Ancient Futures at Upswing and Unlimited Theatre

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Ancient Futures

An outdoor Afrofuturistic performance blending circus, storytelling, Sound System Culture and West African folklore. 
 

Starting with the arrival of flamboyant Afrinauts, this collaboration between diverse-led contemporary circus company Upswing and Leeds-based theatre makers Unlimited is a joyful celebration of what future might be. Working with Grime artist Afrikan Boy and Quantum Poet Oneness Sankara, Ancient Futures incorporates Sound System culture – a cornerstone of Jamaican music – and West African folklore. Drawing inspiration from past and present experiences of people of African descent, it imagines the new rituals we need to live in a more positive society that enables Black and Global Majority people to reclaim space. With a cast of five Afrinauts performing circus, acrobatics and hip hop, and an MC/Griot leading their ritual, this Afrofuturistic show combines sci-fi, fantasy and history.

Ancient Futures is built on a 'super fiction' created by writer Oneness Sankara that imagines the return of fantastical visitors from a society rooted in West African culture that have emerged in our dimension. These Afrinauts arrive in a public space and explore what it might be to live amongst us. They set up for their daily ritual: a dance party, service, celebration that fuses West African Mythology with a pop sensibility; opening a pathway to an alternate place and a vision of a more powerful, joyful and equitable future for all.