Spring
20006 The Nuffield Theatre has recently combined forces with
Lancaster International Concerts Series, the Peter Scott Gallery
and the departments of Art, Music and Theatre Studies at Lancaster
University to form the Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts
(LICA). This, alongside increased support from ACE North West, means
that the theatre is very excited about the future.
While the Nuffield programming ethos remains the same, there are
now even more crossovers with other art forms and areas of research.
This season sees the first fruits of such collaborations: staging
Split Britches’ Dress Suits To Hire in association
with the Women’s Writing for Performance Symposium, and hosting
contemporary music ensemble Psappha’s staging of two landmarks
of music theatre – Pierrot Lunaire and The Soldier’s
Tale.
Support for North West artists remains central, with shows from
Sonia Hughes, Until Thursday and Dance North West’s Xposure!
Project. Following the success of the young makers festival last
year, Nuff Said II will be an opportunity to engage with the Making
Money bursary winners. The scheme saw five artists receive Nuffield
funding to create new works, to be presented at Nuff Said II alongside
a late-night performance cabaret.
The Nuffield also launch a new strand of programming – for
young people. After a rewarding relationship with Vincent Dance
Theatre, the theatre has commissioned them to create a show for
6 to 8 year-olds, the first in a series of Nuffield projects for
young people.
Finally, the Nuffield is delighted to begin a new relationship with
Dance Umbrella -- the major organisation for bringing international
dance to the UK. This season the theatre presents Herman Diephuis’
stunning exploration of religious iconography, using both trained
dancers and members of the local community.
MARCH
2006
Thu 2 - Fri 3
Weeding Cane by Sonia
Hughes
in association with the Royal Exchange Theatre 8pm £8 / £5.50
concessions
Directed by Wyllie Longmore
Designed by Juliet Ellis
Weeding Cane is the tale of Joy, a child left with her grandma in
the Caribbean when her mother migrates to England. Communication
between them is through occasional letters and gifts. When Joy’s
grandma dies, she is shipped to England to join her mother, stepfather,
and half-siblings. An uneasy and troubled reconciliation ensues
in Joy’s new-found but alienating world.
Told simply, in a sparse poetic style, this beautiful and moving
piece reveals Sonia Hughes as a talented and innovative playwright.
Mon 6
Faulty Optic present Horsehead
8pm £8 / £5.50 concessions
Set in a world of charm and burlesque, cruelty and decay, Horsehead
is the tale of a pantomime horse and its rise from childhood obsession
to theatrical horse perfection. Not for the faint-hearted, the show
contains puppet nudity, confused flashbacks, time-lapsed flesh decay
and a hideous clown with a rusty bayonet.
Faulty Optic formed in 1987 and are world-renowned for their adult
puppetry, haunting tales, bizarre visual theatre, animated films
and live mini video installations.
Tues 7
Shamshad Khan presents word
box (the big blow) 8.00pm £8 / £5.50 concessions
Shamshad Khan and Jason Singh (Nitin Sawnhey Sound System) bring
you words, poetry, music and beats that slip with ease from the
political to the spiritual. An evening of performance poetry taking
beat boxing where it’s never been before.
Thu 9
Psappha present Pierrot Lunaire
& The Soldier's Tale (staged) Performance 7.30pm
Meet the Artist 6.45pm (Jack Hylton Room) £13.50 / £11
concessions / Young person £5
An unmissable double-bill of two of the most influential pieces
of music from the last century.
Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire sets 21 surrealist poems for
a soloist communicating halfway between song and speech and a
quintet of instrumentalists. Soprano Jane Manning has been a leading
exponent of this part for many years.
Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale combines a narrator,
actors, a dancer and a colourful instrumental septet to tell a
spell-binding Russian story.
North-West based Psappha is a contemporary music ensemble of international
status, with an outstanding reputation for innovative theatrical
projects.
APRIL
Weds 26
People Can Run present Aruba
8.00pm £8 / £5.50 concessions
A travel agent who’s going nowhere, a personal trainer who
can’t perform and an ad-man who’s started to believe
the hype. Paradise is not looking rosy…
Aruba takes the audience on a darkly comic tour through the lives
of three desperate young urbanites as their carefully constructed
worlds begin to unravel. People Can Run create an absurd, nightmarish
and irresistible world, where pedestrians are assaulted by billboards
and Pilates can kill.
An International symposium for practitioners, emergent practitioners
and academics presented by Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary
Arts: Theatre Studies.
Curated by Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris. Guests include: Bobby
Baker, Sue-Ellen Case, Lenora Champagne, Anna Furse, Lynette Goddard,
Dee Heddon, Kazuko Hohki, Janelle Reinelt, SuAndi, Lois Weaver and
Marisa Carnesky.
Symposium Special Events
Marisa Carnesky will lead a one-day practical workshop exploring
devised performance using popular entertainment forms on Thursday
27 April.
Split Britches perform their legendary performance Dress Suits To
Hire on Saturday 29 April at 8.00pm.
Ticket price includes Split Britches performance.
Sat 29
Split Britches present Dress
Suits To Hire
By Holly Hughes in collaboration with Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver
Presented by the Nuffield Theatre in collaboration with the Women’s
Writing for Performance Symposium.
Dress Suits To Hire, which won OBIE Awards for both Shaw and Hughes,
is a mellifluous ode to lesbian eros and a joyful, literate send-up
of all romantic fantasy. In this heady mixture of erotic fantasy
and hard-boiled pulp drama, two "sisters" who live in
a rental clothing shop use the merchandise to try on various facets
of their personalities.
8pm
Saturday 29 April £8 / £5.50 concessions
MAY
Fri 5 - Sat 6
Vincent Dance Theatre present Fairy
Tale
In a deep, dark woodland far away is a hiding place no-one has ever
found - except for a pair of extraordinary twins.
Physical theatre, movement, puppetry and live music combine in a
brand new production for children aged 6-8 years and their families.
Performed in the round to get right up close to the action, Fairy
Tale will delight both young and older audiences.
Workshop: A fun and creative workshop for children aged 6 - 8 years
and their parent, grandparent or carer to take part in together.
Come along and explore_movement, dance and storytelling with the
performers before watching_the show.
Fittings Multimedia Arts present
Heelz on Wheelz 8pm £8 / £5.50 concessions
Caught in a cycle of dominance and dependency, a father and son
engage in a battle of wills. Meanwhile mother’s clothes hang
in the closet upstairs, where she left them on the day she walked
out, never to return. They hang there like secrets.
And on the other side of the world, down an alley you could easily
miss, is Le Bar des Reves. A place where dreams come true, secrets
dissolve in a sparkle of sequins, and desires announce themselves
in a burst of song and a flurry of costume changes.
Fathers and sons. Wigs and wheels. Cross-continent and cross-dressing.
Men and masculinity. Heelz on Wheelz from Fittings Multimedia Arts
puts it all in the pot and stirs it up.
Fri 12 May
Demonstrate present Ever
the Bull 8pm £8 / £5.50 concessions
In the lonely post-apocalypse, a crackly gramophone hisses and
pops its way through its only record. Its owner pedals a bicycle
to power a flickering light bulb and blow-dry his hair. Then enters
his tormentor: an 8ft radiation suit armed with microwave meals,
a fire extinguisher, and a penchant for mischief.
Demonstrate’s wickedly funny production takes the traditional
double-act and drags it into the twenty-second century. Ever the
Bull is a sharp look at self-sufficiency.
Thurs 25 May
Herman Diephuis presents
D'après J C (According to J C) 8pm £8 /
£5.50 concessions
In D'après J C (According to J C), Herman Diephuis creates
an icon-filled Renaissance art gallery in motion.
Shifting from tableau to tableau, tracing the life of Jesus Christ,
the dancers portray the most famous mother-son double act in history,
capturing the statuesque curves and subtle gestures found in the
works of Bellini, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Durer, Da Vinci, Memling,
Michelangelo and Raphael.
D'après J C questions the relationship between onlooker
and image and challenges the audience to respond to the beauty,
humour and historical significance of the sights set before them.
JULY
Weds 5 & Thu 6
Beaumont College showcase
7.00pm Free
This annual showcase celebrates the work of final-year Beaumont
College art students and is an opportunity for them to perform
in a professional theatre.
This year’s programme includes issue-based performance,
music, dance, media and visual arts. Each piece explores ideas
and issues of perception within the changing field of disability
arts.
Current Theatre and Cinema
shows are listed with reviews on seperate pages.
Masses of popular events, clubs and gigs happen every week/ fortnight/ month and
are listed seperately in the Regular
Events Listings.
Check out more detail for selected arts venues and organisations:
VISITORS 
GALLERY
LOCAL
SERVICES
CONTACT US 
Faulty Optic present Horsehead
8pm £8 / £5.50 concessions
Psappha present Pierrot Lunaire
& The Soldier's Tale (staged) Performance 7.30pm
Meet the Artist 6.45pm (Jack Hylton Room) £13.50 / £11
concessions / Young person £5
People Can Run present Aruba
8.00pm £8 / £5.50 concessions
Split Britches present Dress
Suits To Hire
Vincent Dance Theatre present Fairy
Tale
Fittings Multimedia Arts present
Heelz on Wheelz 8pm £8 / £5.50 concessions
Demonstrate present Ever
the Bull 8pm £8 / £5.50 concessions
Herman Diephuis presents
D'après J C (According to J C) 8pm £8 /
£5.50 concessions
Beaumont College showcase
7.00pm Free 
Current 
