WATCH OUT Festival - Cambridge Junction

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GET YOUR MIND BLOWN Like new theatre on the edge? Delve into WATCH OUT Festival. It’s going to be one to remember.

Dave Gorman / English Touring Opera / Classical Concert Series 2015/16

30 | May 21, 2015 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News

This week’s entertainment highlights

the critical list WATCH Festi

THE HEADLINER: MUSIC

The WATCH OUT Festival at Cambridge Junction is a series of experimental shows which will challenge audiences. ELLA WALKER straps on her tin helmet.

THE CUBE: Virtual reality

Feeling dangerou s

L

Editor: Ella Walker email: ella.walker@cambridgenews.co.uk For breaking entertainment news for the city, visit cambridge-news. co.uk/whatson Follow @CamWhatsOn on Twitter

EAP into a whole day of mindblowing theatre.

Following in the considerable footsteps of Cambridge Junction’s previous experimental festivals, Sampled and Night Watch, WATCH OUT is set to become an annual one-day event “continuing that legacy”.

Dubbed a “festival of dangerous new theatre and dance,” Junction arts producer Daniel Pitt says: “We’re calling it theatre and dance but where the boundaries between those end and finish, and also where you might say live art and cabaret and spoken word meet, are all quite vague. We’re pushing the boundaries between these things.”

WATCH OUT will take over every room in the Junction, staging eight newly devised shows that have been supported, commissioned by or created in collaboration with the venue. One piece will also take to the streets, while another utilises virtual reality goggles. “Theatre in all its possible forms,” Daniel grins.

Most of the shows are still being worked on and honed (“So some surprises may happen”). In fact the earlier you arrive at the festival, the earlier in the development stages the work will be, with the later shows being more finalised.

“It’s a place for the even more unusual stuff to be tried out. It’s all a bit edgy, it’s all quite fun and it’s got an attitude to it that’s worth listening to.

It’s people saying things that need to be said in different ways,” says Daniel. “We like to support alternative viewpoints.”

Although billed as “dangerous” he promises: “It’s not dangerous because someone’s going to be bleeding in front of you or anything like that!”

Instead it’s eclectic, experimental and unique; not a risk to your person.

Daniel says: “My policy in general is to present work which speaks to people about the wider

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WRECKING BALL: Action Hero will test how far an audience will go

world – this is work that speaks about the wider world in more innovative ways, but it’s not designed to be scary, it’s designed to be relevant.

It’s about contemporary issues and contemporary society: the problems and difficulties that we all face, and giving space to artists that don’t get much of a voice.”

The shows FEATURING two world premieres and one UK premiere, the line-up is rousing and intriguing. In order, we have . . .

Wrecking Ball by Action Hero (2pm) Wrecking Ball is still a work in progress. Centred on the male gaze, celebrity, control and perception, two performers (a male photographer and a female ‘celebrity’) cajole the audience into reading out parts of the script.

It will increasingly test what the audience is

willing to say and do and asks just how far we’ll go to put words in other people’s mouths.

360° by Dan Koop, Andy Field and Nathen Street (2pm, 4pm & 6pm) First premiered in Melbourne, Australia, the UK debut of 360° will see participants go on a solo audio experience around the city. The idea is to use your phone to navigate channels opened up by an astronomer on the other side of the world, while thinking about place, technology and the need to be solitary sometimes.

The Cube by Circa69 (from 2pm) The Cube is a 12-minute experience in oculus rift virtual reality (goggles are involved), where you will face the question: “How do you build a reality which doesn’t collapse within three days?”

Deep stuff.

SWAGGA by Project O, Charlotte Cooper and Kay Hyatt (3.30pm) SWAGGA combines black and mixed race dance artists Project O with performers Charlotte Cooper

Cambridge News | cambridge-news.co.uk | May 21, 2015 | 31

EASY FOR YOU TO SAY: Poet Rowan James explores the use of labels and the concept of being normal in society

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and Kay Hyatt, an obese lesbian couple who also have a band called Homosexual Death Drive. They call this show their “giant goddess attack” and it’s about not being ignored and dancing like mad.

Easy For You To Say by Rowan James (5pm) Easy For You To Say comes from Ely poet Rowan James after he impressed the Junction crew with a

performance at local platform night, View From The Bridge.

He has learning difficulties and a speech impediment, and this show, he explains, is an “exploration into the use of labels and the concept of being normal in society, and, from a disability point of view, what happens to people who fall on the wrong side of that due to their bodies or how their minds work”.

Punchy and eloquent, Rowan has collaborated with beatboxer Marv Radio – a perfect match considering he is heavily influenced by hip-hop and punk. His writing technique is as interesting as his performance too. “I’ve always had good ideas but I can never get them on to paper and I lost things, so I learnt to write them in my

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32 | May 21, 2015 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News

THE HEADLINER: MUSIC

FIGS IN WIGS: Do people who love Twitter just love themselves?

From page 31 head so I didn’t have to worry about not being able to get them on to paper.

“As soon as it would sound right in my head, when I was concentrating on the writing I would lose the rhythm and lose the inflections and it just stopped feeling organic and feeling right.”

He adds: “I want people to explore their relationship with disability. It affects all of us.

I think everyone feels what it’s like to not be

good enough, to not feel like they fit in. I think everyone’s experienced that, so I want that as the starting point, and then I want for people to listen to the voices of people who don’t often get a voice and how, if there is an issue, to think about it for themselves.”

A Room For All Our Tomorrows by Igor and Moreno (6.30pm) Performers Igor and Moreno will dance, drink coffee and push the boundaries of what it means to be free, social creatures. Who knows what they’ll get up to?

Show Off by Figs in Wigs (8.30pm) Show Off is about social media and narcissism.

The madcap five-piece Figs in Wigs explain . . .

We were interested in whether social media platforms have made people more narcissistic, whether the incessant status updates have made us think we are more important than we actually are. Perhaps humans have always been self-centred creatures, but what if modern communication and technology is giving us an aggrandised sense of self. We love Twitter, but we started to wonder if people who love Twitter just love themselves . . . A lot of people think the

show itself is narcissistic, but that’s exactly what show? Fame, notoriety and a verified Twitter we’re playing with. What kind of self-obsessed account. freaks would make a variety show starring only How are the outfits shaping up? themselves? And not only that, attempt to perform This show contains the most costumes to date as multi-disciplinary artists. What including a grand total of 19 wigs. We’ve had sort of self-orbiting idiots the suits dry-cleaned so they are looking would think they could pass pretty sharp. The bejewelled trainers themselves off as circus require the most maintenance and performers when the upkeep as we inevitably lose a few Figs in W ig only hula hoop they gems each time we do the dance I’m invo s will be a su lv re e -fi d re in Rowa so that sh have any experience routine. The cow onesies are n James hit, o u ld b e it reach sh with is the potatobeginning to smell but we’ve an audie really exciting ow se I think Ig nce for based snack? That’s the first eing stocked up on Febreeze. o r a n d b time, Moreno right, it’s us. Figs in e great, What do you suggest we got a wo I’ve seen part ’s show will Wigs. ‘watch out’ for? o n has a pia derful table o f it and it’s What should Low flying pigeons. n st n people expect? it specia o inside it. The age that y ll ’v y Calendar Girl by Lucy Expect organised McCorm made. I think e had ic L McCormick (9.45pm) chaos, industrial great, ra k’s show will b ucy e u a co us en Calendar Girl comes from noise-making and a festival. d to the GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN member guarantee that something ” Lucy McCormick. It’s a show where she will go wrong. We are has cast herself as Jesus Christ “in an attempt continually taken by surprise to find greater connection to her own moral onstage in this show, and I don’t think conscience”. we’ll ever get rid of the glitter. We’ll be forever Prepare for chaos, noise and crowd surfing, covered in the stuff. and raincoats are advised . . .

What are you trying to achieve with the

Daniel’s top pick s

The point of art . . .

“THE artier end of entertainment should be about inspiring change,” says Daniel on the wider aims of WATCH OUT. “The more that we can do as society in general to encourage freer thinking, the better. That is fundamentally what this festival is about.”

He adds: “What I love about theatre and dance and music and clubs – all the stuff we do here – is that it’s good to get IGOR AND MORENO: Pushing the boundaries

people in a room together to experience things that make you feel something.

“Whether it’s dancing in a club or singing along to Courtney Barnett, and you can’t get that from TV, so people should come out and see some stuff in front of them – it’s much more exciting.”

Step away from the remote. Go have some real fun.