BROMANCE Is in the Air at the Udderbelly Festival, June 24-July 19

BROMANCE comes to the Udderbelly Festival at Southbank Centre, Jubilee Gardens, London SE1 8XX, Wednesday 24th June - Sunday 19th July 2015. Press Night: Thursday 25th June, 7.30pm.

Bromance - Noun (informal)

1. a close but non-sexual relationship between two men. Early 21st cent.: blend of brother and romance

Frenetic but friendly. Captivating but casual. Audacious but awkward. Prodigal UK circus company Barely Methodical Troupe fuse their inner frats with a dazzling tour-de-force of cutting edge circus prowess and physical theatre mayhem.

Join this multi-award-winning, critically-acclaimed company as they walk the line between the pugnacious and the poignant, in this hilarious, bitter-sweet and mind-blowing celebration of everything blokey - where handshakes become handstands and back slaps become backflips.

The jaw-dropping magnificent (The Stage) hot ticket of the Edinburgh Fringe, Bromance features the skills the company developed whilst at the National Centre for Circus Arts. The show introduces ideas about intense trust, support and personal space with relationships being at the heart of Bromance as it wittily explores male companionship and its limits.

Barely Methodical Troupe are Beren d'Amico, Louis Gift, and Charlie Wheeller - boys with exceptional skills who are destined to take British circus-theatre to new heights.

Beren D'Amico of Barely Methodical Troupe comments, receiving the Circus Maximus award in 2013 was an important stepping stone for BMT. It not only provided us with really useful cash but also creation space at the National Centre for Circus Arts which enabled us to begin to develop Bromance. Our relationship with Underbelly grew from the award and they are now presenting the company in Edinburgh, Adelaide and at the Udderbelly this summer.

Bromance is touring the UK from 6th to 31st May to Newbury, Luton, Barnsley, Great Yarmouth, Leicester, Folkestone, Worthing, Poole, Huddersfield, Derby, Coventry, Ipswich and Oxford.

Bromance in London is part of Udderbelly Festival which runs from 9th April - 19th July 2015. Now in its 7th year, Udderbelly's iconic upside-down purple cow brings a splash of colour and a bellyful of comedy, circus and family shows to the South Bank. With incredible entertainment, organic street food and a full bar menu, Udderbelly's pasture is the perfect place for the whole family to laze and graze this summer.

Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood, Directors of Underbelly, say we can scarcely believe that this will be Udderbelly's 7th year at Southbank Centre and our 4th year with London Wonderground. We created these festivals with the very clear ambition of wanting to give Londoners an affordable and eclectic mix of fabulous live entertainment but within a true festival environment in the very heart of London. We're very excited about this year's festivals and can't wait to get the Cow's legs up in the air and the mirrors polished on that Spiegeltent again.

Bromance is produced by DREAM with support from Underbelly Productions and the National Centre for Circus Arts through the Circus Maximus Award.

DETAILS:

Bromance

Wednesday 24th June - Sunday 19th July
Tuesday to Friday, 7.30pm
Saturday and Sunday, 6pm
Saturday matinees, 2.30pm

Running time: 60 minutes

Part of the Udderbelly Festival at Southbank Centre, Jubilee Gardens, off Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX (www.udderbelly.co.uk/your-visit). Udderbelly Festival is located in Jubilee Gardens, off Belvedere Road. The nearest underground stations are Waterloo (on the Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern and Waterloo & City lines), Embankment (on the Circle, District and Northern lines) and Westminster (on the Circle, District and Jubilee lines). The nearest rail station is Waterloo.

Tickets are available from www.underbelly.co.uk and on 0844 545 8282, ranging from £12.50 to £17.50 (concessions and family rates available). Book for 2 shows out of Bromance, Circus Geeks: Beta Testing and A Simple Space and save 15% on ticket prices. Book all 3 and save 25%.

BMT (Barely Methodical Troupe) is an experimental acrobatic circus company, fusing Hand-to- Hand and Cyr Wheel with a through line of creative dynamic movement.

The artists came to circus, each having trained independently in their own respective fields, with a thirst for breaking boundaries. Influenced by their already existing skill sets (Parkour, Bboying, and Tricking), they have a fresh perspective on the creation of their material. This combination of technical ability with their stylish flow is the defining feature of the troupe.

Underbelly is a UK based, live entertainment company. Their events and festivals division operates one of the largest operations at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe selling over 236,000 tickets for over 140 shows over 25 days. 2015 marks the seventh year of Udderbelly Festival at Southbank Centre and the fourth year of London Wonderground at Southbank Centre. Elsewhere Underbelly also produces Edinburgh's Christmas; Comedy Hullabaloo with the RSC Stratford- upon-Avon; West End Live in Trafalgar Square for Westminster City Council and the Society of London Theatre. Through their Underbelly Productions arm they produce and promote live shows in London, throughout the UK and on tour internationally. In 2014 Underbelly sold over a million tickets to their various events. Buy tickets online: www.udderbelly.co.uk, www.londonwonderground.co.uk, www.southbankcentre.co.uk, by telephone: 0844 545 8282 (lines are open from 9am - 8pm, 7 days a week) or in person at the Southbank Centre Box Office.

Southbank Centre is the UK's largest arts centre, comprising three iconic buildings (Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery) and occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the midst of London's most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Building on this rich heritage, Southbank Centre offers an extensive artistic and cultural programme including annual and one-off themed festivals and classical and contemporary music, performance, dance, visual art and literature and spoken word. For further information, visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk.

Southbank Centre's Festival of Love will return in summer 2015 from 6th June to 6th September, when this rich and complex subject will be explored further in installations, performances, exhibitions and free events across the whole site. The festival, which was enjoyed by 1.6 million people last summer, will again feature the Big Wedding Weekend, when couples come together to marry in mass ceremonies on the Royal Festival Hall stage over the August Bank Holiday weekend (Saturday 29th to Monday 31st August).

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