Circa Announce Return Of DEPART, Touring To Cemeteries And Parks In Hull, Brighton And Blackpool From May

Commencing as part of the Roots and Routes season at Hull UK City of Culture 2017, Depart will play in the city's General Cemetery (18 - 21 May), the production will then take over the Woodvale Cemetery at Brighton Festival (25 - 28 May) and finally Blackpool's Stanley Park (1 - 4 June).

Inspired by the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, Depart takes audiences on a path through the underworld in atmospheric locations. Transforming these evocative environments, world renowned circus artists will dance above the heads of a roaming audience to create genre-defying spectacles. With direction from Yaron Lifschitz and a creative team including Lapalux, Depart brings together acrobats, aerialists, local community choirs and video artists for an inimitable, immersive evening of entertainment.

The world premiere of Depart took place as part of LIFT 2016 and Spitalfields Music's Summer Festival in the sprawling Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park and was seen by 4,000 audience members and received great public acclaim.

Local singers from The Hull Freedom Chorus, community choirs from around Blackpool and the Fylde Coast and from various Brighton-based choirs will be a part of the 100+ strong cast who perform Depart each night. Alongside this, performers from Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) and National Centre for Circus (NCCA) will join the company throughout the tour.

Yaron Lifschitz said, "At the heart of the experience is the attempt to grasp the ungraspable - to connect ourselves with the very liminality that makes us human, to look up, even as the long-buried dead lie beneath our feet. Depart is a meditation, a playground for the soulful, an art gallery without walls, a circus in search of transcendence and a hundred moments of joyous beauty. It is performed with respect and aims for rapture."

Mark Ball, Artistic Director of LIFT, said "With circus performers defying gravity at every turn and Lapalux's beautiful electronic score soaring above the treetops, wandering around Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park during Depart last June was a personal highlight of last year's LIFT. I'm delighted that we're now able to share Circa's epic and emotionally-charged show with audiences across the country, bringing an array of exceptional circus artists, composers, singers and dancers together to create a spine-tingling piece of work. I hope Depart stays with audiences for as long as it has stayed with me."

For more information go to www.hull2017.co.uk.

Photo Credit: Tristram Kenton

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