Theatre / mayfest 2024
Mayfest 2024 celebrates artists working in dance, theatre, live video gaming, VR, and site-specific installation
Mayfest, Bristol’s biennial celebration of boundary-pushing live performance and contemporary theatre is returning for 2024, with a launch party at Bristol Old Vic on May 17.
Spanning two weekends, the much-anticipated nine-day programme occupies an important place in Bristol’s cultural calendar; emblematic of the city as a space where bold and progressive artistic ideas can take flight.
Part of the appeal for audiences is down to the sheer eclecticism of the artists and performers who have been brought together by MAYK co-directors Kate Yedigaroff and Matthew Austin, teamed with the variety of spaces – both indoor and out – in which they will be showing their work.
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The Dan Daw Show by Dan Daw Creative Projects – photo: Hugo Glendinning
This year, those works will begin at Bristol Old Vic with The Dan Daw Show, by Dan Daw Creative Projects – an emotionally raw dance theatre show about “intimacy and resilience; letting go and reclaiming yourself”.
At Tobacco Factory Theatres, the opening weekend of Mayfest will present the actor, experimental theatre maker and creator of the hugely acclaimed An Oak Tree, Tim Crouch in his extraordinary and frequently funny solo play, Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel. Wearing a VR headset, the character is sent “back to the wreckage of the world they left”.
Truth’s A Dog Must to Kennel by Tim Crouch – photo: Stuart Armitt
Over at Watershed, making its UK debut at Mayfest, Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim’s asses.masses is a seven-hour-long participatory video game theatre piece from Canada that is designed to be played from beginning to end by a live audience.
The following weekend, Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas will “dance the end of their relationship” in The End, made in collaboration with Laura Dannequin and performed at The Trinity Centre.
Goner by Marikiscrycrycry – photo: Daniel Chen
Other programme highlights include Marikiscrycrycry’s psychological horror-inflected exploration of marginalisation, Goner, at The Mount Without, and at Unit 15, the BERLIN hybrid documentary/installation film Zvidal (Chernobyl – so far, so close) about a couple doggedly living on in a ghost town evacuated after the 1986 atomic disaster.
Outdoor sites for this year’s festival include Nightingale Woods in St Anne’s, two as-yet-un-disclosed locations, and Broadmead, which will be transported back in time to the 1500s by artists Sylvia Rimat and Charli Clark, transforming the busy shopping district into the tranquil, wildflower-filled Broad Meadow.
Memory of Birds by Polina Malikin – photo: courtesy the artist
Phil Gibby is area director for the south west region of Arts Council England. He commends the work being done by MAYK not only to bring artists to Mayfest, but to do so while ensuring access, inclusion and affordability remain fundamental to the ethos of the event.
“Their work in bringing contemporary and live performance to places across Bristol is sure to delight audiences in the city,” he says. “Thanks to public funding, we can support activities like this around the country, because everyone deserves access to high-quality culture on their doorstep.”
Mayfest 2024 takes place in venues across Bristol from May 17-26. All tickets are Pay What You Can from as little as £5 (plus booking fees). For tickets and more information, visit www.mayk.org.uk/mayfest.
Main photo: Broad Meadow by Sylvia Rimat and Charli Clar; photo: Paul Blakemore
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