Digbeth

At the Edge… – What kind of Fool are you?

From Friday this week, we have a residency starting by Jonathan Kay and the Nomadic Academy of Fools.  If you know nothing about their work, check their website. It’s a little difficult to describe, it’s not theatre, it’s not performance art, it’s something else…fooling I suppose.  jonathan has been developing this work for thirty five years, based on the idea of the Fool, such as the Fool in King Lear – the Fool sees through things, the Fool speaks the truth, while all around him are lying.  It is astonishing work, there really is nothing else like it out there.  We attended workshops with Jonathan over 15 years ago and the techniques and approaches he used still influence us today – and I’ve attended several of his legendary Glastonbury performances, which will stay with me forever. I really can’t recommend this work enough  – this is the first time the Fools have appeared in Birmingham for years and it’ll probably be years before we get a chance to see them here again – so don’t…bloody…miss…it.

Here’s the dates and ting:

Shows: This Friday 19th at 8pm, ‘Know One’s Fool’ – improvised wonder  from Jonathan Kay himself
Sun 21st until Wednesday 24th inclusive at 8pm – ‘Shakespeare’s Richard II Scratch’ -  ‘a magical performance without props or set, where the cast play all the parts’
Friday 26th at 8pm – ‘Feast of Fools’ - performances by all the fools of a comedie de tragik nature’ (f**ked up cabaret?)

Workshops – Sat/Sun 20/21st March, 10am until 6pm ‘Know One’s Fool’ - discover the dangerously daring art of fooling
Sat/Sun 27/28th March 10am until 6pm ‘Know One’s Fool’ – discover the dangerously daring art of fooling again (some people are attending both workshops, recommended) – then you can go and see a nice film at Flatpack.

Sorted.

Project Pigeon Interview

Have a look at our interview on Dazed Digital:

www.dazeddigital.com/ArtsAndCulture/article/7023/1/Project_Pigeon

Flatpack Festival at Ikon Eastside

Ikon has teamed up with organisers 7 Inch Cinema to present a series of events at Ikon Eastside as part of this year’s Flatpack Festival, which takes place between 23-28 March 2010.

Festival highlights at Ikon Eastside include the UK premier of Redmond Entwistle’s film Monument, showing as part of Build Them in the Mind on Friday 26 March. The film, currently showing in New York, tells the story of post-minimalist artists Dan Graham, Robert Smithson and Gordon Matta-Clark, who wander the New Jersey suburbs revisiting the places where they made site-specific works in the late sixties and early seventies. The film’s themes – abandoned buildings, architecture, urban planning – reflect some of the wider concerns of this year’s festival.

Look out also for David Lodge’s As I Was Walking Down Bristol Street (1983), an insight into Birmingham’s cultural scene in the 1930s, Whatever! a doublebill of filth and fantasy including Cody Critcheloe’s first feature-length movie Boy (2009) and a rare screening of John Water’s legendary Pink Flamingos (1972), and Burning (2009), an intense monochrome record of Scottish post-rockers Mogwai in action. The screening will be introduced by Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai.

Full listings for Flatpack Festival at Ikon Eastside can be found here.

Tickets cost £6 each or £20 for four screenings

23–28 March 2010
Ikon Eastside, 183 Fazeley Street
Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5SE