At the Edge… – What kind of Fool are you? « We Are Eastside | Birmingham – Friction Arts have ‘an overwhelming series of offers over the next two weeks’ and asked me to post up the details. From this Friday, they have a residency by Jonathan Kay and the Nomadic Academy of Fools. Jonathan is a man ‘on a mission to reach new places with his fools and very, very, funny. For those of you who don’t consider yourself Theatre goers, this is not Theatre as we know it…so challenge yourself to a new experience.’ Here’s how:
Shows:
Fri 19th March at 8pm, ‘Know One’s Fool’ – improvised wonder from Jonathan Kay himself
Sun 21st until Wed 24th March inclusive at 8pm – ‘Shakespeare’s Richard II Scratch’ – ‘a magical performance without props or set, where the cast play all the parts’
Friday 26th March at 8pm – ‘Feast of Fools’ – performances by all the fools of a comedie de tragik nature’
Workshops:
Sat 20th – Sun 21st March, 10am until 6pm ‘Know One’s Fool’ – discover the dangerously daring art of fooling
Sat 27th- Sun 28th March 10am until 6pm ‘Know One’s Fool’ – discover the dangerously daring art of fooling again (some people are attending both workshops, recommended)
All workshops and performances at The Edge, 79-81 Cheapside, Digbeth, Birmingham B12 0QH. To experience ‘unforgettable work that will remain with you forever’ contact Jo Tremarco 07506 739579 or jotremarco@yahoo.co.uk to book tickets.
It’s a bit rough around the edges, and a little dark, but its the content that counts…The film is about 45 minutes long, so sit back and enjoy…
And don’t forget that next Saturday 27th, we have another talk at the Edge with Babak Salari and Diana Ivanova, talking about another great International project – ‘My Street’, in Cuba.
New events and how to find out about them | – My, my, there’s lots going on at The Edge on Cheapside. It’s becoming a big bee hive of creative activity, some by Friction Arts and some ‘Off The Edge’ events by others making good use of a great space. Here they list in detail what’s in store, such as:
18th Feb, 4.30 – 6pm Postcards from South Africa – a seminar about Friction Arts’ recent residency in Johannesburg.
26th Feb from 8.30pm – Happy Artist Social Club – ‘a place to hang out with other artists without ignoring someone else’s art in the process’.
27th Feb – Artists seminar by Diana Ivanova (Bulgaria) and Babak Salari (Iran/Canada/ Wetherspoon’s) launching their new book documenting their My Street project in Cuba.
6/7th March – Hacking wonderousnesses from Fizzpop
13th March West Midlands Filmmakers for Haiti are putting on an evening of short films and a disco in aid of the disaster.
But they’ve saved the best until last, namely:
And last – until we announce the next cavalcade of fun - and certainly by no means least – from 19th until 28th of March we are hosting a residency by Jonathan Kay and the Nomadic Academy of Fools. I cannot stress how foolish you will be to miss some, or indeed any of the workshops and performances, and bad foolish, not good foolish. I’ll be posting more fully soon, but until then, go here and get NAF.
Short films/promos/art films between 8 and 10 pm followed by disco all to raise money for DEC Haiti appeal.
Cost is £5 on door, £4 concessions. There’s a cheap bar and guests are encouraged to bring cake and nibbles to share.
If you want your short film, animation, pop promo, art film, feature trailer or excerpt to be shown then please get in touch with Brendan O’Neill on info@sticklebackproductions.co.uk or 0798 565 9997.
Double bill of workshops! | fizzPOP – Fancy making a completely useless machine, like the one above? Or a cool thing with microcontrollers (whatever they are)? Look no further than the fizzPOP workshops at The Edge on Cheapside on Sat 6th and Sun 7th March.
New postcard from South Africa! | Friction Arts – The lovely chaps at Friction Arts are not long back from a fruitful trip to Johannesburg and they’d like to share their experiences with you all:
If you’re from the cultural industries or the public sector and you’re interested in projects that focus on participation and engagement, intercultural dialogue or legacy, or an artist interested in international work or how interventions can work in differing cultures, then this is an event you should not miss. As usual, the event is free (and unfunded, feel free to donate), refreshments will be available, and there’ll be a big, fat Q+A at the end which will go on for as long as the audience require, then retiring to the annexe (the Anchor public house and real ale emporium), for a ‘debrief’.
RSVP to Friction if you would like to attend as there’s a limited capacity. Going by the blog posts they wrote whilst out there, this should be a good ‘un.
…the PhD show’s mythological think-tank investigation, conducted by Harry Palmer, seeks to discover the relationship between the banana plantation and lost civilisation concerning the Hawaiian Mauna Loa tribesmen and women. Mythological hoaxes have been reported suggesting that banana worship and ecological disaster were aligned to the Indian rope trick in which the Darknosis Scientific team sought to define and clarify on their 1917 expedition to this Pacific Ocean Island.
I went to the opening of the exhibition and it was bizarre, great fun and strange. Harry and his colleagues sorted bananas within the cage whilst waitresses mixed with audience, handing out crisps and trying to bag a husband. A little tip – if you offer the workers inside the cage a little something, you might just get a banana in return.
A live webcam relay across the electronic data field (aka the internet) will hopefully pulsate personal mythological investigations from inside my purpose built metal cage. This metal cage will house my bedroom (and myself for one week 24/7), relocated for the purposes of in-situ discovery. Those familiar with my eccentric archaeological approach to date will recognise the trait – to investigate the world on location, in locations. This PhD show is therefore housing myself and my bedroom as a portal of gestating stories – fact and fiction. The Transformative Darknosis Psychic Centre of Research (myself and my metal cage and bedroom) within the PhD show has been designed to alter my consciousness once more – perhaps presenting more misrepresentation and new understanding from previous identifiable traits that have attempted to describe me and my world amongst us. You are invited!
Diane and Harry, both from a fine art background will do a bit of that. Peter will move a lot of furniture about. Diane is a brilliant drawer so there’s going to be brilliant drawings. Harry is a well established (misplaced) humorous performance artist, so there will be curious performance artistry. Peter will do something. Diane has a firm grasp of her brief, so expect some of that.
If you’d like to see Diane firmly grasping her briefs (fnar), PhD is on 18th-25th Sept.
Happy and Sad | Friction Arts – Friction Arts are a mix of emotions right now – they’re pleased the first ‘Happy Artist’ social club on Friday went so well:
Happy Artist is our attempt to create a place for artists and their friends to meet and have fun…We realised that a lot of the socialising we were doing with other artists happened at art launches or ‘private views’ (hate that term, so old fashioned), and we thought, would it not be nice just to meet up and hang out, without ignoring someone’s artwork in the process – so Happy Artist was born.
They’re right – it’s lovely to just meet up and hang out. Not nearly enough of that for its own sake these days.
But with the high comes a low. Their neighbours, engineers RW Creswell, have fallen victim to the recession and closed their business next door to The Edge on Cheapside. This closure of yet another industrial business in Digbeth is very sad – as more and more of them shut up shop it feels like we’re losing something very special:
...its heritage and history – their like will never be seen again. This opens up all kinds of questions about the future – who will retain those engineering skills, what will Birmingham’s economy actually produce in the future, what happens when all the stuff we have breaks down and there is nobody left to fix it?
