NOW 18, Festival Of Radical New Theatre Comes To The Yard
By: Stephi Wild Dec. 14, 2017
The Yard Theatre will be kicking off the new year with NOW 18, their annual festival of radical performance.
Over five weeks, double-bills of shows that are powerful, political, loud, hilarious and messy will play on The Yard stage for five nights.
These shows are by some of the biggest and brightest artists in contemporary performance, making some of the boldest work right now. Artists who are at the top of their game and will be forming NOW 18 include Christopher Brett Bailey, Rachel Mars, Rosana Cade and Emma Frankland. Many NOW 18 artists have performed at previous NOW festivals, as well as at some of the most highly-regarded venues and festivals in the UK and internationally.
NOW 18 celebrates the uncompromising and unpredictable live event. This year shows will deal with subjects ranging from gender, disability, spirituality and sex to Curious George and Michael Barrymore.
There will be no formal press nights but a limited number of tickets will be made available to press who wish to write about the festival. Press are encouraged to attend performances at the beginning of each week.
Week 1: Tuesday 16 January - Saturday 20 January 2018
Stacy Makishi: The Comforter, 7.30pm
Stacy is a multi-award winning artist who has been making work for 30 years. Her new show The Comforter is steeped in 80's/90's pop culture. It is a rite of passage that uses meditation, ritual and disco to reclaim spirituality and propose a new perspective on church. The Comforter follows Stacy's powerfully moving show Vesper Time. Together they make up the first two in a three-show series about the Holy Trinity.
Lucy Hutson: Bi-Curious George and Other Sidekicks, 9pm
Following previous NOW hits Bound (NOW 15) and Britney Spears Custody Battle Vs. Zeus in Swan Rape Shocker (NOW 14), Lucy is back. And this time she's bringing her dad with her. Professor 'the Amazing' Addrian is a children's entertainer and Punch and Judy man extraordinaire. Between teenage screams and hilarity Lucy and Addrian will reminisce, re-enact magic tricks and reflect on what it means to choose a life led in front of an audience.
Week 2: Tuesday 23 January - Saturday 27 January 2018
Tomas Jefanovas and Christopher Brett Bailey: RATED X, 7.30pm
Tomas Jefanovas' mind-bending visuals have fused with Christopher Brett Bailey's 'verbal gymnastics' celebrated in his extraordinary sell-out This is How We Die (???? The Guardian, Time Out, The Stage) to create something chaotic and cosmic. Psychedelic sights, electronic sounds, ear-serrating free jazz and machine gun poetry converge in RATED X. A meditation on holes, voids and mirrors. A ketamine noir.
Rosana Cade and Eilidh MacAskill: Moot Moot, 9pm
Queer artist-lovers Cade and MacAskill have both toured the country to critical acclaim (Walking:Holding, Sister, Stud). Now they unite to take on the roles of doppelgänger radio hosts Barry and Barry, batting banter back and forth in a surreal phone-in talk show. Seeking connection with the world beyond, they can only tune into the white noise at the edges of their outer space echo chamber.
This darkly-funny show is a weird and wild trip through never-ending feedback loops; a riotous rhythmic transmission for our times when all facts are moot.
Week 3: Tuesday 30 January - Saturday 3 February 2018
Katy Baird is an artist and activist whose recent show Workshy toured to over 28 cities ("messy, anarchic and very funny" ???? The Stage). Her new show Unreal is dedicated to those times in life when you feel totally lost. When your most terrible thoughts and biggest failures overshadow everything. When no matter how hard you try, you just can't shake the feeling that you are faking it all.
Katherine Araniello: The Araniello Show, 9pm
The Araniello Show is a celebratory, surprising and hilarious homage to pity porn, sympathy and the impaired by award-winning artist Katherine Araniello. Katherine is sick and twisted, she is also 'A Miracle of Life'. She uses subversive humour in response to the negative representations of disability and twists taboos. Prepare to sing sick songs, hear deadpan dating exposés and embrace pity-porn in all its festering glory.
Week 4: Tuesday 6 February - Saturday 10 February 2018
Nick Cassenbaum: My Kind of Michael, 7.30pm
Ever since Nick was a kid, Michael Barrymore has been his hero. Once the king of British television, Nick believes that Barrymore was Britain's best entertainer and he's ready to convince you of that too. Following his smash-hit tour of Bubble Schmeisis (???? "generous and poignant" The Stage), My Kind of Michael is full of hilarity and generosity as Nick recounts coming of age in awe of Barrymore.
Rachel Mars: Your Sexts Are Shit, 9pm
Before sexts there were hand-written letters. And loads of them were proper filthy. Rachel Mars, whose Our Carnal Hearts (???? The Guardian) sold out across the country, has gone in search of sex and love letters. With the help of the internet, friends and two sexologists, she has unearthed missives dating back centuries. Come witness shocking, tender and hilarious letters from dead people like James Joyce, Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keefe.
Week 5: Tuesday 13 February - Saturday 17 February 2018
"to commit, to breathe, to hurt, to fight, to be for or against an idea, to be stronger than I think I am..." Founder of the celebrated performance company A2, Anton Mirto returns to The Yard following her sublimely ritualistic show earning innocence (NOW 14). The Army speaks of urgency and objection. Through a visceral language of resilience and dysfunctionality, it sees a woman march against apathy, for healing, purpose and power.
Emma Frankland: Hearty, 9pm
Emma Frankland returns to The Yard to follow the sell-out Rituals For Change at NOW 16 (???? "tender, brave and brilliant" WhatsOnStage) with an exploration of HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) and its history. She explores attitudes to menopause alongside the liberation of her own body as a transgender woman. Inspired by conversations with women around the world, Hearty celebrates growth, ageing, transformation.
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