Eclipse Theatre and Summerhall Reveal Eclipse Award Winners Performing At Edinburgh Fringe

Eclipse Theatre and Summerhall have announced the recipients of the third annual Eclipse Award - Faizal Abdullah, Subira Joy, Lula Mebrahtu, Mwansa Phiri, Blink Dance Theatre and Jian Yi. In an amplified return of the Eclipse Award, the six new productions, which have been supported by Eclipse Theatre, will be presented at Summerhall during this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

For the first time the Eclipse Award – now in its third year - will be going to multiple Black and Global Majority artists or companies, providing the recipients with a nurturing artistic community whilst performing in Edinburgh, opportunities to network, and over £50,000 worth of support. The productions from this year's winners are the live art protest piece Kill The Cop Inside Your Head by spoken word and performance artist Subira Joy; OommoO by vocal artist Lula Mebrahtu; Faizal Abdullah's love letter to Singapore, Siapa Yang Bawa Melayu Aku Pergi? (Who Took My Malay Away?); Mwansa Phiri's spoken-word theatre with Zambian oral traditions, waiting for a train at the bus stop; Elvis Died of Burgers from Blink Dance Theatre; and performance installation Weathervanes by Jian Yi, in association with Summerhall and Tramway.

One of the UK's most innovative, Black-led touring and production companies, Eclipse Theatre seeks to support Black and Global Majority artists making boundary-pushing performance work through its Eclipse Award. This year's winners are part of a programme curated by Eclipse and hosted at Summerhall.

Artistic Director Lekan Lawal said: “We are delighted that we are able to champion and empower such an incredible array of Black & Global Majority artists for this third iteration of the Eclipse Award. We hope this model of support also gifts them an additional community of peers whilst performing at the festival. It's great to be partnering with Summerhall again with this opportunity and we can't wait to see their stories take audiences across the UK and around the world.”

2022 saw exciting developments for Eclipse including the appointment of award-winning director and theatre maker Lekan Lawal as Artistic Director and Jane Anderson as Executive Director, as well as developing a new slate of commissions, strengthening the Board, and receiving increased investment from Arts Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation. 

Based in Leeds, Eclipse Theatre is one of the UK's most innovative, Black-led touring and production companies. Over the last five years, their critically acclaimed and award-winning work has reached new and diverse audiences of 23,000+, touring to 40 venues in 30 different locations across the UK. The Eclipse Award aims to develop UK-based Black and Global Majority trailblazing artists by supporting them to undertake a run of work at the Edinburgh Fringe.

 

Eclipse Award

KILL THE COP INSIDE YOUR HEAD

Written and performed by Subira Joy

 

Summerhall Anatomy Lecture Theatre

22 – 27 August 2023

Spoken word and performance artist Subira Joy explores their experiences being targeted by the police as a Black, queer and trans person in the UK. Combining striking visual imagery with powerful language, this new work examines the impact of the police in our communities and how we internalise their role to repress and suppress ourselves into submission.

 

Tracing narratives of police encounters, while centring themes of violence, gaslighting and abuse of power, this work exposes how we impede our liberation when confronted by our inner cop.

 

Eclipse Award

OOMMOO

Written and performed by Lula Mebrahtu

 

Summerhall Red Lecture Theatre

2 – 27 August 2023

 

OommoO depicts the real-life events of first-generation immigrant Lula Berhane as she navigates the duality of her Habesha (Eritrean/Ethiopian) heritage and her British identity. An acronym for One-of-many-many-of-One, OommoO looks at the effects of memory loss on a displaced community. It asks what happens when you've left everything behind for the promise of something 'better', and better isn't 'better' after all? And when you have nothing but fading memories, what do you have? Interweaving language, custom and music with wearable tech MiMu gloves, OommoO is a poetic reflection of a visceral experience, unpacked through an Afro-futuristic East African lens.

 

Eclipse Award

SIAPA YANG BAWA MELAYU AKU PERGI? (WHO TOOK MY MALAY AWAY?)

Written and performed by Faizal Abdullah

 

Summerhall Tech Cube Zero

2 – 13 August 2023

 

Siapa Yang Bawa Melayu Aku Pergi? (SYBMAP?) is Faizal's love letter to Singapore,the country of his birth. It addresses themes of colonisation, identity, indigenous displacement, and the loss of culture, heritage and language. SYBMAP? is a lecture- performance that investigates Faizal's Muslim-Malay-Singaporean identity and his relationship with each noun, especially the latter two. As he teaches the audience about himself and the country that he still considers home, he explores what it truly means to be 'Singaporean' and 'Malay'. Nominated for Show of The Week at VAULT Festival 2023 and OFFFest'23.

 

Eclipse Award

WAITING FOR A TRAIN AT THE BUS STOP

Written by Mwansa Phiri

Performed by Yaisa

 

Summerhall Tech Cube Zero

2 – 27 August 2023

Press Performance 4 August

 

'Seventeen minutes. That's how long it takes to die by train. I looked it up once.' Chilufya – you can call her Chili – doesn't know whether she is coming or going. Which makes perfect sense since her name literally means 'the lost one' and lost is exactly how she's felt most of her life. Struggling with low self-esteem and a waning sense of self, she finds herself being drawn into a dangerously controlling relationship. Interweaving spoken-word theatre with Zambian oral traditions, this dark comedy is a solo show exploring coercive control, cultural identity and mental health. Keep It Fringe Award Winner.

 

Eclipse Award

ELVIS DIED OF BURGERS

Performed by Blink Dance Theatre

Summerhall Red Lecture Theatre

2 – 13 August 2023

Press Performance 3 August

Cast Members: Rachel Gildea, Vicki Hawkins, Francis Majekodunmi, Delson Weekes Music: Mat Hawkins and Alastair Mcneill, Stage Manager: Zoe Dowler, Artistic Support Workers: Connie Chinn & Laura Day, Understudy: Laura Day, Inclusion Manager: Siobhaìn Wedgeworth

 

Elvis Died of Burgers is made and performed by the food- obsessed directors of Blink Dance Theatre. If they're not eating food, they're talking about food, dreaming about food, and now... dancing, rapping and rhyming about food. Take a seat at the table as the cast spill the tea on their food stories and deep dive into the King of Rock'n'Roll at the end of his life. Replete with their signature sensory and bizarre tangents... Good Food Gospel anyone?

 

Elvis Died of Burgers has a non-linear narrative and uses semi-improvised dance, theatre and spoken word to create an exciting edge-of-your-seat experience for audience and cast alike.

 

In Association with Eclipse Award/ Summerhall and Tramway 

WEATHERVANES

By Jian Yi

Produced by Journey to East Productions

 

Summerhall Lower Cafe Gallery

3 – 27 August 2023

Thursday-Sunday throughout August 2023

 

Weathervanes is an immersive-multimedia exhibit and ritual dance theatre experience – a re-thinking of the beautiful and what is holy... This mesmerising performance- installation by Jian Yi tunes into the collective psyche with audiences to create a dreaming state of mind; an architecture of queer futurity. Produced by Journey to the East Productions in association with Summerhall/Eclipse and Tramway – it features an ensemble of dancers with a live musician, and multimedia/FX created by Cryptic artist Heather Lander.

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