Aviva Studios – Page 2 – Live Art Alive

Still Got It…!?

AVIVA STUDIOS

Still Got It…!? is the cabaret show from David Hoyle and is the culmination of his three week residency at Factory International. There may be no obvious sign of a pier or chips and candyfloss but this production has as much a rich vein of darkly sweet seaside humour as a stick of Blackpool rock. Hoyle is the consummate performer and seems as at home on the vast stage in The Hall as in a more typically intimate cabaret venue. He delivers a performance that is warm, witty, pithy and droll. There’s something quite beautiful and incredibly touching to see this avant-garde performer who has so openly documented his own personal struggles taking to this packed auditorium to ask Still Got It…!?

Hoyle is joined on stage by a range of cabaret artists and although they are all undoubtedly talented there is also a strong sense of Hoyle using this opportunity in a 1600 capacity auditorium to celebrate friendships he has made on his own creative journey. Glitterbomb Dancers are a cabaret dance group produced by Joseph Mercier are as hi energy as they are big on sequins, glitter and dark and twisty charm. Their numbers are dotted through the show and include a dystopian ballet and a pointed and dark allusion to the Pan’s People dancers of Top of the Pops and a time when we switched on to Gary Glitter and Jimmy Saville.

Thom Shaw otherwise known as Pam Lustgarden joins Hoyle on stage to discuss jam making in the W.I. as well as well as her well documented love of poetry and building improvised incendiary devices. Her act includes poetry by John Cooper Clarke and a unique take on Pull My Daisy by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassidy. The best element however is a sly epitaph for Hoyle when he supposedly dies from Empathy.

There are burlesque performances that include Lilly Snapdragon who performs in a child’s paddling pool and delivers an act that may destroy or increase the traditional Mancunion fondness for the great British fry up depending on your fondness for blending food and sex in a particularly graphic manner!! Symoné whirls across the stage on rollerskates using hulahoops while the Alternative Miss Ireland Veda Lady delivers a powerhouse performance involving a shopping trolley and later educates the audience about PrEP and her podcast Poz Vibe.

Some of these performances translate better than others unto such a large stage however that becomes increasingly irrelevant as Hoyle himself wields his laconic charm and stage majesty across proceedings. The huge audience is always on his side and revelling in seeing one of their own up on that stage delivering songs and reverie in his unique style. The interactive quiz show Still Got It, Never Had It, Lost It Years Ago has the audience riotously involved as Hoyle strides across the stage discussing rats in his Longsight abode, a belief in Capitalist reality and his childhood stamp collection. There truly is a broad church in the house tonight and Hoyle is the perfect High priest. He may wonder aloud how a lot of us are still alive…or ask himself How did I get away with that? The answer from the crowd to the big question of the night…David Hoyle,Still Got It…!? A resounding YES!!!

Please Feel Free to Ignore My Work

Still Got It…!?

JUNGLE BOOK

Children's Theatre, Large Theatres

Based on The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Direction, Set and Lighting Design Robert Wilson

Music and Lyrics CocoRosie

Co-produced by Factory International with Théâtre de la Ville

THE HALL, AVIVA STUDIOS

Acclaimed Director and Designer Robert Wilson is collaborating once more with Factory International having previously brought several productions to Manchester International Festival. This time the avant-garde Wilson has joined forces with American composers CocoRosie to give their unique “family friendly” take on the classic The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. The result is visually sharp and stylised with a suitably vibrant score. The story is somewhat fractured and evolves in a rather staccato manner which may challenge anyone expecting a more traditional retelling. Vivid and crisply architectural in form, the scenes unfold like the pages of a very minimalist pop-up storybook.

Aurore Déon as Hathi The Elephant and Dira Sugandi as Mowgli. Image credit: Lucie Jansch

Wilson’s trademark style of elaborate lighting and projections and shadowplay with a use of deliberately artificial looking landscapes is very striking. The vivid costumes and makeup reminiscent of Japanese Noh theatre add to an otherness in the characters and the landscape they inhabit. Each animal is highly stylised and the performers inhabit their animal personas rather than don obvious animal costumes so they straddle the world’s of man and beast just as the “man-cub” Mowgli did. Roberto Jean as Shere Khan exudes part Tiger part, Studio 54 snake hipped rock star. Aline Belibi as Bagheera is clad in sleek, vampish black velvet and smoulders and purrs like a glorious Eartha Kitt. The whole story is narrated by Hathi The Elephant who is clad in a white colonial style dress which alongside her grey ear headdress looks like an otherworldly Bjork.

The soundscape swathes the theatre in slightly off-kilter animal and jungle sounds that both enchant and disarm. The original music and lyrics by American performance artists CocoRosie are lively and vibrant with impish lyrics punctuated by dreamy ballads. The performers all sound great and a few including Dira Sugandi as Mowgli are particularly memorable. The overall feel has a decidedly French vibe and one scene change is used to employ the trademark coloured spotlights to shine on each of the musicians in the pit with great effect.

This production celebrates otherness and is intended as a plea for tolerance and understanding. The use of The Jungle Book as a base text is fitting as these varied creatures demonstrate “the law of the Jungle” as they struggle and strive to come together and try to move between the different worlds in an ever changing climate. There are issues in this production if you expect a smooth narrative flow but if you can sit back and enjoy the music and appreciate this as a montage of striking tableau scenes then there is much to appreciate. Absolute moments of striking beauty, a quirky sense of artful play that is present throughout and scenes that look like a Banksy mural brought to life are all present in this punchy piece which also includes some clowning and aerial work. It may not be the Disney rendition realised on stage but that was clearly never the intention.

AVIVA STUDIOS 27TH – 31ST MARCH

DARK NOON

Immersive Theatre, Large Theatres, Uncategorized

Director and Scriptwriting Tue Biering

Choreographer and Co-Director Nhlanhla Mahlangu

AVIVA STUDIOS

It is great to see AVIVA STUDIOS showing a big explosive production fresh from Edinburgh Fringe 2023. Award winning Danish company Fix+Foxy unite with a cast of South African performers to open the history books that celebrate the birth of the American Dream and gleefully rip it up and rewrite the story. Film and Television endlessly celebrate the first settlers, the brave battles protecting “their” land from the Native American tribes, the thrill of the Gold Rush and the romance of the cowboys riding out on the frontier plain. DARK NOON exposes the mythology and is a darkly funny and brutal reimagining.

The Warehouse plays host to a vast bare stage depicting the rich red soil of the Wild West. The audience sit on three sides of the stage with the fourth dominated by a massive screen on which many of the scenes play out in close up. Somehow the cast of seven seem to fill the space with action from the onset. At times props appear as small vignettes are played out as chapters of history. The first settlers take their perilous journey from Europe starving, sick and often drowning. Its a powerful reminder of what migrants are suffering right now as they seek their own to fulfil their own dream of a better future. Finding and claiming land they protect it fiercely from the indigenous population. At one point the stage becomes a sports stadium where the live commentary is broadcast as the Settlers play the Natives with brutal consequences.

The props on stage grow almost imperceptibly, first a little house on the prairie appears, a railway track is built by Chinese immigrants signalling the arrival of a saloon bar, a church, a gold mine and a barb wire enclosure for the Native Americans. All is deftly done with a fluid , muscular choreography and the pace of the action never falters. Audience members are interacted with and frequently immersed into the performance as slaves in the auction, churchgoers or incarcerated prisoners.

Throughout the frequent costume changes the performers reapply their white-face make up and blonde wigs as they poke fun at the imperious settlers who now seem as misguided and out of touch with reality as the current contenders for the next American presidency. Writer and Director Tue Biering has zeroed in on the terrifying reality that a mass historical psychosis where violence becomes the acceptable norm is not the dream but a living nightmare. DARK NOON lays bare uncomfortable truths and pulls its audience quite literally unto the pages of a terrifying pop-up storybook that is still being written today.

AVIVA STUDIOS 6th-10th March 2023

AFRIQUE EN CIRQUE

Circus, Large Theatres

KALABANTÉ PRODUCTIONS

The Hall, AVIVA STUDIOS

The latest extravaganza to mark the launch of Aviva Studios in the city is The Welcome a series of events curated by local people across Greater Manchester selected as part of The Assembly. Many of these events happening between the 11-19th November are free to the public and others are affordably priced. Afrique en Cirque celebrates everyday life in Western Africa as it zeroes in on coastal village life in Guinea. Devised by Montreal based circus Kalabanté Productions this is an unadulterated expression of joy and physical prowess that is at times as mind bending as it is literally body bending.

The staging of an African village looks invitingly beautiful and the lighting is gorgeous. Village huts are peopled by musicians while the front of the wide stage of The Hall lends itself perfectly to the endless series of tumbling routines that blend with tribal inspired dance, juggling, hoop and human pyramids that erupt on stage without anyone appearing to ever draw breath. This might be a show that casually started on African time but once it gets going it’s exuberance and high energy is unrelenting.

Afrique en Cirque. Image credit: Wendell Teodoro

Yamoussa Bangoura established this circus company in 2007 to celebrate African culture and circus. There are no high wires or safety equipment other than crash mats and the performers seem gleefully unbothered by the very real risks involved in much of their routines. One strides around with another performer casually standing on their head while the contortionist bends in ways that can have seemingly scant regard for their own body in 10 years time. The ensuing result is an extraordinary exhibition of human skill and endurance that also paints a vibrant image of village life. Routines are developed around market bartering, fishing expeditions and storytelling that all play out with colourful costume changes and live music from the live band. Afro jazz style music is performed with guitar and saxophone blending with traditional West African percussion and the beautiful kora.

There are some gorgeous moments such as the dreamy balletic hoop routine with the spinning cyr wheel. There is cheeky humour in a routine involving hard hats and a human pyramid that is an impudent nod to The Chippendales/ The Full Monty. The sheer athleticism and energy is invigorating and the performers are multi talented as they also take on some of the percussion and singing as well. The music and singing is utterly infectious and has numerous young children dancing in the aisles in this relaxed performance. The audience is involved and encouraged to engage in callbacks as we learn little bits of the Guinea dialect Susu…I now know that naani is four and suli is five thanks to a playful juggling routine.

This is a production that has played all over the world and in doing so is a reminder of what a rich and varied culture exists in Africa. It’s also a lovely reminder that communal joy and gasps of awe can be universal whether in Manchester, Manéah or Montreal.

The Hall, Aviva Studios 11 -15th November 2023

FREE YOUR MIND

Dance, Immersive Theatre, Large Theatres

Co-created by Michael ‘Mikey J’ Assante, Danny Boyle, Es Devlin, Sabrina Mahfouz and Kenrick ‘H20′ Sandy

Commissioned by FACTORY INTERNATIONAL

AVIVA STUDIOS

The first ever Manchester International Festival launched in 2007 and quickly established a reputation for promoting and creating ambitious new works. Artistic Director John McGrath took over from Alex Poots in 2015 when the idea for a permanent building was already being floated. Fast forward to now and from the ashes of the old Granada Studios and with an eye watering bill of approximately £242 million Factory International finally opens the doors of Aviva Studios. Devised by Danny Boyle, Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante, Es Devlin, Sabrina Mahfouz and Kenrick ‘H20’ Sandy; the show to launch the building is FREE YOUR MIND. It is a huge scale hip hop dance homage to iconic movie The Matrix via a tribute to Manchester’s proud industrial past and reputation for innovation.

The first half is in the Hall and opens with a vast blackboard filled with equations…its a lecture theatre and one of the great founders of computer intelligence, Alan Turing, is giving a lecture via an old black and white TV screen. A quick lesson on the birth of the computer age and Manchester’s role, takes us even further back to the 1700s and Arkwright and the birth of the industrial age. Staccato pulsing bodies flood the stage and Turing is gone leaving the legacy that will be The Matrix and hinting at the A.I. world we now inhabit. The first of many dramatic shifts occurs as the back of stage is punctured with light beams as the punch cards of the first Jacquard loom are replicated. Dancers appear sheathed like gossamer condoms that stretch up and connect to the ceiling. Beautifully lit they weave through each other like a maypole of lost souls. Each dance piece has drama and demands attention. Neo appears, as does the red wigged Trinity clad in glistening black PVC. Bowler hatted dancers in rubber ridged trousers appear like futuristic Bertie Bassets and a wraith-like dancer performs in front of a glistening golden orb punctuated with the holes of bullets or punch cards of computers or grafting workers. The trial of the first computer charged with killing a human is a brutal annihilation with murderlous beams of light. An aerial performer swings across the stage as black discs of destruction rain down.

Suddenly its time to follow the white rabbits through to an interval filled with Matrix inspired figures suspended in mid air while grooving rabbits dance and workers silently graft at machines. The tannoy announces time to divide the audience and blue wristbands go one way and red through a different route into the Warehouse.

Stark and minimalist the vast space is wrapped in white cotton, possibly a nod to Manchester’s historic role in the cotton industry. Running through the middle is a huge white runway suggesting a futuristic fashion runway or conveyor belt. Screens running its full length project images of the building of the Mancunion Way, Ian Curtis, Tony Wilson and the old Granada Studios to the pulsing sound of Blue Monday by New Order. As the screens raise the dancers start to emerge. Before the final battle scenes of The Matrix the runway looks like a bizarre fashion show of costumes by Gareth Pugh fashioned to showcase Apple and Amazon rather than Armani, Twitter and Facebook instead of Tom Ford. These images are startling and darkly funny as they reflect our current human obsessions with consumerism technology and social media. They are all the more potent as audience member immediately try to capture whats happening on stage on their phones.

Dancers karate kick their way down the runway and choreographer Kenrick ‘H20’ Sandy makes for a molten and mighty Morpheus. The ultimate scenes with Neo (Corey Owens) and Trinity (Nicey Belgrave) play out in a flurry of bullets of light and coding. It’s truly a spectacular sight that is powerfully impacted by the incredible lighting and video design by Lucy Carter and Luke Halls.

A scene from Free Your Mind. Commissioned and produced by Factory International @ Aviva Studios. Credit: Tristram Kenton

This show is a theatrical extravaganza that is all about showing off and celebrating being here in this brand new space in this city that so many of us love. FREE YOUR MIND isn’t a seamless production telling a cohesive and fully comprehensible story. It’s clear that it’s been in development for almost as long as it’s taken to get the building from concept to construction. It involves a wide range of creatives imagining a work for a stage that wasn’t even built and with a vision of creating something that was about possibilities for what could develop in this new space…about creative possibilities that are yet to be imagined. I like the unabashed joy of opening the doors to the playroom, ushering in the kids and saying Explore! Imagine! Play! This is a huge production using both the 1600 seater theatre and the vast warehouse space that could accommodate a Boeing 747. This is all about spectacle and showing off what these spaces will creatively allow us to do in Manchester. There is an incredible sound system in a building that can seamlessly adapt to different sized audiences in productions that could scale 64metres long and 21 metres wide and accommodate 5000 people while also allowing for floors that can flood and drain. The second half evokes one of my favourite MIF openings when in 2017 Jeremy Deller premiered What Is the City but the People when 100 people walked a gigantic walkway in Piccadilly Gardens celebrating Mancunions from all walks of life. Artistic Director John McGrath and his team have a shared vision for this new building and for Manchester…Invent Tomorrow Together. Let’s hope that FREE YOUR MIND is truly a gateway to new possibilities and just a taste of what is yet to come.

Factory International 13th October – 5th November 2023