Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber to Open 2017 Women and War: Exodus Festival

Hurried Steps is a hard hitting, powerful text by award-winning Italian writer, Dacia Maraini. It will open 2017's Women and War: EXODUS festival at Streatham Hill Theatre, with an all-star cast, featuring Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber. To start the evening, Madhav Sharma will read Your Voice by Mark Ravenhill.

It all takes place on 3 July 2017 at 7 p.m. All tickets cost £20 (including one drink) and proceeds from this performance will go to the The Farkhunda Trust, a charity that supports the education of women in Afghanistan. For more information, visit www.womenandwar.co.uk/festival-opening or go to www.hurriedsteps.org.

Women and War: EXODUS is a month-long multi-disciplinary festival examining the impact of war on women and the roads they take and the changes they make to rebuild their lives elsewhere. Any time, any place, any war, any woman.

Now in its second year, Women and War: EXODUS will focus on displacement and what it is to be a refugee, from any period of history and any part of the world. It will celebrate the lives of some of the courageous women from across the world through theatre, music, dance, art, film, performance, poetry, craft, cuisine, and comedy.

The festival will host work from around the globe, visiting Colombia, Myanmar, Chile, Poland, Mali, Afghanistan, India and Iran documenting, exploring and giving voice to the experiences of women, before, during and after war.

This year, the festival is based in a pop-up theatre in South London breathing life back into Streatham Hill Theatre, just ten minutes from Brixton and right by Streatham Hill station.

The festival runs 4-30 July 2017. For more about the programme, scroll down for a list of events, or visit www.womenandwar.co.uk.

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2017 FESTIVAL PROGRAMME:

DRAMA, MUSIC, ART, DANCE

AFSOON

Afsoon is an Iranian artist.

After spending her childhood in Iran and late teens and early twenties in San Francisco, she settled in London. Her nomadic life is reflected in my work where East merges with West and the result is at once familiar and foreign. There are several layers in her work and at times she combines text with images. She also combines different techniques such as linocut, photography, collage and etching. The result is a rich yet often playful and humorous tableau in which the audience is able to engage and interpret in its own way. In January 2008 the British Museum purchased two series of Afsoon's work for its contemporary Middle Eastern collection.

For more information: www.womenandwar.co.uk/afsoon

BABA'S WAR

Baba's war is an exploration of how war affects the individual- the individual in question being my Polish grandmother. With cake, music, anecdotes and the inherited trauma theory, Baba's War is a poignant, and often funny, look at identity and what makes us who we are.

For more information: www.womenandwar.co.uk/babas-war

FAKE NEWS

Ellie Moon performs a rehearsed reading, directed by Jemma Gross.

Based on a true story about a group of individuals in Canada, who began the process of privately sponsoring a Syrian Refugee Family, until a conflict in the group led to the end of the sponsorship.

For more information: www.womenandwar.co.uk/fake-news

FLOWERS THAT FLOAT (ON THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA)

Join the fantastic, travelling circus for a future of joy, security and freedom! But be careful, no circus is ever what it seems.

For more information: www.womenandwar.co.uk/flowers-that-float

MEDEA, THE OUTCAST

Presented by Orzu Arts.

This piece draws on ancient Greek stories by Euripides & Seneca, and on modern author Heiner Mueller.

The setting is an abandoned and desolate border area.

For more information: www.womenandwar.co.uk/medea

RIGHT LEFT WITH HEELS

RIGHT and LEFT are the shoes of Magda Goebbels.

Condemned to forced exile by the western public, they decide to have a conversation about blame and responsibility. It's time to pay attention, because it's your version of history they're questioning.

For more information: www.womenandwar.co.uk/right-left-with-heels

SHE THE SHAKTI

Also presented by Orzu Arts.

A poignant visualisation enacted as a dance-drama, it is a narrative that shakes taboos and straitjackets. More than anything, SHE makes you think.

For more information: www.womenandwar.co.uk/she-the-shakti

TEJAS VERDES

Fermín Cabal's play is a celebration of human rights, a cry against totalitarianism.

Focusing on the story of one woman the play is a compelling memory piece of the 3,000 who were violently killed during General Pinochet's fascist regime which lasted from 1973 to 1990 in Chile.

For more information: www.womenandwar.co.uk/tejas-verdes

THE TROJAN WOMEN

War has come. What you know, is no more.

In a post-nuclear fall-out, with the enemy coming, an aging queen tries to keep her people together, a princess tries to save her son and the surviving women stand together.

For more information: www.womenandwar.co.uk/the-trojan-women

UNDER THE SKIN

Under The Skin, set in Neuengamme concentration camp in 1944 and in Tel-Aviv in 1991, is a powerful play based on the true and remarkable story of an impossible lesbian love affair between a Nazi officer and a Jewish prisoner.

For more information: www.womenandwar.co.uk/under-the-skin

VICTORIA

The central piece of the evening programme dedicated to Colombian women and peace, at this year's Exodus festival. Giving voice to the experience of a woman survivor of the conflict in Colombia, the piece was written originally by Ana Victoria Bastidas as a testimonial account of the events that took place many years ago on the Pacific coast of Colombia.

For more information: www.womenandwar.co.uk/colombia-day

WOMEN AT WAR: SISTERHOOD KNOWS NO BORDERS

What happens when women engage in combat? Does it change the way we engage in combat?

Devised from interviews with women in the US Army's Female Engagement Team, whose mission was to engage with Afghani women. Using verbatim, poetry, and movement, the lives of the women of the FET are intertwined with the women of Afghanistan.

For more information: www.womenandwar.co.uk/women-at-war

EVENT DAYS

FESTIVAL GALA OPENING - 3 JULY 2017

Hurried Steps is a hard hitting, powerful text by award-winning Italian writer, Dacia Maraini. It will open 2017's Women and War: EXODUS festival at Streatham Hill Theatre, with an all-star cast, to be announced soon. To start the evening, Madhav Sharma will read Your Voice by Mark Ravenhill.

All tickets cost £20 (including one drink) and proceeds from this performance will go to the The Farkhunda Trust, a charity that supports the education of women in Afghanistan.

For more information: www.womenandwar.co.uk/festival-opening

www.hurriedsteps.org

COLOMBIA DAY - 4 July 2017

Organised by the Truth, Memory and Reconciliation Commission (TMRC) of Colombian Women in the Diaspora and supported by Conciliation Resources,Colombia Day is a unique opportunity to meet incredibly inspiring Colombian women living in London. Learn from their experiences as conflict survivors, migrants, peacebuilders, and community organisers through an exhibition, short film, music, and performance.

The TMRC was established in London in 2015 to empower women of the diaspora to play a role in the process of building peace in Colombia. The Commission believes that the migratory experiences and skills of the diaspora are assets in the peacebuilding process, and should inform Colombia's collective historical memory. In addition, the project seeks to contribute to healing the trauma created by decades of conflict, and support the integration of the diaspora in their host countries. A considerable part of the Commission's work has been to document the impact of war and of migration on women and to understand the ways in which women have learnt to cope with their traumatic experiences.

For more information: www.c-r.org/where-we-work/latin-america/truth-memory-and-reconciliation-commission-colombian-women-diaspora

Conciliation Resources

Conciliation Resources is an independent international organisation working with people in conflict to prevent violence, resolve conflicts and promote peaceful societies. It provides practical support to help people affected by violent conflict achieve lasting peace, drawing on shared experiences to improve peacebuilding policies and practice worldwide. www.c-r.org

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Performances play the Streatham Hill Theatre, located at 110 Streatham Hill, Lambeth, London SW2 4RD.

Ten minutes from Brixton Underground station via the 109, 133, 159, or 333 buses, running from bus stop P outside the station.

Nearest bus stop to Streatham Hill Theatre is Telford Avenue, from there cross the road at the traffic lights and head in the same direction until you reach the theatre with Women and War (and Bingo) signage. The Women and War entrance is on the right.

Alternatively, there are regular train services to Streatham Hill station from either London Bridge or Victoria.

Streatham Hill Theatre is a Grade 2 listed building and, as such, is not accessible via lift to the event spaces on the 1st and 2nd floors. If you have accessibility needs, please contact the festival organisers via the festival website.

Please note, due to venue licensing laws, entry is strictly 18+.