Udderbelly's 2015 Circus Season to Kick Off with Gravity & Other Myths' A SIMPLE SPACE, April 23

A Simple Space will kick off the Udderbelly Festival at Southbank Centre, Jubilee Gardens, London SE1 8XX from Tuesday 21st April - Sunday 24th May 2015. Press Night: Thursday 23rd April, 7.30pm.

How long can you hold your breath for? How many back flips can you do in one go? Can you stand on your head? Or... could you stand on somebody else's?

Last year's smash-hit circus show returns to London. This is the final chance to see A Simple Space in which eight young acrobats compete for your laughter, gasps and applause with non- stop, mind-boggling feats of breath-taking acrobatics. Get up close and personal with one of Australia's hottest circus ensembles, Gravity & Other Myths, as they push themselves to their limits and beyond in a captivating show of physicality, skill and daring.

A Simple Space is simultaneously raw, frantic and delicate. Supported by live percussion and presented so intimately that you can feel the heat, hear every breath, and be immersed in every moment.

Instead of fine-tuning the performance with makeup, lighting and contrived theatrical overlay, the cast have deliberately gone the opposite way. The audience sits close to the stripped back stage. In that space, without reserve, the performers break down their usual guards and introduce the reality of failure and weakness. With nowhere left to hide, personal narratives come through naturally. This honesty is the essence behind A Simple Space.

A Simple Place is part of Udderbelly Festival which runs from 9th April - 19th July 2015. Now in its 7th year, Udderbelly's iconic upside-down purple cow brings a splash of colour and a bellyful of comedy, circus and family shows to the South Bank. With incredible entertainment, organic street food and a full bar menu, Udderbelly's pasture is the perfect place for the whole family to laze and graze this summer.

Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood, Directors of Underbelly, say we can scarcely believe that this will be Udderbelly's 7th year at Southbank Centre and our 4th year with London Wonderground. We created these festivals with the very clear ambition of wanting to give Londoners an affordable and eclectic mix of fabulous live entertainment but within a true festival environment in the very heart of London. We're very excited about this year's festivals and can't wait to get the Cow's legs up in the air and the mirrors polished on that Spiegeltent again.

A Simple Space will run from Tuesday 21st April - Sunday 24th May, playing Tuesday to Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday and Sunday, 6pm; and Saturday matinees, 2.30pm. Run time: 60 minutes. Udderbelly Festival will take place at Southbank Centre, Jubilee Gardens, off Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.

Box Office Tickets are available from www.underbelly.co.uk and on 0844 545 8282, ranging from £14 to £19.50 (concessions and family rates available). Book for 2 shows out of Bromance, Circus Geeks: Beta Testing and A Simple Space and save 15% on ticket prices. Book all 3 and save 25%.

Udderbelly Festival is located in Jubilee Gardens, off Belvedere Road. The nearest underground stations are Waterloo (on the Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern and Waterloo & City lines), Embankment (on the Circle, District and Northern lines) and Westminster (on the Circle, District and Jubilee lines). The nearest rail station is Waterloo.

For more information, visit www.udderbelly.co.uk/your-visit, follow @GOM_Circus, @UdderbellyFest #ASimpleSpace, or visit www.facebook.com/GOMcircus.

Gravity & Other Myths (GOM) is a multi-award winning and well respected Australian acrobatics ensemble. The company creates engaging works of acrobatic art for touring, festivals and corporate clients. Formed in 2009 in Adelaide, South Australia, the ensemble creates and directs their own work with emphasis on an honest approach to performance, moving away from traditional circus and theatre models, towards a fusion of acrobatic physical theatre.

The company's first work Freefall has toured extensively across regional and metropolitan Australia since its conception in 2009, receiving rave reviews and winning multiple awards including; Best Circus at the 2010 Adelaide Fringe, Tour Ready at the 2011 Adelaide Fringe and both Best Circus and Best Emerging Circus/Physical Theatre Performer at the 2011 Melbourne Fringe. Freefall was nominated for Pick of the Fringe at the 2013 Adelaide Fringe.

In 2013 Gravity & Other Myths Premiered their second work A Simple Space at the 2013 Adelaide Fringe Festival winning the weekly award for Best Circus and receiving a nomination for Best Circus Overall.

The Company continues to grow and evolve, pushing their physical and creative boundaries and striving for wide spread and unique performance opportunities.

Underbelly is a UK based, live entertainment company. Their events and festivals division operates one of the largest operations at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe selling over 236,000 tickets for over 140 shows over 25 days. 2015 marks the seventh year of Udderbelly Festival at Southbank Centre and the fourth year of London Wonderground at Southbank Centre. Elsewhere Underbelly also produces Edinburgh's Christmas; Comedy Hullabaloo with the RSC Stratford- upon-Avon; West End Live in Trafalgar Square for Westminster City Council and the Society of London Theatre. Through their Underbelly Productions arm they produce and promote live shows in London, throughout the UK and on tour internationally. In 2014 Underbelly sold over a million tickets to their various events.

Southbank Centre is the UK's largest arts centre, comprising three iconic buildings (Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery) and occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the midst of London's most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Building on this rich heritage, Southbank Centre offers an extensive artistic and cultural programme including annual and one-off themed festivals and classical and contemporary music, performance, dance, visual art and literature and spoken word. For further information, visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk.

Southbank Centre's Festival of Love will return in summer 2015 from 6th June to 6th September, when this rich and complex subject will be explored further in installations, performances, exhibitions and free events across the whole site. The festival, which was enjoyed by 1.6 million people last summer, will again feature the Big Wedding Weekend, when couples come together to marry in mass ceremonies on the Royal Festival Hall stage over the August Bank Holiday weekend (Saturday 29th to Monday 31st August).

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