Freedom Studios and Entelechy Arts Present World Premiere of HOME SWEET HOME, 16 September
From Freedom Studios, the producers of the acclaimed The Mill - The City of Dreams and leading participatory arts company Entelechy Arts comes Home Sweet Home, a new immersive theatre production that explores the experience of growing older and the ageing process in contemporary Britain.
Directed by Freedom Studio's associate director Tom Wright (The Container, Young Vic) the exciting new piece by Emma Adams (Forgotten Things , shortlisted for the 2009 Meyer-Whitworth Award and Freakoid, nominated for an Off West End Theatre Award 2013) will premiere in Bradford in September and then tour to The Albany in Deptford and finally the ARC, Stockton Arts Centre.
Based on the stories and experiences of older people from Bradford, Deptford and Stockton, the theatre production will see the audience brought into the world of the play's residential care home and taken into a universe that is both real and magical and where just about anything can happen around them. From the ghost of care worker Iffty's grandma performing a Bollywood showstopper to the over-stretched Manager practising escapology with phone cords, audiences will see a side of life at "the home" of which they'd never dreamed.
Home Sweet Home will celebrate, challenge and stimulate debate about growing older in Britain. The production will look beyond the label of 'old age'; a label that encompasses 10 million people in the UK over 65, to explore individual human stories and explode some of the stereotypes of age. It will put older people centre stage, to inform and illuminate the thinking of policy makers, the public and participants, and to confront and overcome our fears and assumptions.
Woven into the production will be the energies and imaginations of older people from the communities of Bradford, Stockton on Tees and Deptford who have been participants in the research and development process.
To successfully achieve their ambitions of the production, the company has worked closely with experts from the health and social care sectors, residential care providers, occupational therapists, homebound service librarians, GP practices and community centres. The theatre company has also worked with academic partners including the Clinical Ageing Research Unit at Newcastle University and the Wolfson Centre for Age-related diseases at Kings College, London.
The cast will feature seven professional performers and a lay-cast of eight older people aged between 60-82 years old drawn from the communities around each of the three venues. The ending will change in each venue to draw on the creativity and talents of local groups such as, the Ukrainian Women's choir in Bradford, the Silver Ukulele band in Stockton and the Entelechy Arts elders in London.
Throughout the autumn tour each venue will be celebrating the arts and older people in the BOLD festival of events, workshops and activities (for older people and their families) during the run of Home Sweet Home.
Bradford-based Freedom Studios is an award-winning intercultural theatre company, which connects different people and communities through story-telling and making theatre. It puts people with limited opportunities to engage with the arts and whose voices are not often heard at the heart of its activities.
Entelechy Arts is a participatory arts company based in South East London. Entelechy works with people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to produce high quality theatre, music, dance and video events and performances
Home Sweet Home will be staged at The Ukrainian Centre in Bradford from the 16-20 September and then tour to The Albany, Deptford (23-27 September) and ARC, Stockton Arts Centre (30 September-4 October).
The research and development of the production was supported by the Wellcome Trust.
For more information, visit www.freedomstudios.co.uk.
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