WildWorks and Battersea Arts Centre will present BABEL, a site-specific production of intimate and epic proportions, in a unique collaboration with the Lyric Hammersmith, Young Vic and Theatre Royal Stratford East.
Two years in the making, BABEL will be presented as the centerpiece of World Stages London at a major London landmark to be revealed in early 2012. BABEL will run for 12 performances only from 8-20 May 2012, with press night on 10 May (time to be announced), with tickets going on sale today (3 October 2011).
Directed by the WildWorks team behindThe Passion in Port Talbot starring Michael Sheen, Bill Mitchell will lead a cast of 500 professional and community performers. With high production values and state of the art projections, the re-imagined space with a capacity of over 1000 will offer audiences a unique theatrical experience. Developed over a 2 year period through participatory projects in multiple venues across the capital, BABEL will bring together significant numbers of different communities in the Olympic year. This brand new production will explore the diversity of language, culture, ethnicity and identity, as well as celebrating our common humanity.
BABEL tells of a gathering of the tribes. People who have been scattered for an age are returning to finish what they started eons ago. They mean to create a new city. A welcoming haven for strangers. A place to imagine and make the best we can be.
Bill Mitchell (Artistic Director of WildWorks) said: "‘I am excited at bringing WildWorks to London. Working with Battersea Arts Centre and World Stages London will be the perfect combination to make BABEL a fantastic and extraordinary theatrical experience."
David Micklem (Joint Artistic Director of Battersea Arts Centre) said: "BAC's mission is to invent the future of theatre. We think WildWorks is one of the most exciting theatre companies committed to the same ambition and we are delighted to be co-producing BABEL with them."
Bill Mitchell is Artistic Director of WildWorks which he founded in 2005. Based in Cornwall, WildWorks is an art led international theatre company focussing on site-specific events making large scale spectacular performances and artworks that grow out of their locations including quarries, cliffs, harbours and derelict industrial sites. Most recently WildWorks created the Port Talbot The Passion. Their installation of Enchanted Palace has been running at Kensington Palace since 2010. Mitchell's productions for the Company include Souterrain which was received to great acclaim in seven different residencies across France and the UK and The Beautiful Journey which, with partners Culture 10, Newcastle and Theatre Royal Plymouth, was performed in Dockyards around the country and abroad. In 1998 Mitchell became a member of Kneehigh and was Artistic Director of the company between 1995 and 2005.
Under the leadership of Joint Artistic Directors David Jubb and David Micklem, Battersea Arts Centre plays a leading role in supporting artists to create their best work for theatre out of a Grade II* listed former Town Hall in South London. Re-imagining and re-creating the building with each new production, they have hosted and developed some of the most exciting new shows for theatre including work from Kneehigh, Punchdrunk and 1927. BAC provides a home for artists, audiences, participants and staff and continues on its mission to invent the future of theatre.
World Stages London (WSL) is a landmark theatre celebration of the international and multi cultural nature of London culminating in a series of shows presented in May 2012.
For more information, visit http://www.bac.org.uk/whats-on/babel/.
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