THE SPIRIT Comes to Battersea Arts Centre

Through physical theatre, visual art and live improvised music, one of Europe's most distinctive live artists, Thibault Delférière, takes on the great philosophical ideas of the human spirit. Born with cerebral palsy, the Belgian artist has fashioned a radical style of painting and performance that is unique, powerful and unsettling. The Spirit will comprise of three new performances, that will evolve out of each other to reflect the development of the human spirit from servitude to freedom. The ambitious trilogy marks the Belgian artist's second collaboration with New Perspectives' Artistic Director Jack McNamara following their 2017 BE Festival show Sisyphus, which won the Mess Award and has been invited to perform at the Sarajevo International Festival this year.

Each part of The Spirit, performed over three consecutive weeks, will feature a different musician: for Part One, Sicilian composer Guiseppe Lomeo will play prepared guitar, Part Two will feature world renowned drummer Steve Noble, and Part Three will be performed with Sharon Gal, esteemed electronic vocal artist and co-founder of Resonance FM. The three parts can be viewed as a rich trilogy or as standalone pieces of theatre.

Jack McNamara said, "Thibault is one of our truly great artists. I am thrilled to be collaborating with him once again, on his most ambitious performance work to date. As an artist Thibault has deep humanity, fierce intelligence, total originality and boundless courage. His work is pure, raw and 100 percent him. When he performs onstage, an energy is generated that is unlike anything I have experienced before. Working together has been a dream, and has pushed me way outside of any comfort zones.

Thibault Delférière is a performer, painter, film maker, theatre maker and artist. As a performer, his body in all aspects - balance, suffering, sexuality, matter - is central to his work. He has created over 70 different performances which have been seen in Belgium, the UK, Los Angeles, France, Italy and Luxembourg.

New Perspectives is an East Midlands based company with over 40 years' experience of touring highly original productions to venues of all sizes across the UK, from mid-scale theatres to village halls. Since 2012, they have been led by Artistic Director Jack McNamara whose productions include The Fishermen (Trafalgar Studios, British Council Showcase), trade (National tour), The Wolf, The Duck, and The Mouse (Unicorn Theatre), The Boss of It All by Lars von Trier (Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh and Soho Theatre), The Lovesong of Alfred J Hitchcock by David Rudkin (Brits Off Broadway, New York and UK tour), and Darkness, Darkness (Nottingham Playhouse co-production). Their upcoming productions include Convenience Store Woman, an adaptation of the best-selling Japanese novel, and An Angel At My Table based on the life of New Zealand's most famous writer, Janet Frame.

Tickets: www.bac.org.uk | 020 7223 2223

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