Final Two Weeks To Experience DaDaFest International 2018

With just over two weeks left of DaDaFest International 2018, festivalgoers are being urged not to miss key highlights still to come - including headline comedy acts and new art exhibitions.

This year's five-week festival opened at the beginning of November, and already hundreds of visitors have enjoyed a series of high quality, cutting edge art works which celebrate disability and D/deaf cultures at host venues across Liverpool City Region.

Actors, comedians, dancers and musicians are performing in their specific genre as part of DaDaFest International 2018 to play a vital role in challenging disability stereotypes through art and culture.

The theme of DaDaFest International 2018 is Passing: What's your legacy? Artists have been invited to explore the concepts of ageing, death and disability (passing time), and the changing nature of all our journeys and the legacies we leave (passing on).

Two new exhibitions from artists Simon McKeown and Martin O'Brien have opened today (Thursday 21 November) at St George's Hall Liverpool, and run until Saturday 8 December.

Award-winning artist Simon McKeown's interactive No Passengers gives a surreal view of British Invalid Carriage vehicles. Provided for more than 50 years by the Ministry of Pensions and later the NHS, these vehicles were once a common sight on all roads before they disappeared in 2003. Simon presents a unique historical view in a project supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, and supported by Liverpool City Council Enhancement Funding.

Martin O'Brien presents the world premiere of Until The Last Breath is Breathed. The video installation documents 30 actions to camera performed on the hour, every hour, for 30 hours in an old abandoned morgue. Martin O'Brien has a life limiting condition and grew up thinking he would die at 30. These actions were filmed in 2017 during the 30 hours leading up to his 30th birthday. The end did not come. This work is an exploration of mortality, survival and sickness. Martin will host a lecture at St George's Hall Liverpool on Thursday 29 November at 5.30pm, places are free but booking is essential.

Artist Martin O'Brien commented: "I first did DaDaFest International two years ago, which was a collaboration with a friend that I work with, Sheree Rose, which was a 24-hour performance. There are a couple of reasons why I wanted to be part of the festival, one is that I worked with completely fantastic people last time. I also think the politics are really important - the idea of the disability arts movement is an interesting one particularly because DaDaFest will programme more difficult work."

This weekend, three headline acts - Jess Thom, Francesca Martinez and Laurence Clarke - take to stages in Liverpool and St Helens.

Jess Thom showcases Not I by Samuel Beckett, the story of a woman's life told at top speed by a disembodied character, 'Mouth', at the Bluecoat in Liverpool on Friday 23 November and Saturday 24 November. Both performances start at 6.30pm and tickets are limited!

A Touretteshero and Battersea Arts Centre production, in association with The Albany, sees performer Jess Thom reclaiming Mouth as a disabled character. Jess has Tourettes, a condition that means she makes movements and noises she can't control, called tics. Following award-winning Backstage In Biscuit Land, she takes on Samuel Beckett's short play in a theatrical experience that explores neurodiversity and asks who is allowed to perform what and who gets the final say. Performances are accompanied by a BSL interpreter/performer and are relaxed. Theatregoers who tic, shout or move about, are welcome.

Laugh-out-loud comedy comes from Francesca Martinez, who brings her hit stand-up show What The **** Is Normal?! for its Liverpool premiere at the city's Unity Theatre on Friday 23 November at 8.30pm, followed by a performance at Chester Lane Library in St Helens on Saturday 24 November at 7pm.

Francesca won a Fringe Media Network Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, and a nomination for Best Show at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival. What happens when you're branded 'abnormal' in a world obsessed with normality? This show is Francesca's defiant, insightful and fascinating answer. In her tours of the UK, Ireland, South East Asia and Australia, Francesca has garnered rave reviews. She has played sell-out performances in Hollywood, New York, Cape Town and at the World Economic Forum, alongside Emma Thompson.

The following evening Saturday 24 November also at the Unity, Laurence Clark presents his live show, The Irresponsible Father's Guide to Parenting. The show starts at 8.30pm.

Laurence never saw dads with cerebral palsy - which made him think he'd never be a parent himself. Until his future wife told him he'd better be prepared for the fact she wanted children - a strong opening line on a first date! The show follows is the hilarious and heart-warming story of two people with cerebral palsy, and their own ups and downs of parenthood. Laurence starred in BBC1's documentary, We Won't Drop the Baby, and recently featured on The One Show, The Wright Stuff and BBC 5Live. He's been Shortlist's Funniest New Comedian, an Amused Moose Edinburgh Laughter Awards finalist, and has a sitcom in development with Channel 4.

The full festival programme includes more than 50 exhibitions, performances, talks, and workshops from well-known mainstream audience artists, as well as showcasing new talent.

Host venues include St George's Hall Liverpool, Royal Court Liverpool, the Bluecoat, Tate Exchange, Constellations, the Unity Theatre, World Museum Liverpool, Chester Lane Library in St Helens, and Storyhouse in Chester.

DaDaFest has also teamed up with Action Transport and Unity Theatre for a Christmas show collaboration - the bold retelling of the classic family tale Beauty and the Beast! The tale shows that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder and that everyone's attitude can, at times, be beastly! The show runs from Friday 30 November to Saturday 5 January 2019.

The DaDaFest International 2018 programme is available to view at www.dadafest.co.uk/events