Daniel Kitson is to have a month-long residency at the Battersea Arts Centre in January 2019.
The ground-breaking performer will be taking over the Grand Hall. No further details have been released at this stage, but this cements the comedian's relationship with the venue where he has performed regularly in recent years. Further details will be revealed later this year.
The news was announced on the third anniversary of the fire that destroyed the Grand Hall. The venue is now being relaunched with a run of shows entitled Phoenix Season.
The season features shows by Bryony Kimmings, Gecko, the National Theatre of Scotland, Lekan Lawal, Dead Centre, Little Bulb Theatre, BAC Beatbox Academy, Daniel Kitson, Touretteshero and others, with over 100 performances, 3 new commissions, 3 world premieres, 2 London premieres and 2 BAC co-productions.
The run of Gecko’s Missing was interrupted by the fire in 2015 and is the first theatre show of the Phoenix Season, as the company returns to Battersea to complete its run in the reborn Grand Hall, opening on Thursday 6 September.
The Phoenix Season celebrates Battersea Arts Centre’s role as a developer of inventive artists and as a centre for the entire community. It’s building-wide and offers a platform to artists and leaders of the future: inspiring people to take creative risks to shape the future.
The season includes a takeover by an Up Next Artistic Director, the launch of the new Scratch Hub - a co-working community for 150 creatives and start-ups, the launch of a national and international Co-Creating Change network, and 10 special Phoenix Events to celebrate the public’s generous response to the Grand Hall fire.
There are over 2,000 tickets for Grand Hall shows and the Christmas show, Return to Elm House, available for £1. These will be targeted at people with low incomes through Battersea Arts Centre’s Local Roots programme with Wandsworth and Lambeth voluntary groups.
Battersea Arts Centre is also launching a new Phoenix Award to offer talented artists the opportunity to develop their work and present it to larger audiences - an opportunity afforded by the re-opening of the Grand Hall.
David Jubb, Artistic Director and CEO said "We are so grateful to everyone who has offered their time, advice and support over the last three years. Without it, we could not have kept going. It has been a privilege to work with so many inspiring people who have super-charged our mission to take creative risks to shape the future.
In the midst of uncertain and often challenging times for many communities in London and beyond, we hope the Phoenix Season will be a reason for tens of thousands of people to come together, rise up and make a difference.
We are launching and spreading a series of ideas in the Phoenix Season which are about the creativity of everyone in our community. We hope to make sure these initiatives are just as visible and as talked about as the great shows in the Grand Hall, so that the Phoenix Season becomes a celebration of people’s passions, determination and creativity.”
More details below
PREMIERES AND RETURNING FAVOURITES
· Internationally acclaimed physical theatre company, Gecko, return to complete their run of Missing (Thu 6 Sep – Sat 15 Sep), that was cut short by the 2015 fire. Missing evokes a warped world of striking imagery, multiple languages and beautiful music, and invites the audience to ask: what happens when you choose not to remember?
· Award-winning artist Bryony Kimmings presents the world premiere of I’m a Phoenix, Bitch (Wed 3 Oct – Sat 20 Oct), her first solo show in nearly a decade. Seeing parallels between her own life, the destruction of Battersea Arts Centre’s Grand Hall and world events, Kimmings presents an exploration of strength, regeneration and renewal after disaster.
· Mythology and pop culture collide in new commission SUPERBLACKMAN (Thu 15 Nov – Sat 1 Dec), a multi-art form mash up that explores power, mental health and representation. SUPERBLACKMAN is created by Lekan Lawal, an Artistic Director at Battersea Arts Centre as part of Up Next, a partnership between Battersea Arts Centre, Bush Theatre and Artistic Directors of the Future.
· Daniel Kitson takes over the Grand Hall for the entirety of January 2019 with a month long residency. More details will be revealed later this year.
· The National Theatre of Scotland presents the London premiere of Adam (Tue 18 Sep – Sat 29 Sep), the remarkable, true story of a young Egyptian trans man and his journey to reconciliation. Featuring a score sung by a virtual choir of trans and non-binary individuals from across the world projected onto the stage, Adam is both a bold exploration of the experience of a young transgender person and an ambitious experiment with theatrical form.
· Little Bulb Theatre perform Orpheus (Wed 5 Dec – Sun 30 Dec), their most ambitious show to date, which was developed over two years at Battersea Arts Centre before touring internationally to critical acclaim. Little Bulb Theatre’s radically original, musical re-imagining of the Greek myth plunges audiences into the seductive world of the 1930s Paris jazz scene, as legendary guitar virtuoso Django Reinhardt and songstress Yvette Pépin set out to restage the ancient epic.
· A brand new immersive adventure for the whole family, BAC Production Return to Elm House (Sat 1 Dec – Sun 30 Dec) draws on Battersea Arts Centre’s rich history. Audiences young and old will embark on a quest throughout the building to seek out hidden memories, uncover lost secrets and collect clues to piece together the tale of Elm House – the building that once stood on the site of Battersea Arts Centre. Return to Elm House encompasses a series of thirteen new heritage installations that will be embedded permanently within the fabric of the building, and a week of workshops and activities for National Care Leavers Week.
· Dead Centre’s deconstructed and absurd take on Chekhov’s First Play (Wed 31 Oct – Sat 10 Nov) explores the essence of Chekhov and of performance itself in its London Premiere.
Check here for ticket details
