English Touring Theatre Reveals Dates For Mixed Reality Installation MUSEUM OF AUSTERITY

With Macbeth opening in September at Shakespeare North Playhouse and its critically acclaimed production of I, Daniel Blake soon to resume its UK tour, ETT (English Touring Theatre) has announced dates for the mixed reality installation Museum of Austerity, a co-production with National Theatre Immersive Storytelling Studio, and Trial & Error Studio.  

 

The production will have a week-long run at HOME Manchester from 8 - 11 November 2023, followed by a tour in spring 2024, with dates to be announced. 

 

Winner of Best Immersive Production at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, Museum of Austerity combines the skills of director Sacha Wares with the in-depth knowledge of Disability News Service editor John Pring to tell the human stories of Austerity Britain.  

 

Running alongside the production on tour, there will be a programme of exhibitions and workshops led by Healing Justice London and local partnering organisations. 

 

Director and founder of Trial & Error Studio, Sacha Wares said today, “Our aim is to document the human cost of austerity; to show how it has played out behind closed curtains across the nation. We have looked for a way to capture the hidden violence. Violence that there is little visual record of, but which must somehow be witnessed.” 

 

Founder of Disability News Service and Co-Editor of Museum, John Pring said,“From the start, we knew we needed to find a different, more powerful way to tell these stories, to hear more clearly the voices of those left behind, and bring some of those we have lost back, virtually, so we could hear their stories in a way that was so visceral that it would leave no audience member unaffected. The stories told in Museum of Austerity bring home the awful truth of how so many disabled people were failed by our country's social security system in their moments of greatest need, and of how politicians, senior civil servants and private sector contractors averted their eyes and let it happen again and again and again.” 

 

Richard Twyman, Artistic Director and CEO, and Sophie Scull, Executive Producer of ETT said, “ETT's exploration of ground-breaking XR technology has become an important part of our storytelling and we are so proud that this important and extraordinary piece of work will be seen across the country. The dedication and hard work of the artists at the centre of Museum of Austerity, particularly co-creators Sacha Wares and John Pring, has been hugely inspiring and we are so grateful to them and to the families whose stories are told through the piece for their commitment to the project.” 

 

Cast: Shango Baku, Jenny Bolt, Katie Matsell, Gerard McDermott, S.J. O'Kane, Lindy Pieri, Elliot Pritchard and Naima Swaleh 

 

Director and Co-Editor: Sacha Wares; Specialist Advisor and Co-Editor: John Pring;  

Composer: Adrian Lee; Costume and Installation Designer: Miriam Buether;  

Sound Designer: Gareth Fry; Movement Director: Leon Baugh; Original Lighting Designer: Prema Mehta 

 

Museum of Austerity is more than an exhibition; it is a blend of theatre, history and humanity. A place to reflect on the past and reimagine the future. 

 

A decade-long campaign of government budget-cutting began in the UK in 2010, following the global financial crisis of 2008. In 2016, the UN found that “grave or systemic violations” of the rights of disabled people were taking place throughout the UK. Wearing a mixed reality headset, audiences enter a striking, holographic gallery that lays bare the consequences when state safety nets fail.  

  

Museum of Austerity was nominated for Best Digital Innovation at the UK Theatre Awards, previewed at the London Film Festival in 2021 and won International Documentary Festival Amsterdam's (IDFA) Best Immersive Production in 2021.  

  

Sacha Wares is a critically acclaimed theatre director and founder of Trial and Error Studio. Her theatre credits include Sucker Punch, My Child, Random (Royal Court Theatre), Game, Boy (Almeida Theatre), Generations, Wild Swans (Young Vic), and Trade (RSC). She is Innovation Associate at English Touring Theatre, and Associate Director at The National Theatre's Immersive Storytelling Studio.  Wares' work as director for extended reality performance includes Adult Children (Donmar/ETT/Trial and Error/ScanLAB Projects) and Museum of Austerity (ETT/NT/Trial and Error). She is currently in production for a VR documentary about the artist Judith Scott (NT/Trial and Error). 

 

John Pring is founder of Disability News Service. He is a disabled journalist, and co-creator of the Deaths by Welfare timeline, and was associate producer on an award-winning Dispatches documentary, The Truth About Disability Benefits. The Department, his book about the Department for Work and Pensions, and how its actions led to countless deaths of disabled benefit claimants, will be published by Pluto Press next summer. 

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