The Lowry Reveals Contemporary Dance and Circus Seasons For Autumn 2023

The Lowry, Salford has announced its Contemporary Dance and Circus Seasons for Autumn 2024.

From visually enchanting physical circus to absurd comedy, acrobatics to street dance - the human condition, human challenges, and compassion for the human experience are woven through this spectacular season of movement that brings together a diverse international mix of companies and performers.

Steve Cowton – Head of Theatre Operations at The Lowry said: "We're delighted to be announcing a series of new shows for our Autumn season - featuring great circus and dance from both the UK and further afield: Monkeys Everywhere is a brilliant new family clowning show from an Australian legend called Gary Starr which began its life in The Lowry Studio! That show is joined by more great circus from Finland and dance from Luxemburg - alongside UK Companies Theatre Re and Gorilla Circus"

Monkeys Everywhere follows Damien Warren-Smith's mischievous, acclaimed alter ego Garry Starr as he endeavours to write, but is continually distracted by the monkeys that fly through his brain. They pop in, drive through, swing past and start monkey parties - making it impossible for him to concentrate. Garry loves his monkeys, they fuel his creativity, but he needs to focus. How will he ever control his monkey mind? Join Garry as he finds the best way for him to be in charge of his monkeys - instead of them controlling him. This is a show for all ages – but especially for those who can't always keep their monkeys under control. Created with Olivia Jacobs, director of The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom, Monkeys Everywhere contains puppetry, clowning and a huge amount of heart. You'd be bananas to miss it… (Age guidance 5+) Fri 20th-Sun 22nd Sept

Garry Starr: Penguin Classics Literature! Literature! Literature! It might not rhyme with anything but it's still very important. Having already saved everything else, Garry Starr is back and this time he's hell-bent on saving books from extinction by performing every Penguin Classic novel ever written. In an hour. Mostly naked (but with flippers). Following sell-out seasons for his previous shows in London, Edinburgh, Melbourne and Adelaide, your favourite multi-award-winning idiot returns with another anarchic masterclass. Comic wunderkind Starr takes us on a literary adventure through the world's most iconic works of fiction. From The Little Prince to Moby Dick and everything in between, nothing is safe from being lampooned with the utmost nincompoopery. (Age recommendation 16+) Sat 21st Sept

Blueberry Burdock by the Finnish contemporary circus and visual theatre group Nuaa Company. It's a journey of a character overwhelmed by an overabundance of options as contradictions and inner conflicts manifest in vivid displays. He gets tangled up in conflicting signposts and constructs a room of moving walls and half-objects. A puzzle that embodies the intricate tapestry of human experience and a representation of a fragmented reality. Expressed through a combination of visual theatre, object manipulation, and comical absurdity, Blueberry Burdock dances playfully in a place of limbo. Directed by Thomas Monckton and performed by Olli Vuorinen.  Blueberry Burdock premiered at the Stoa cultural centre (Helsinki) in 2023. Wed 2nd Oct

Moments by Theatre Re is part TED Talk, part theatrical performance encompassing Theatre Re's trademark style that combines striking visual theatre to create world-class, deeply moving non-verbal productions about universal human challenges and the fragility of life. Moments sits at the intersection of training and theatre-making. It creates a space for Theatre Re to reflect, understand and explain what they do as they do it. After more than 13 years of working together as Theatre Re, making 6 shows and touring to 16 countries across 3 continents, Theatre Re's are taking a moment to stop, question and re-evaluate. ‘Theatre Re excels at transforming small, intimate stories into whirling, viscerally physical extravagance.' What's On Stage. Tue 8 & Wed 9 Oct

Insomniac's Fable ‘In your dreams whatever they be, dream a little dream of me.' Insomniac's Fable is a contemporary circus and dance piece featuring world-class performers that chronicles a protagonist's pursuit of idealised love. But as with all dreams, things can take a surreal turn at any moment... Performed by Sakari Männistö, one of the world's most original jugglers and classical ballet dancer Erin O'Toole, Insomniac's Fable is a delicate love story with a Hitchockian glint in its eye. Artist Angela Annesley's eerily evocative images envelop the stage, and former Royal Ballet artist Ludovic Ondiviela's dance choreography marries ballet's well-established tradition of storytelling with contemporary circus. Directed by Emma Lister, Insomniac's Fable premiered in Cirko, Helsinki in 2018 and has since toured the UK and Finland. Sun 13th Oct

Lived Fiction is the manifestation of Stopgap's twenty-year history, a timely intervention that can shape the future of contemporary dance. The sensual choreography of Lived Fiction is rendered anew with evocative audio description, exquisite projection art and captioning. The internationally revered company invites you to experience dance from multiple perspectives and share in a future that is rich with the enterprise, potential, and power of diversity. Expect masterful performances from Deaf, Disabled, neurodivergent and non-disabled creatives in the dance work that is deep with compassion for the human condition. Thu 17th Oct

The Passion of Andrea 2 is a creation by Simone Mousset, associate artist at The Place, London, and winner of the Luxembourgish Dance Award 2017. The Passion of Andrea 2 is like trying to hold soap when it's wet. Masquerading as a sequel to an earlier, non-existent version of itself, The Passion of Andrea 2 is a mischievous con artist of a dance theatre piece about feelings of uneasiness, the inability to fully understand, and the painful desire for more. It is the solution that constantly escapes us. The Passion of Andrea 2 started out of a desire to capture the feeling of being overwhelmed and confused in a climate of emergency, where it is necessary to take immediate decisions. The piece explores the feeling of wishing there was more one could do, more one could be, that one could have more agency and somehow save the world – generally, that one could be more heroic overall. (Age guidance 8+) Sat 19th Oct

RPM by Gorilla Circus explores the impact of Britain's colonial past, in a mesmeric new show combining exhilarating acrobatics, adrenaline-pumping street dance and breath-taking roller skating, set on a giant moving treadmill! Inspired by the little attention given to the racially instigated 2011 London riots and the growing Black Lives Matter protests, RPM; a reference to Revolutions Per Minute and the historical treadmill we find ourselves on, reflects on these contemporary events as a lens to view our past. (Age guidance 10+) Sat 30th Nov, 3pm and 8pm

This is all in addition to The Lowry presenting Re:INCARNATION by Nigeria's celebrated QDance Company (Tues 8 and Wed 9 Oct), Rambert's thrilling stage adaptation The Redemption of Thomas Shelby returning to The Lowry (Tue 22 - Sat 26 Oct), and Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake as part of its 30th anniversary UK tour (Tue 19 - Sat 30 Nov).

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