The full programme for the 50th Brighton Festival (May 7-29, 2016) – the largest and most established curated annual multi-arts festival in England – has been unveiled with experimental artist and musician Laurie Anderson as Guest Director.
Renowned for her inventive use of technology, Anderson is one of America’s most daring creative pioneers in roles as varied as artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, vocalist and instrumentalist.
The theme of this year’s Festival is home and place, and an eclectic programme – which spans music, theatre, dance, visual art, film, literature and debate – features work from some of the most innovative national and international artists, and includes 54 new commissions, co-commissions, exclusives and premieres.
Highlights include:
♦ Two exclusive performances from folktronica pioneer Beth Orton, who will be premiering new material exploring her electronic roots
♦ Renowned choreographer and dancer Akram Khan’s new full-length production Until The Lions
♦ The world premiere of A Room with Your Views, a global collaborative work by Turner Prize-winning British artist Gillian Wearing, which captures ‘snapshot’ views from windows around the world
Anderson’s own events include:
♦ The UK premiere of her unique Music for Dogs, a concert specially designed for the canine ear
♦ A screening of her acclaimed new film Heart of a Dog
♦ An exclusive new performance monologue about place and places called Slideshow
♦ A freewheeling walk through sonic spaces with fellow musician-composers, pianist Nik Bärtsch and guitarist Eivind Aarset
There’s also a UK premier of Lou Reed Drones, an installation of Anderson’s late husband’s guitars and amps in feedback mode which she describes as “kind of as close to Lou’s music as we can get these days”.
With ‘home’ at the heart of the programme, Brighton Festival will celebrate its relationship with its home city through its artists, its characters, and its sense of place and spirit.
A series of special home-grown commissions will include two works marking the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death: The Complete Deaths, a re-enactment of every onstage death from Brighton-based artistic powerhouses Spymonkey and Tim Crouch; and Digging for Shakespeare by Marc Rees, a site-specific homage to 19th Century Brighton eccentric and world-renowned Shakespearean scholar James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps.
Other city-inspired highlights include a specially commissioned film Brighton: Symphony of a City, screened to a new score performed by Orchestra of Sound and Light; and the entire Royal Pavilion Estate playing host to Dr Blighty, an ambitious, large-scale, immersive outdoor experience which highlights the untold story of wounded Indian soldiers hospitalised in Brighton during World War One.
The Festival will also look at the idea of home, communities and places of safety more universally, with highlights including: Minefield, a new work from Argentinian artist Lola Arias developed with and performed by Argentine and British veterans of the Falklands conflict; experimental composer and musician Yuval Avital’s potent and thought-provoking new work, Fuga Perpetua, which reflects on the situation of refugees; and the UK premiere of Berlin’s Zvizdal, a filmic portrait of an elderly couple’s self-imposed solitude in a village affected by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
2016 also sees Brighton Festival working with Guardian Live in a special partnership delivering the Books and Debate programme, with a line-up of writers and commentators that includes a panel debate on the looming EU Referendum and a visit from former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, as well as appearances from Orange prize winner Lionel Shriver and two Booker prize winners, Marlon James and Howard Jacobson.
Laurie Anderson says: “I’m so happy to be serving as Guest Director of Brighton Festival in its historic 50th year. I’ve been part of the Festival several times and it is so big and sprawling and exciting and there’s so many different things going on – it really has a kind of celebratory, crazy, art party feel to it. And I love the theme of home and place. It is especially relevant with so many people in the world on the move now looking, like all of us, for a place we can belong.”
Hedley Swain, Area Director, South East, Arts Council England, added: “It is very fitting that the theme for Brighton Festival’s 50th programme is ‘home and place’. The Festival, and more widely arts and culture in general, have long been synonymous with Brighton. Collectively they deliver inspiring performances and exhibitions for local communities (and) attract people from far and wide to drive cultural tourism and make a strong contribution to the local economy.”
For the full Festival Programme and to buy tickets online, click here:
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