Jocelyn Pook News

I've written about Dust, Akram Khan's work for English National Ballet World War One programme, Lest We Forget, several times. Somehow, each time, even knowing what's coming, it still packs a chilling, earth shattering punch both through the screen and on stage.

Across the Arab World, Orthodox Christians and Egyptian Coptics celebrate Christmas on January 7. Arab Christmas, at St Martin-in-the-Field offers a line up of internationally renowned singers and musicians performing Syriac, Coptic and Byzantine chants, harking back to the time of Queen Zanubia's Palmyra in the second century CE.

Named as The Times's classical 'Face to Watch' of 2019, conductor Jessica Cottis returns to the BBC Proms to conduct 'The Lost Words' themed programme, inspired by the bestselling book by Robert Macfarlane.

DanceHouse, in co-presentation with SFU Woodward's Cultural Programs and Theatre la Seizieme, is delighted to announce the anticipated Vancouver premiere of Akram Khan Company's award-winning solo, Chotto Desh - loosely based on Khan's childhood raised under the stern eye of his authoritarian father, November 21-24, 2018 at 8pm at the SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. Performances will be held in French on November 22 at 8pm and with ASL Interpretation on November 24 at 2pm. Revered UK choreographer Akram Khan and acclaimed children's theatre Director Sue Buckmaster fuse kathak, storytelling, mime, and interactive animation, to create a bewitching tale of a young man's dreams and memories growing up in Britain and Bangladesh. This charming work for adults and children ages seven and up, will address the complex relationship between parent and child, as well as timely concepts of home, identity, and belonging in our multicultural world.

Alice Oswald's epic re-imagining of The Iliad developed into an extraordinary theatrical event that provides intellectual nourishment, but makes great demands on its audience.

It can be a rarity, but every so often, perhaps once a year if you're lucky, you stumble across a work so sublime it leaves you a little stumped as to how to describe it. Unfortunate when you need to review it, however. English National Ballet's Lest We Forget first opened in 2014, marking the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the first World War. Just two years into Tamara Rojo's tenure as Artistic Director, it was a bold statement about where the company was heading. Four years later it sits proudly in their repertoire, a modern masterpiece to absorb, devour and shed a tear.

Homer's Illiad is referred to as the 'goriest' of the ancient poems, in which Greek and Trojan warriors meet their fates in violent, bloody and graphic ways. Alice Oswald's Memorial is a visceral and faithful adaptation of the poem which has the oral history of the dead (or 'oral cemetery' in her words) at the moral centre of the work. Presented by Alice Oswald and Brink Productions, Memorial is one of the most stunning pieces of live theatre I have ever seen.

On Tuesday, The Brisbane Festival launched its fabulous new line-up for this year's program, including even more world premieres, big-name acts and a brand new light and laser show off of the river, which will illuminate Brisbane for the entirety of the festival celebrations. Running from the 8-29 September, the festival will feature close to 600 performances, with 100 of them being free to the public, of 70 shows across seventeen venues in Brisbane, involving more than 1000 artists and hundreds of volunteers. Not only that, but the festival will premiere eight brand new works from leading Australian company's including Legs On The Wall, Circa and Dancenorth, as well as two major music events at the Riverstage, with Ball Park Music performing on the opening night and Violent Soho on the closing night. This year, the mammoth program is divided into three distinctive acts which frame the scope of the performances with Act One revolving around the idea of gender, memory and home. Amongst these performances is Memorial, a grand theatrical experience which 'gives life to the exquisite life to each of the 215 dead soldiers named in Homer's Iliad', starring the incredible Helen Morse and a community chorus of 215 choreographed by Circa's Yaron Lifschitz, featuring a soundtrack by Golden Globe nominee Jocelyn Pook. Performances featured in the first act include Home, a piece from the United States in which a house is magically built onstage from nothing and ends in a lively house party, Queens on King, an inner-city garden soiree in which eight real-life same sex couples tie the knot in a public ceremony and LIFE the show, a world premiere by Strut & Fret which showcases the extraordinary abilities of the human body. Other headlines include tv personality Hugh Sheridan's return in the 2016 smash hit the California Crooners Club; Yothu Yindi and the Treaty Project, the return of Symphony For Me, Michael Leunig and The Camerata in Gratitude & Grief and Katie Noonan's Elixir. Act Two is made up of performances which cast the individual against the forces of society, fate and nature, including Circa's En Masse, Dancenorth's Dust and Rhonda Burchmore and Rob Mills' BANG! BANG! And, the festival's closing week includes a variety of acts such as the scary movie homage HORROR; the world premiere of The Man with The Iron Neck from Legs On the Wall and the vibrant children's opera The Owl & The Pussycat. According to Brisbane Festival Artistic Director David Berthold, "Each act has its own explosion of story, and each opens a window to the world that will entertain and enlighten. We hope this festival is altogether alluring and will bring us all together, breathing as one, as we witness artists from here and around the world working at the very limits of their imaginations to blow our minds." For the full program here: www.brisbanefestival.com.au

The journey of an asylum seeker is a harrowing one, especially if it's your family and old identity you are fleeing.

Burning Coal Theatre Company will present Mike Bartlett's future history play King Charles III directed by Karen O'Brien. The play will run April 12 - April 29, 2018 (April 12 - 14, 19 - 21, 26 - 28 at 7:30 PM, and April 15, 22, and 29 at 2:00 PM) at Burning Coal's Murphey School Auditorium, 224 Polk Street, Raleigh, NC 27604.

The Barbican today announces its September to December 2018 Theatre and Dance season. Tickets go on sale to Barbican Members plus on Thursday 15 March, to Barbican Members on Friday 16 March and to the general public on Monday 19 March 2018. Young Barbican tickets for 14-25 year-olds are available for all productions from September to December 2018 (excluding Imagined Touch). There are 50,000 Young Barbican tickets for art, film, music, theatre and dance ranging from £5, £10 or £15.

The whole production is absolutely sensational.

The 2018 Adelaide Festival program will launch on Tuesday 24 October 2017 at the Adelaide Town Hall. It is a festival program rich with Australian and international voices, bold new visions and contemporary theatre classics, as Joint Artistic Directors Neil Armfield AO and Rachel Healy return to the helm for their second Adelaide Festival in 2018.

Arguably the greatest male dancer in the world and one of the most celebrated and respected dance artists today, Akram Khan will perform his last full-length solo work, XENOS, exclusively at Adelaide Festival in 2018.

This is your last chance to see Akram Khan perform his hugely popular tale of home and heritage, which first opened in 2011 to unanimous praise from the critics and now returns to Sadler's Wells for its final performances.

ERRATICA, the international new British music theatre company, will bring the world premiere of Remnants to the Print Room at the Coronet, this summer. With previews starting on 12 June as part of InTRANSIT Festival, this production tells the true story of one woman's experience of the aftermath of the Srebrenica massacre, and her family's connection to the Holocaust in Bosnia 50 years before.

Artistic Director Anda Winters today announces Print Room at the Coronet's next season of work in its new, permanent home.

After a UK tour that started at the Lowry before a three week run at The Place in the Spring and has spanned the country, May Contain Food is embarking on the final leg of its tour with a date in Stockton on the 24th November, and two London dates: artsdepot on the 26th, and then finishes at Shoreditch Town Hall on the 6th as part of Spitalfields Music Festival.

After a UK tour that started at the Lowry before a three week run at The Place in the Spring and has spanned the country, May Contain Food is embarking on the final leg of its tour with a date in Stockton on the 24th November, and two London dates: artsdepot on the 26th, and then finishes at Shoreditch Town Hall on the 6th as part of Spitalfields Music Festival.

Chotto Desh, Akram Khan Company's first piece of dance theater for family audiences, makes its NY Premiere at The New Victory Theater from November 4-13, 2016. Adapted from Khan's much-loved, autobiographical production, DESH (2014 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production, 2012 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production), Chotto Desh includes a mix of Khan's original choreography alongside new material.