzle our eyes and startle our imaginations.

This immersive experience will take place in Oxford, Birmingham and Stockton - all chosen for particular local resonances with World War I and the themes of the show. In Oxford, Magdalen College School's School House was used as the city's first hospital to receive the wounded from the first encounters of the War while School Field was used for drilling the School Cadet Corp. In Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield was the training location for the 14th, 15th and 16th city infantry battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. While, in Stockton, Preston Hall Museum, in Preston Park, was once home to local industrial magnate Robert Ropner and now houses a vast collection of artefacts which tell the story of Stockton-On-Tees.

Created at 101 Outdoor Arts Creation Space. Produced by Corn Exchange Newbury and OCM in association with Oxford Playhouse, Birmingham Hippodrome, Oxford Festival of the Arts and Stockton International Riverside Festival. Co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW and Stad Poperinge.

IF YOU GO:

FURIOUS FOLLY by Mark Anderson

17th - 18th June
School Field, Magdalen College School, Cowley Pl, Oxford OX4 1DZ

8th - 9th July
Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham

4th - 5th August 2016
Preston Park, Stockton on Tees

Free but must be reserved in advance
See https://www.1418now.org.uk/commissions/furious-folly/

Please note: The show includes loud bangs, intense pyrotechnics, and content based on themes including the treatment of deserters and shell shock. Young children may find the subject matter and some images and sounds disturbing.

Team Mark Anderson has brought together an incredibly talented, international team to create Furious Folly, including performers from the UK, Australia, Ireland and Switzerland, and a wider team that includes pyrotechnicians Pa-Boom, leading Australian sound artist Graeme Leak and Colin Nightingale (Senior Producer of Punchdrunk). Outdoor and site specific producer Simon Chatterton (Head of Outdoor Arts, Corn Exchange Newbury) co-produced Furious Folly with OCM (where Mark Anderson is Associate Artist). For the UK premiere, 14-18 NOW has commissioned further development of the show, including additional text and direction from award winning artist and writer Tim Etchells (Artistic Director of Forced Entertainment). Please note, Furious Folly is not in any way a Punchdrunk or Forced Entertainment or Tim Etchells production.

Mark Anderson uses light, sound, electronics, kinetics, fire and pyrotechnics to make compelling site specific temporary installations and performances, often spectacular, at other times subtle and intimate, and, on occasion, all these things at the same time. Drawing inspiration from the meeting point between the natural, the industrial and the technological, his work utilises light and sound to explore and create, often with a childlike playfulness, a fusion of these worlds. The resulting installations and performances are moving investigations into phenomena and perception that touch, surprise and sometimes amuse audiences both young and old. He often works in collaboration with other artists and groups, including Bow Gamelan (Richard Wilson, Anne Bean, and Paul Burwell). He was a founder member of the long running but now disbanded collective Blissbody and is the lead artist of the international hit Power Plant www.powerplant.org.uk. He established arts company Dark Spark with Helen Ingham. His work has been shown at prestigious arts festivals including Lumiere (Durham), Edinburgh Festival (British Council Showcase), Sydney Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Ten Days on the Island (Hobart, Tasmania), Latitude, and Fire In The Mountain, amongst many others.

14-18 NOW is a programme of extraordinary arts experiences connecting people with the First World War, as part of the UK's official centenary commemorations. It aims to engage as many people as possible with the First World War, exploring how the war has impacted on the society we live in now. 14-18 NOW commissions new work by leading contemporary artists from all art forms, inspired by the period 1914-1918. The commemorative period is marked by three key seasons - the first season centred around 4 August 2014 (Anniversary of the Declaration of War), the second is March to November 2016 (anniversary of the Battle of Somme) and the last in 2018 (centenary of Armistice Day). 14-18 NOW is responsible for the UK tour of the iconic poppy sculptures by artist Paul Cummins and designer Tom Piper. 14-18 NOW is supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England, and by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. 14-18 NOW has commissioned over 80 artworks to date that have been seen by over 20 million people.

Corn Exchange Newbury is an arts centre and 400 seat theatre that has worked over many years to develop its outdoor arts programme, becoming one of the most significant organisations in the country in terms of its support for this area of work. Through 101 Outdoor Arts Creation Space, its 10,000sq ft outdoor arts creation space on the former USAF cruise missile base at Greenham Common, the Corn Exchange hosts over twenty residencies annually and produces ambitious outdoor performance work including Mark Anderson's Furious Folly and its Ray Bradbury inspired co-production with Periplum, 451, which toured the UK in 2015. 101 is increasingly working in artist development, research and innovation and building international relationships to support the creation of new work for the outdoors. For more information, see www.cornexchangenew.co.uk/outdoor.

OCM (Oxford Contemporary Music) is a unique producer that works to develop and present the highest quality and most innovative new music and sound-based live events, to engage diverse local and national audiences with its work, and to deepen understanding and appreciation of musical cultures from within the UK and worldwide. Its raison d'e?tre is to bring music, artists and audiences together in ways that encourage and create memorable and meaningful experiences for all. OCM works in three key areas: presenting a regular concert programme in Oxford, commissioning and producing new work, and delivering a programme of education and outreach (mostly in Oxford). Our commissions and projects focus on placing inspiring music and sound based work in places and situations that will reach a large and diverse audience. OCM's current Associate Artists are Mark Anderson, Ray Lee, Felicity Ford and Max Reinhardt. Artists/producers currently on our Boom creative residencies are Kate Romano, Mike Blow, Kate Halsall, and Errollyn Wallen. Artists/producers taking part in our 2016-17 Boom residencies will be Sarah Nicolls, Iain Chambers, Tim Hill, and Breathing Space. For more information, see www.ocmevents.org.

Oxford Playhouse is a theatre for everyone. Oxford Playhouse, built in 1938, and its Burton Taylor Studio present and produce a wide range of live performance. The programme includes the best of British and international drama, family shows, contemporary dance and music, student and amateur shows, comedy, lectures and poetry. All of which is seen by over 150,000 people each year. They also create live performance in Oxfordshire. The Playhouse produces and tours its own shows, hosts Artists in Residence and a Writers' Attachment Programme (Playhouse Playmaker), and presents Playhouse Plays Out, an ongoing series of off-site events which happen at locations across the county. The theatre's Learning team works with over 15,000 people each year through post show discussions, workshops, work experience, holiday schemes, a youth theatre and a young people's theatre company. Since the arrival of Chief Executive Louise Chantal in 2014, the Playhouse has been expanding its producing work through co-productions and has toured these shows nationally and internationally to critical acclaim. Peter Pan in Scarlet will be the first Playhouse Production after the final phase of a 3-year refurbishment programme in Summer 2016. For more information, see www.oxfordplayhouse.com.

Now in its eighth year, the Festival offers a broad programme of performances, workshops and talks across the fields of music, drama, art and literature. We aim to celebrate Oxford's diverse communities, and there is something for everyone, whatever their age, background, or artistic experience. In 2015, the Festival featured over 100 events and attracted more than 16,000 visitors. More than 20 city venues were involved. The two weeks of the Festival simply form the pinnacle of Festival activities: education and community engagement activities run throughout the year. In 2014-15, over 2,000 children from 35 county schools were involved in projects which had their showcase in the summer Festival. For more information, see www.artsfestivaloxford.org.

Birmingham Hippodrome is an independent, not-for-profit, registered charity and averages over 500,000 visits annually making it the most popular single auditorium in the UK. With no public revenue funding, it counts Birmingham Royal Ballet and DanceXchange as resident partners; presents all of Welsh National Opera's repertoire; welcomes the best in international dance, major touring dramas, West End and Broadway musicals; and is home to the world's biggest Pantomime. It also houses the 200-seat Patrick Centre for the Performing Arts. Birmingham Hippodrome is currently expanding its Creative Programme - Hippodrome CREATIVE - building on its successful work in education and in the wider community. With partners including Arts Council England, Birmingham City Council and private funders, the Hippodrome has recently enjoyed co-producing and producing new events including International Dance Festival Birmingham, The Voyage (for the London 2012 Festival), Summer in Southside, and the 4 Squares Weekender celebrating the opening of the Library of Birmingham on behalf of Birmingham Arts Partnership. More recently Birmingham Hippodrome produced Birmingham Weekender on behalf of Birmingham Arts Partnership. For more information, see www.birminghamhippodrome.com.

Stockton International Riverside Festival (SIRF), a 4 day festival of street theatre and outdoor arts with a 28 year history, organised by Stockton Borough Council. The festival is free and has a track record of attracting around 60,000 people each year. SIRF has built its international reputation on commissioning new work, presenting premieres of shows and creative collaborations with artists, companies and other festivals in the UK and internationally. SIRF is known for its uniqueness in presenting original shows each year that have not yet been seen anywhere else in the country. SIRF is funded by Arts Council England as one of their National Portfolio organisations. For more information, see www.sirf.co.uk.

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