Summerhall August Festival 2013

Lauder! is a performance about growing up, about losing the one you love and about learning to live with the memory of what no longer exists. It is about the worlds that vanished. It was inspired by prose of Jonathan Safran Foer and by motifs from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and The Tempest. It tells the story of a boy who lost his father in the tragedy of the World Trade Center, who, in searching for him, faces the difficult and mysterious history of his family. Lauder! is a mixture of live acting, puppet theatre and computer projections with excellent original music.

"Before Higgs, symmetry and boredom. After Higgs, variety, excitement and laughter."

HIGGS is a theatrical voyage of discovery with exclusive background stories, unique film footage and live discussions with experts. Jan van den Berg juggles with facts and fiction about the Mini Big Bang at CERN
and tells about the comedy & tragedy of his subatomic love affair with the God Particle .

Peter Higgs will attend some of the performances himself as an interviewee!

This workshop will explore and excavate the working process of taking a testimonial text from page to stage. Using Mike Alfreds methodology of text analysis we will work through a series of storytelling exercises, exploring the various techniques Alfred’s used in order to bring to performance the testimony of Zdenka Fantlova, a holocaust survivor.

Simon Murray teaches Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow. He was until 2008 Director of Theatre at Dartington College of Arts and has been a professional actor and theatre maker having trained with Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux in Paris in the late 1980’s. He has written on Jacques Lecoq (Routledge 2003) and on physical theatres (with John Keefe) (Routledge 2007). More recently he has published essays on lightness in theatre, on the writing of WG Sebald and its relationship to contemporary performance practices, and on the teaching of Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux. Simon is co-founder and co-editor (with Jonathan Pitches) of the journal Theatre, Dance and Performance Training.

The Way you tell them has a further three dates 19th, 21st &23rd in the Anatomy Lecture Theatre, please see festival.summerhall.co.uk/event/the-way-you-tell-them/

Rachel Mars has always relied on humour. But what would happen if she couldn’t fall back on laughter? Turning the spotlight on the inner workings of comedy, The Way You Tell Them interrogates the desire and – sometimes uncontrollable – compulsion to be funny. Using real-life material, classic oral sex jokes and a wolf suit she weaves a thoughtful and unsettling story that questions how we use and abuse humour.

A reconnaissance mission into the no man’s land where death borders with storytelling. From Presbyterian silence to the colour of the Día de Muertos, Story’s End surveys the gamut of death, and the tales we tell about it. Live music, film and spoken word brought together by folk noir pioneers The Dead Man’s Waltz, alongside a host of award-winning collaborators.

Bjorn Borg once epitomised tennis cool. He was everything Jamie and his brother wanted to be. Then John McEnroe came along in 1980 and Jamie was beaten. 33 years of torment and self-questioning later. Is Jamie ready to face his greatest opponent? Beating McEnroe is about rivalry and love, how they can better us and destroy us. It is a show about competition and control, heroes and Zen. This show, from Fringe First winner, Jamie Wood, is energetic, entertaining and ridiculously competitive. 

World premiere: a conversation between Samuel Beckett and John Cage over a game of chess, by Victoria Miguel. While drinking, smoking and discussing friends and ideas—punctuated by the narrator’s clumsy interpretations—they play the game of chess described in Beckett’s novel Murphy, providing the structure for the first performances of a new digital version of Cage’s composition Reunion, commissioned for this production by The John Cage Trust. Asking, and answering, the narrator’s question: could the game from Murphy be used as the structure for a performance of Reunion?

Join us at Summerhall and travel to a stunning beach on Hopetoun Estate to experience William Shakespeare’s The Tempest in an ideal setting.

It is a tale imbued with magic and enchantment, and sees the exiled Duke of Milan, Prospero, conjure a storm to shipwreck his usurping brother Antonio. Prospero has spent the last twelve years on an island with his daughter Miranda, and intends to restore her to her rightful place.

Nothing can stop the carousel. Following on from The List, The Carousel is the second part of Québec dramatist Jennifer Tremblay’s trilogy of plays (translated by Shelley Tepperman) exploring three aspects of the same woman’s life.

This is an audience tour of the Richard Demarco archive spaces at Summerhall, both informative and performative, picking up key moments from the material on display and fitting them into an account of Richard Demarco’s extraordinary travels from and in Edinburgh since 1947.

When theatre meets technology, possibilities become endless. In Long Distance Affair, someone across the globe is reaching out exclusively to you. What will be the result when you and a perfect stranger meet with only a computer screen between you? Skype becomes the stage connecting an audience member to an actor in performance in another part of the world. Over 30 artists from five continents have united to create a virtual adventure just for you.

The Council of Handmade Crap blurs the lines between gesture, voice, text and design to create dreamlike machinery, immersing the audience in a journey through the tragic love story of Edgar and Elizabeth. The Portrait Firm allows the audience to witness sparks fly and emotions soar as the life of Polish artist,
Stanislaw Witkiewicz, becomes a multidimensional fantasy, constantly questioning the artist and his art. Witness crap transform into beauty in this mesmerising promenade performance where the audience are guided through a mysterious world of terror by characters trapped in their own illusion.

A glorious wasteland, an Eden of ash. War-torn mutants play a de-humanised war game. Menace penetrates the void as each action brings them closer to violence. The piece explores our obsessive visions of apocalypse.

Old time vaudevillian, tap dancer and acrobat, Sid Lester helped make variety great and now he wants one last shot. He is resentfully assisted by his daughter Valerie, eager to launch a new career as singer/impressionist and leave her job as a taxicab controller behind. Sid’s performance style is influenced by his old chums Tadeusz Kantor and Tommy Cooper; Valerie’s by Shirley Bassey. Together they attempt to entertain with balloons, a raffle, talking birds, toffees, some singing, jokes, a shuffle step hop, guest spots and interactive games.

A sharply-observed work about Consumption and Charity. A celebrated writer-performer. In the empty belly of a disused space – around the corner from Summerhall - Jack tells of salvaged books, travels in the Third World and his friendship with Kevin Carter, who took that prize-winning photograph of a vulture waiting for an emaciated child to die. Billions are fat, billions are hungry, and there are clear, simple, achievable ways of feeding everyone. So speculators, supermarkets, supermodels, super-chefs, superstars, charity-celebs and statesmen all get the Klaff treatment. Poetic, poignant, uplifting, punchy.

A site-specific performance about domestic abuse staged in a residential house. Our Glass House involves moments of fantasy, choreography and song, and is a promenade piece, encouraging audience to make their own journeys. The performance text is based on interviews we have carried out with men and women who have experienced domestic violence. There are no perpetrators in the show; we explore why people stay and how they leave. For the making of this show we have collaborated with artists to transform a disused house into a world for you to explore.

This is the moment that the plastic bag begins its own life! An ethereal and magical performance art piece, accompanied by the music of Debussy to create an experience of true wonder. A piece performed by ‘plastic dancers’, propelled by currents of air to lyrical music: l'Après-midi d'un Foehn transports the viewer to a world where the laws of gravity no longer exist and boundless adventures await. A beautiful journey that ignites the imagination. This is the UK debut of the much acclaimed Company Non Nova.

‘I keep a tight list. Very detailed. I stick to it. Even more so since she died. But I’m having trouble.’ The List is an award-winning story of an isolated woman struggling to establish order over chaos through obsessive list making. When a friend requests a favour she adds it to her list. Remembering to do it becomes a matter of life or death.

Raging storms and supernatural forces prevail over one man’s almighty quest to get home. Immerse yourself in a journey through the high seas, soak up the adventure and encounter danger and exhilaration. Homer’s cornerstone of literature is vividly told with beautiful illustration and masterful puppetry. Cinematic projection and cunning tricks transform a suitcase full of cut-out paper puppets into an array of living characters and striking landscapes. A silent film is created before your eyes, set to a captivating live score from exceptional musicians. A Paper Cinema and Battersea Arts Centre co-production.

Watch it, hear it, read it, stream it. Do it all at once. We’re all plugged in and wired up to the news and its ticker-tape is ticking all day and all night. But is all this news good for us? Hailing from Reykjavik, Iceland, VaVaVoom takes its audience into an inventive and original world of puppets, pop-up sets, live soundscapes and evocative video landscapes. This multimedia devised performance is a journey into our intimate surreality that asks us: when does information become too much information? Music by acclaimed Icelandic artist, Soley.

In 1926 shoemaker Ab Solomons drew on the wage packet he gave to his wife Celie. Throughout their marriage, right up until the early 80s, Ab had drawn a wage packet cartoon every week for her. These cartoons, with blistering honesty, through all their ups and downs, chronicled Solomons' family life. Danny Braverman’s solo show tells the funny and moving story of how he discovered the lost art of his great-uncle.

"Maybe this world is another planet's hell" Aldous Huxley

A hellish landscape where domestic disputes last thousands of years, death doesn't work and milk-drinking children make the rules. A place of gossiping neighbours gabbling venomous gibberish in dark corners whilst an inexplicable hum fills the air. Award-winning Clout Theatre take a look at human frailty and the essential comedy in the meaninglessness of our lives. A visually arresting poem to the dead and the damned and an absurd take on religious morality.

"Do you count yourself among the contented or the afflicted?"

An exploration of Cervantes’ novel, combining incredible visual imagery, anarchic performance and original music. The title role will be played by a secret guest performer, unique to each date.

Rachel Mars has always relied on humour. But what would happen if she couldn’t fall back on laughter? Turning the spotlight on the inner workings of comedy, The Way You Tell Them interrogates the desire and – sometimes uncontrollable – compulsion to be funny. Using real-life material, classic oral sex jokes and a wolf suit she weaves a thoughtful and unsettling story that questions how we use and abuse humour.

Cinematic portrait of a desolate mining town, the smallest in Colorado, USA. A microcosm of the world, the residents claim. In Bonanza there were once 6000 inhabitants catered for by 36 saloons, seven dance halls and an immense number of prostitutes for the miners. Their motto was: get in, get rich, get out. Now there are only seven residents, immersed in their own spirituality, living on a hotbed of accusations. Berlin portrays this world in miniature on a scale model of the town and five film screens. Soundtrack by Peter Van Laerhoven.

Can the way we kill animals tell us anything about how we deal with our own demise? In a former veterinary demonstration room, two knackermen investigate the pitfalls of being high up the evolutionary chain. Combining beautiful puppetry, new writing and documentary material this show tells a moving and darkly comic tale about the only certainty in life. Death, how it’s become removed from us as a process, how maybe we should reclaim it.

Major Tom is the story of how an average 34-year-old became a beauty queen and how her unruly pet basset hound, Major Tom, became a championship show dog. Major Tom and Victoria increasingly immerse themselves in the obsessive and confusing realm of personal scrutiny as they participate as genuine contestants, determined to win. Victoria, accompanied on stage by documentary film footage and her dog, tells this true story. It explores the British fascination with celebrity, beauty and winning.

Vladimir Tzekov Stage Action Laboratory: A performance about the middle-truths and middle-lies that engulf our whole life. No meaning can maintain its state of fullness when rhythm becomes as important as logic itself to understand normality. Middle-characters, middle-interpretations, middle-choreographies, all to explore the intermediate space lying between individuals and their lack of identity. Gorgeous and dramatic, delicate and aggressive, absurd but meaningful, all at the same time.

Sir Isaac Newton. Supreme genius. Unique personality. He invented the cat-flap, refused to use spoons, insisted on crimson décor and his old apple tree now forms the shape of a question mark. He overcame a mother’s rejection, childhood bullying and early humiliation to become a giant of science, finance and society.

Giulio is 31 and a choreographer; Stefano, is 63 and has Parkinson’s Disease. Father and son tell a universal tale about the power between father and child. Bodies speak words that were never said. Their mouths shape the memories of both joy and sadness. Two different lives, a generation apart. Parkin’Son is about being a father and a son, about ageing, about staying young, about cars, and also a little bit about Jimmy Fontana.

A quantum mechanics lecture. A man who loves the Universe. The scientific method that clashes with pseudoscience. A secret. A confession... The professor walks through some of the most intriguing concepts of quantum mechanics in order to present a beautiful world made of mysteries and paradoxes. But in the midst of all that awe-inspiring joy, the lecture turns into a confession that mixes some of the more advanced ideas of physics (Schroedinger's cat, the many-worlds theories) with the professor's secrets.

Once in a while something raises the hair on your back of your neck. Something incredibly minimal, beautiful and breakable, this is that show. Small in approach, big in ideas; since a child, Nick Steur balanced rocks on top of each other. No glue, cement or tricks involved. It’s all about concentration and finding the balance between your own force of will and the stone. Share some of his focus and realise that true happiness lies in the luxury of being occupied with one thing only.

From the ‘hot young company’ ,Guardian, that sold out the National Theatre in 2012: a razor sharp, slightly dark three-way battle to the death, and hilariously confused call-to-arms. Gym Party is an epic tale of hopeless determination: the brilliant, terrible, universal human desire to win, and go on.

1951. Henrietta Lacks walked into the coloured section of the John Hopkins Hospital with a pain in her abdomen. A cell sample taken without her permission was used as the raw material for some of the most important scientific discoveries of the past 100 years. This solo show by Adura Onashile takes as its inspiration the true life story of Henrietta Lacks and the extraordinary life of the HeLa cell line. HeLa is an all consuming story, intertwining genetic identity, social responsibility and current ethical debates about human tissue research and ownership...

Joyously strange, a work of both great femininity and bestiality, La Poème is an intense play in which Jeanne Mordoj (Company Bal), a ventriloquist, juggler and contortionist, delves deeper into her reflections on female identity. She explores both the infinitely gracious and the monstrous, each potentially present within the other. While Jeanne Mordoj is a stubborn feminist, she is not furious and combative, but mischievous and unshakable. A cult figure in her native France, before this new work she was renowned for her solo show as a bearded woman.

Zdenka Fantlova is one of a handful of Holocaust survivors alive today. She is determined that her unique story of the unrelenting strength of the human spirit will be shared with as many people as possible.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Zdenka was 17 when the war began and the ring of the title was given to her by her first love, Arno. Zdenka kept it as a symbol of truth and hope, from Terezin to Bergen Belsen.

Directed by Mike Alfreds, The Tin Ring is a profoundly uplifting story of great love, brought to life by Jane Arnfield’s extraordinary solo performance.

A suitcase-trailing family rolls into new beginnings. Foreign, distorted and bright, the world resembles a haven of comfort. A miniature Utopia. But as the walls and lives are peeled back the community’s murky environment is revealed. Feral is an innovative piece of visual, mixed-media theatre which combines puppetry, film and live sound to create and destroy a world in front of its audience’s eyes.

What happens when your fear comes round for dinner, and your deepest, darkest thoughts refuse to lie low? Solfatara: openings in volcanic terrain, emitting hot sulphurous gases high in sulphur. We are full of these geographical phenomena, orifices that allow our insides to come to the surface.

29 years old, forbidden to leave his country, playwright Nassim Soleimanpour distills the experience of an entire generation in a wild, utterly original play. White Rabbit, Red Rabbit is a work about contemporary Iran and of Nassim's generation. A generation born amidst the hardship of the Iran-Iraq war. A generation of computer-literate, well-informed young people who have never known an Iran other than the Islamic Republic.

Set in and around a lift, the location of her death, Badac’s new piece follows the life, work and assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Exploring her exposure of human rights abuses committed during the second Russian/Chechnya war and its aftermath. The drama features specific events that Politkovskaya reported while recreating some of the horrors she faced in her pursuit of justice. An intense study of the persecution, imprisonment, torture and murder that journalists suffer globally while striving to bring human rights abuses to the attention of the world.

Words are no longer enough. The body must now speak. And what will it say? This is about the private and the perverse ... an experiment ... an investigation into the murkier parts of the human psyche, where the inexplicable becomes visible. Let us take a look at womanhood in all its deformity. Let us shred our skin and bare all. Let us be observed. Lecoq-trained company RemoteControl plunge headfirst into this visceral world. Farewell to the unity of time and place, let compulsion and dark desire prevail.

Inspired by Swan Lake and Star Wars, Projector/Conjector playfully references dance and mechanics of theatre. With a video projector and TV attached to their heads, two creatures called Projector and Conjector meet and fall in love, dancing through screens.

Welcome to the experiment.
Are you ready? Who's next?
Internationally renowned multiple award-winning performers Tanya Khabarova (Derevo) and Yael Karavan (Karavan Ensemble) invite you on an epic voyage into the mysteries of what we are made of. Travelling between past, present and future, this enigmatic performance transports us through archetypes, icons and life’s polarities.
Step into the laboratory for a journey of astonishing imagery, a spectacular feast for the eyes and mind.

In an ordinary garden something extraordinary is about to happen. Shadows lengthen, the contrast between dark and light intensifies, suddenly you sense movement. In this outdoor setting, the audience, seated and camouflaged in dark capes, are wrapped in Tam Treanor’s seismic soundscape, mixed live for each performance. Emma Anderson, a young woman waiting to meet her lover, gives passionate voice to Chris Lee’s lyrical text, taking us to the dark recesses of the human mind.

Hailed by the international theatre press as one of the year’s best performances,Tourniquet is a visually enchanting work by acclaimed Belgian company Abattoir Fermé. Without the aid of any spoken text, three ghostlike characters perform old rituals and evoke the dark history of a house. Mysterious, eerily beautiful, hypnotic, visually stunning and shocking to some, Tourniquet is the theatrical,trance-inducing counterpart of The Exorcist or the cinematic work of David Lynch. Presented as part of the inaugural Big in Belgium season of work at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

An impossible attempt to bring the whole universe into a theatre and into our understanding, using a tennis ball, a wastepaper basket and a dash of theatrical invention. Iain Johnstone’s passionate solo performance about the relationship between humanity and the heavens is full of facts and awkward questions.

Come in. Settle down. Close your eyes and listen. Are there bees living in your ears? Has the sea stopped crying? Is the house sighing? Let the music caress you (inside a 40’ shipping container).

Sylvia Rimat follows the aspirational and possibly impossible goal to present a show never to be forgotten by its audience members. By introducing memory tasks and techniques, then applying them to the stage situation, the audience is systematically trained to remember – hopefully forever. The show draws on presence, on what happens in our brain when we create memories, and our urge to be commemorated. Rimat will be joined by several performers from around the world who support her mission live via Skype and by a living eagle owl.

Winding its way through boob jobs and Botox, victim blaming, slut shaming, the might of motherhood and the challenge of childlessness, Motherland is a funny, moving show about having it all. Vincent Dance Theatre’s brilliant, multi-talented ensemble of men, women and children look at the gender they were born into and the price they are paying for it. Uncompromising yet utterly accessible, Motherland appeals to both sexes through its potent blend of live music, theatre and dance. Motherland is a call to arms: one that sticks two fingers up at the shallow hypocrisies of our time and asks ‘where are we now?’

A drama about telling big lies and small truths. About pigs that fall in love. About crows that talk. About fish that fall from the sky. About running away and finding yourself. The story of a 10 year-old boy on the edge – literally on the roof of his school – confronted by a situation that seems hopeless. He can either give up or fight. Internationally award winning Titus is one of Europe’s most successful plays for young people.

Mike’s dead Dad’s friend's daughter has asked him to father her child. His boyfriend Bert isn't convinced.

Their housemate Sofia has her own fish to fry. She needs to find a man before it's too late, but her Dad keeps getting in the middle.

A moving and playful portrait of fatherhood by international company Babakas, who mix comedy, contemporary dance and cinema to tell a story that crosses borders and decades.

Winner: Bite Size Commission 2012

The 2012 multi-award winning Fringe First hit returns to Summerhall. A ‘young’, ‘ugly’ and literally naked woman reveals her bulimic, revolting and public secrets as she struggles with obstinacy, resistance and courage for her own celebrity breakthrough in the society of Thighs and Liberty. Stage Award-Winner Silvia Gallerano resprises her captivating performance in Cristian Ceresoli’s acclaimed play.

The Herald ★★★★
Examiner ★★★★★
The Skinny ★★★★
Fringe Review ★★★★

Based on Werner’s film Oculista in which a lone traveller meets a beautiful mysterious girl at a train station, this atmospheric installation takes you on an illusion-fuelled journey to darkly poetic places. Take a peek into a miniature world with this curiously vaudevillian sonic experience, featuring music by Graeme Miller. Tales of Magical Realism was commissioned by Cryptic for Sonica 2012 and sold out.

Sonica: sonic art for the visually minded is a programme of events that presents emerging British talent alongside exceptional international artists.

Part of the Made in Scotland and British Council Edinburgh Showcases 2013.

Bjorn Borg once epitomised tennis cool. He was everything Jamie and his brother wanted to be. Then John McEnroe came along in 1980 and Jamie was beaten. 33 years of torment and self-questioning later. Is Jamie ready to face his greatest opponent? Beating McEnroe is about rivalry and love, how they can better us and destroy us. It is a show about competition and control, heroes and Zen. This show, from Fringe First winner, Jamie Wood, is energetic, entertaining and ridiculously competitive. 

Combining music and mechanical choreography to spectacular effect, Ecstatic Arc is seductive in its raw beauty. The theatrical installation is based on a dystopian future of masks and sculptures, created using found objects, recording devices and a caged Tesla coil. Ecstatic Arc was commissioned by Cryptic for Sonica 2012 and sold out.

Sonica: sonic art for the visually minded is a programme of events that presents emerging British talent alongside exceptional international artists.

Part of the Made in Scotland Showcase 2013

Ghost Stories with one of the finest traditional storytellers living in Scotland. As darkness descends, join storyteller and musician Marion Kenny for spine chilling supernatural tales in one of Edinburgh's most atmospheric venues. The Demonstration Room situated in the old veterinary college at Summerhall has it's own gruesome past and is famously haunted.

We know we have to sit up and face the front. We know that we have the right to remain silent, but that anything we say may harm our defence. We know that we have to succeed. After a sell-out 2011 Fringe, Herald Angel Award winners Junction 25 are back with a brand new show. An immersive experience about formal education, exams, success, failure and the systems that affect us.