Hippodrome Plus Presents SUMMER IN SOUTHSIDE

Following last year's acclaimed festival, Hippodrome Plus presents the return of SUMMER IN SOUTHSIDE, three exciting weekends packed full of spectacular FREE outdoor performances around Birmingham Hippodrome.

Over thirty companies featuring over 100 local, regional, national and international artists will transform the city's vibrant Southside district around Hurst Street and Arcadian. SUMMER IN SOUTHSIDE will provide visitors with the chance to experience a variety of spectacular and innovative performances from drama and contemporary dance to street theatre and circus, from music and aerial dance to installations and hip hop, with lots of audience participation.

Paul Kaynes, Birmingham Hippodrome's Creative Programme Director said "Last year's Summer in Southside offered visitors two weekends of great performances with audiences of over 12,000. This year Birmingham Hippodrome is producing a bigger festival over three weekends featuring the very best in outdoor performance culminating in a special Bank Holiday Jamboree. Visitors of all ages will be able to experience the pick of Britain's best outdoor performers and companies from across Europe. We're especially pleased to be presenting so many Midlands based artists as more and more are making outdoor work of exceptional quality and ambition."

Highlights for SUMMER IN SOUTHSIDE include: Helen Chadwick Song Theatre featuring close harmony singing and larger than life physical performance; world class Break Dance, Lindy Hop, Charleston and fire from the acclaimed South Paw Dance Company in a reimagining of Goethe's Faust; top notch urban sport from Talking Birds who bring their hilarious The Cricketers to the streets of Southside; breath-taking bungee-assisted contemporary dance from Wired Aerial Theatre; Acrojou with Frantic a mesmerising piece featuring circus, dance and theatre set within a wheel; a promenade audio-tour in Southside from Inspector Sands; the amazing rapping Ida Barr a female Victorian Music-Hall star, created by Christopher Green; a feast of exciting pop up and roaming performances in unusual places plus two performances selected by Hippodrome Plus Youth Ambassadors.

Events will take place on Hippodrome Square, Inge Street, Hurst Street, Arcadian Centre, National Trust Back to Back courtyard and Loft Lounge Car Park. Once again Inge Street and part of Hurst Street will be closed to traffic on performance days enabling visitors and families to easily enjoy the events and walk freely around performance spaces.

SUMMER IN SOUTHSIDE is supported by Southside BID, LCP (owners of the Arcadian), Without Walls, Arts Connect, Birmingham City Council Festivals Fund, and Arts Council England.

SUMMER IN SOUTHSIDE is FREE and runs each day from 1pm-7pm. On Saturday 9 August LIVE AND LOCAL features the best outdoor performances made in the Midlands followed by EURO STARS on Saturday 16 August presenting some of the finest European Acts. The festival culminates with BANK HOLIDAY JAMBOREE on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 August with late night performances of Southpaw Dance Company's Faust at 10pm.

FULL LISTINGS

LIVE AND LOCAL

Saturday 9 August - 1pm-7pm

Features the best outdoor performances made in the Midlands

Talking Birds - The Cricketers

Join the Cricketers as they prepare for a spot of top notch urban sporting activity. This hilarious piece, which formed part of the first Pilot Nights in association with Birmingham Hippodrome, will amuse audiences with their take on the game of cricket!

2Faced Dance Company - Two Old Men

The critically acclaimed Hereford based 2Faced Dance Company present its new outdoor show. Two Old Men features the company's trademark fusion of break, street and contemporary dance. Heart in the mouth acrobatics will leave audiences wanting more in this adrenalin fuelled tale of two old friends, a must for fans of hip hop dance theatre.

The Pod Projects and Eye Candy Festival - Bicycle Basket Bazaar

Birmingham Hippodrome has teamed up with The Pod Projects, Eye Candy Festival to bring a unique array of illustrators and designers who will transform each of their bikes into an emporium of delights. Art fair meets car boot sale but more compact and kinder to the environment in the setting of the National Trust Back to Backs.

Tin Box Theatre - Pint Dreams

Visitors to the The Old Fox in Hurst Street can join Maggie and her friend Edith as they interweave traditional storytelling with live music and puppetry in this acclaimed short immersive piece which has enjoyed rave reviews and London dates.

Highly Sprung - Traveling Treasury

Traveling Treasury is a magical storytelling experience that takes place in a beautifully transformed caravan. Audiences are invited to step inside the pages of a book where stories unfold, quite literally before their eyes. Traveling Treasury allows audiences to think, dream and believe as they are taken on a wonderful journey through sound, stunning visual paper creations and animated story telling. A wonderful experience for all ages!

Corey Baker Dance - Headphones

Headphones - is a solo performance where the performer flicks through an array of music, playing with the audience showing off his vast music selection and affiliated dance styles. This comical half hour show is highly interactive, allowing members of the audience to become the DJ and choose the music and even direct what happens in the performance.

2Faced Dance Company - The Pod

Based on club culture the Pod will feature dance, circus, music and projection. Artistic Director Tamsin Fitzgerald invites audiences to help her test out some ideas in a scale down replica Pod.

Corey Baker Dance - A Haka Day Out

Last seen at International Dance Festival Birmingham 2014, visitors to Southside will have the chance to join artist and New Zealander Corey Baker who will lead an exhilarating tribal Haka (war dance) workshop with native Maori performers. This is a rare opportunity for participants to learn the Haka made more widely known around the world by the New Zealand rugby team.

Hippodrome Plus - The Hip Hop Hour

Showcasing young local hip hop talent - battling to be the best! With 60 minutes of non-stop dancing with local hip hop dancers and crews; audiences decide who is the best in Birmingham! Hosted by MC Mad Flow, with special appearances from Dance Nuvo and MDK, also featuring guest DJs.

Highly Sprung - The Roswells

The Roswells are an alien family who visit planet Earth as a holiday destination. They want to discover what humans are like and what a typical day out looks like. The Roswells will pop up just about anywhere in Southside so be prepared for lots of interaction and comedy!

Come Vinyl with Me

For those of us who want to be a DJ superstar now is the chance. Participants are invited to turn up with 3 of their own records put their name on the board and await their chance to impress. Be the DJ and serve up 3 courses of musical delights in 10 minutes. Strictly vinyl only but anything goes music wise.

The People Speak - Talkaoke

At each of the Summer in Southside events Hippodrome Plus Youth Ambassadors will be encouraging live debate about the shows enjoyed by the public through pop up talk shop Talkaoke. Participants will be invited to sit around the table and chat to the Ambassadors about their experience with a cuppa.

EURO STARS

Saturday 16 August - 1pm-7pm

The best international performers.

De Fakto Company - Le Petit Bal 2 Rue - France

Two dancers pull out all the stops as they audition for legendary French singer and actor, André Bouvil. With a charming mix of contemporary dance and Hip Hop, it tips an affectionate wink to the classic French movies of the 50s and 60s.

Gijs Van Bon - Skryf - Netherlands

Skyrf is a machine that writes words in sand. A thought provoking piece that moves forward, leaving a stream of letters behind. An almost irrelevant pile of sand creates the magic of the written world. Artist Gijs Van Bon travels to different festivals around the world with Skryf and chooses new pieces of literature to write on the ground in each place.

Les Goulus - The Horsemen - France

Les Goulus are a French company famous for their walking acts. In the Horsemen three members of the company take on the roles of very smart French riders on horses preparing for the next Olympic Games. In this performance they make a demonstration of their training with hilarious consequences.

Close Act Theatre - iPuppet - Netherlands

Close Act Theatre is a street theatre company that combines dance, music and circus, with stunning visual representations. In iPuppets five players operate breathtaking puppets with large eyes. They are looking for something and find you!

Mattress Heights - EU

Nicolaj Munk, Tiago Fonseca, Daniel Goncalves are the incredibly talented clown acrobatics who bring their much loved Heights to Southside. The show is set in and around a mattress and combines breathtaking acrobatics, with comedy and surreal illusion.

Acrojou - Frantic - UK

Following their debut performance in Six Summer Saturdays, Acrojou return to Birmingham with Frantic - a mesmerising performance piece featuring circus, dance and theatre all set within a wheel and culminating in a stunning water finale!

Wet Picnic - The Birthday Party - UK

Wet Picnic are one of the UK's leading creators of outdoor theatre. The Birthday Party features their trademark style of clowning and buffoonery in this colourful and intimate performance focussing on Malcolm's 40th birthday party and his guests. Be prepared to be invited!

Haywood Hicks - Works - UK

This International Man of Artistry has made his brushmark at events worldwide with his truly unique shows. Since 2000 Jon has been enthralling audiences with his high skill repertoire of artistic oddities including his legendary, as seen on TV, rapid fire, outsized paintings. Works is a compelling performance using everyday objects and featuring a surprise finale!

The People Speak - Talkaoke

At each of the Summer in Southside events Hippodrome Plus Youth Ambassadors will be encouraging live debate about the shows enjoyed by the public through pop up talk shop Talkaoke. Participants will be invited to sit around the table and chat to the Ambassadors about their experience.

SUMMER IN SOUTHSIDE BANK HOLIDAY JAMBOREE

Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 August

1pm-7pm with a special late night performance at 10pm on 23 Aug

Birmingham Hippodrome offers a great family Bank Holiday weekend of free events.

Candoco Dance Company Double bill (Saturday only) - Studies for C & Two For C by Javier De Frutos

Candoco Dance company is a company of disabled and non-disabled dancers founded in 1991. Choreographer Javier de Frutos created Studies for C for Candoco in 2012 and returned in 2013 to create the prequel Two for C. Both pieces take inspiration from Tennessee Williams' play Camino Real and explore a world in which a couple is trapped in a longstanding relationship, characterised by struggle and power play. Set to traditional Mexican Ranchera music, the performances take place in an intimate domestic world in which the use of Mexican wrestling masks suggests the deeper, darker forces at work.

Helen Chadwick Song Theatre - White Suit

Helen Chadwick is a performance creator and composer working with theatre and dance. She has been commissioned to create song theatre performances for the Royal Opera House and numerous festivals. In White Suit she combines close harmony singing with larger than life physical theatre to tell the story of a young landmine survivor. This surreal theatrical storytelling featuring dancing arms dealers is a highly stylised song-theatre performance.

Wired Aerial Theatre - Straw Dog

Following their outdoor performance in Birmingham of As The World Tipped, Wired Aerial Theatre return to perform Straw Dog a ground breaking fusion of bungee-assisted dance and pure contemporary. Straw Dog pushes the boundaries of two dance genres into uncharted territory. Exploring the internal battle between the best and worst elements of the human condition, it's as beautiful as it is brutal. Dynamic, savage energy, harnessed and tempered with the grace and elegance of flight.

Inspector Sands - High Street Odyssey

Visitors to Summer in Southside are invited to take a promenade audio-tour from award -winning company Inspector Sands. During 25 minutes, groups of 30 will be snaked through the area, the bins, the bollards, the benches, the shops dissecting the characters and revealing the secrets in this witty, initimate, strange and epic performance.

Tangled Feet - Push (Saturday only)

Tangled Feet are a physical theatre ensemble dedicated to devising original, accessible and innovative work. In Push the company use clowning, dance and physical theatre to tell the interweaving stories of five very different mothers. Push lays bare aspects of motherhood so often pushed under the carpet.

Ida Barr's Mash Up - produced by Home Live Art with artist Christopher Green - (Saturday only)

Old time Music Hall turned Rap Superstar, the Ida Barr character created by Christopher Green is already a well-established success of the cabaret and comedy theatre circuit. With an inspired and hilarious fusion of music hall sing-a-long with R&B bump and grind, Ida has a unique ability to simultaneously engage both the old and the young with equal appeal. For the Mash Up as Ida Barr, Christopher brings groups of senior citizens together with children and youth groups through a series of engaging bespoke workshops. The workshop series culminates in The Mash Up Performance, where participants join forces to become a mass scratch choir singing with Ida in a joyful, life affirming public performance.

Le Navet Bete - Extravaganza

Join David, Keith, Hans and Romano on a quest to tell their individual stories and impose their so called cultural offering on to an audience. Despite their dislike for each other this band of idiots have found their way on to the stage to present a madcap show full of acrobatics, improvisation, live music, audience participation, circus history and a unicycle on fire!

Oyster Opera

Visitors to Southside will be serenaded by talented opera singers as members of Oyster Opera break into song just about anywhere! Oyster Opera have been delighting audiences of all ages for several years now, and it's certainly not just for the opera buffs! Oyster Opera is unique - they combine beautiful singing with having fun, and a good dose of audience participation.

Icarus - Rugby Player Duo - (Saturday only)

From the creators of the ever popular Roo'd (lifesized kangaroos) Icarus bring Rugby Players. Balancing on powerskip stilts these giant bouncing characters reach impressive heights of 1 metre off the ground. Watch as they pop up in areas in and around Southside.

Faust - Southpaw Dance Company - Special evening performance at 10pm

Bad Taste Company combine world-class Breaking skills, Lindy Hop, Charleston with physical theatre and narrative to produce a work that has been said to "take British urban dance to new heights". In this reimagining of Goethe's Faust, selected by Hippodrome Plus Youth Ambassadors, drinking, gambling, womanising and general debauchery make the Speakeasy a perfect place for a man to lose his soul.

Company Chameleon - PUSH - (Sunday only)

This powerful and engaging dance duet is performed and choreographed by Anthony Missen & Kevin Edward Turner. PUSH looks at the different stances we take as we relate to one another and how the complex nature of our psychology means at times we push to exert our dominance and control, and others submit and yield.

CircusMASH - Float - (Sunday only)

Float is a highly visual circus experience featuring elaborate costumes, bubbles, balloons and objects that float. The artists begin with a breathtaking performance before inviting members of the audience to participate in an exciting circus workshop.

Rannel - The Stereomen (Sunday only)

The Stereomen are two energetic characters with stereos for heads. Their retro ghetto blaster faces pump out music as they walk around interacting with the public. Song lyrics are used to narrate everyday scenes such as Abba's Money Money Money at the cashpoint and visitors should be prepared to get up on their feet as the Stereomen perform street dance routines to funky music!

The People Speak - Talkaoke

At each of the Summer in Southside events Hippodrome Plus Youth Ambassadors will be encouraging live debate about the shows enjoyed by the public through pop up talk shop Talkaoke. Participants will be invited to sit around the table and chat to the Ambassadors about their experience.

 

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