BEYOND BORDERS: A MINI-SEASON
Coming to The Omnibus, Clapham, The Beyond Borders Mini-Season is presented by a collection of female theatre artists who care about intercultural communication and collaboration, and feel passionately about the need to address the rise in hard borders and cultural and ethnic exclusion, from a political and from a personal perspective. This year, the focus is on Britain and the Middle East.
How do we live on the safe side of a hard border, yet engage with atrocities on the other side? Brexit, Trump's travel bans and deportations, the global rise of the far Right; Every day, maps are developing ever more hard lines. Lines people cannot cross, however carefully they tread.
Beyond Borders will look at what we might do with those hard lines, and how we might hope to progress beyond them.
How do we live on the safe side of a hard border, yet engage with atrocities on the other side? Brexit, Trump's travel bans and deportations, the global rise of the far Right; Every day, maps are developing ever more hard lines. Lines people cannot cross, however carefully they tread.
Beyond Borders will look at what we might do with those hard lines, and how we might hope to progress beyond them.
EVENTS
IMPROBABLE DEVOTED & DISGRUNTLED CONFERENCE: “What Are We Going To Do About Borders?”
Tuesday 13th March • 7:30pm • 3.5hrs • Free
Devoted & Disgruntled UK is a nationwide conversation about theatre and the performing arts, run by theatre company Improbable. Since 2006, Improbable has been using a process called Open Space Technology to facilitate these gatherings where everyone’s voice can be heard and no topic is censored. There are no key-note speakers and no fixed agenda - you decide what gets worked on at the event. If we’re going to change the world for the better, we all need time and space to collaborate on an equal footing. Devoted & Disgruntled is that time and space.
Tuesday 13th March • 7:30pm • 3.5hrs • Free
Devoted & Disgruntled UK is a nationwide conversation about theatre and the performing arts, run by theatre company Improbable. Since 2006, Improbable has been using a process called Open Space Technology to facilitate these gatherings where everyone’s voice can be heard and no topic is censored. There are no key-note speakers and no fixed agenda - you decide what gets worked on at the event. If we’re going to change the world for the better, we all need time and space to collaborate on an equal footing. Devoted & Disgruntled is that time and space.
PRIVATE DANCERS: BELLY DANCE TO BURLESQUE
Wednesday 14th March • 7:30PM • 2hrs • £15
Burlesque star, Egyptian-trained belly dancer, and feminist academic Faustina Fahrenheit Burlesque will take participants through a part performance, part dance class, part discussion. What does "erotic dance" mean across a British-Middle Eastern axis? For many female dancers in the Middle East, private spaces are the only safe spaces to perform, but in the West, a "private dance" takes on a wholly other connotation. What role does the location -public or private - play in a dance interaction? Please wear clothes and shoes you can move in. High heels optional. Costume elements provided, but you are welcome to bring your own. No experience necessary. These dance forms are traditionally performed by females, but this event is open to all genders, and assumes equal respect for all genders.
Wednesday 14th March • 7:30PM • 2hrs • £15
Burlesque star, Egyptian-trained belly dancer, and feminist academic Faustina Fahrenheit Burlesque will take participants through a part performance, part dance class, part discussion. What does "erotic dance" mean across a British-Middle Eastern axis? For many female dancers in the Middle East, private spaces are the only safe spaces to perform, but in the West, a "private dance" takes on a wholly other connotation. What role does the location -public or private - play in a dance interaction? Please wear clothes and shoes you can move in. High heels optional. Costume elements provided, but you are welcome to bring your own. No experience necessary. These dance forms are traditionally performed by females, but this event is open to all genders, and assumes equal respect for all genders.
DRAWING A VEIL
Thursday 15th March • 7:30PM • 2hrs • £15
Talks and life drawing class led by #InkyLayla. When a woman wears the veil she is seen as oppressed. When Salome wears seven veils she's seen as sexy. Egyptian born artist Layla Mohamed / InkyLayla will lead new and experienced artists through a series of studies of models nude, veiled and somewhere in between, to explore our reactions to the veiled female form. Basic materials provided, but you are welcome to bring your own. No experience necessary. Contains nudity.
Thursday 15th March • 7:30PM • 2hrs • £15
Talks and life drawing class led by #InkyLayla. When a woman wears the veil she is seen as oppressed. When Salome wears seven veils she's seen as sexy. Egyptian born artist Layla Mohamed / InkyLayla will lead new and experienced artists through a series of studies of models nude, veiled and somewhere in between, to explore our reactions to the veiled female form. Basic materials provided, but you are welcome to bring your own. No experience necessary. Contains nudity.
LIPSTICK: A FAIRY TALE OF MODERN IRAN
Friday 16th March • 4PM & 7:30PM • 80mins • £6
Saturday 17th March • 7:30PM • 80mins •£6
Part theatre, part drag cabaret, Lipstick: a fairy tale of modern Iran is inspired by time writer/director Sarah Chew spent in Tehran during the Green Uprising of 2010. When you observe atrocity, it can be a challenge to make the memories fit together. What was it you actually saw? What are you meant to do with it? What are you meant to do with the life you left behind?
Orla is about to open a drag club in London, but ends up in a revolution in Iran. By accident. Lipstick fuses storytelling, vaudeville, theatre, lip-synch and boylesque to explore what happened next. This is a scratch performance which will be script-in- hand.
Ticket price includes a post show discussion led by Penny Black, Friday: “Crossing Lines”, Saturday: "Writing around
Censorship"
Friday 16th March • 4PM & 7:30PM • 80mins • £6
Saturday 17th March • 7:30PM • 80mins •£6
Part theatre, part drag cabaret, Lipstick: a fairy tale of modern Iran is inspired by time writer/director Sarah Chew spent in Tehran during the Green Uprising of 2010. When you observe atrocity, it can be a challenge to make the memories fit together. What was it you actually saw? What are you meant to do with it? What are you meant to do with the life you left behind?
Orla is about to open a drag club in London, but ends up in a revolution in Iran. By accident. Lipstick fuses storytelling, vaudeville, theatre, lip-synch and boylesque to explore what happened next. This is a scratch performance which will be script-in- hand.
Ticket price includes a post show discussion led by Penny Black, Friday: “Crossing Lines”, Saturday: "Writing around
Censorship"
AMIE TAYLOR: STORYTELLING FOR 3-7 YEAR OLDS
Sunday 25th March • 10:30AM • 1hr • £6
Amie Taylor is a storyteller and theatremaker, and makes performance for both children and grown ups. She is also the Editor of The LGBTQ Arts Review. This event is aimed at 3-7 year olds and their families. It will take the fairytale elements of Lipstick as a starting point to exploring themes of cultural and gender integration, through storytelling, puppetry and creative play.
Sunday 25th March • 10:30AM • 1hr • £6
Amie Taylor is a storyteller and theatremaker, and makes performance for both children and grown ups. She is also the Editor of The LGBTQ Arts Review. This event is aimed at 3-7 year olds and their families. It will take the fairytale elements of Lipstick as a starting point to exploring themes of cultural and gender integration, through storytelling, puppetry and creative play.