Shoreditch Town Hall Announces Spring Programming and Events

Shoreditch Town Hall today announces further productions in the venue's spring programme, which brings together work exploring the themes of identity, time and place. This June sees the UK première of ANU & CoisCéim Dance Theatre's These Rooms, an intense, immersive blend of theatre, dance and visual art by David Bolger, Owen Boss and Louise Lowe. The work is co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the UK's official arts programme for the First World War centenary, LIFT and Shoreditch Town Hall, and tells the story of 15 civilian men who were killed in house-to-house raids by British soldiers on a single Dublin street on 28 April 1916, five days into the Easter Rising. Prior to this, acclaimed theatre-maker Christopher Brett Bailey returns to Shoreditch Town Hall, where he previously performed in Wedding, with a new solo show, Suicide Notes... The Spoken Word of Christopher Brett Bailey; Hackney-based Access All Areas presents MADHOUSE: re:exit, an underground adventure by five learning disabled artists; and the critically acclaimed magician Vincent Gambini performs a work-in-progress of his new piece, The Chore of Enchantment.

These will form part of the previously announced season, which includes the genre defying Party Skills for the End of the World, a co-production with Manchester International Festival, in which Nigel Barrett & Louise Mari with Abigail Conway celebrate everything that makes life worth living; Fringe First winner Education, Education, Education, a co-production with Shoreditch Town Hall and Royal & Derngate Northampton, by Town Hall Associate Artists The Wardrobe Ensemble; and the return of Theatre Re's sell-out production, The Nature of Forgetting.

Throughout the spring season there will also be a series of eclectic events for our local community, including the first Hackney Proms concert at Shoreditch Town Hall, with jazz kora player Jally Kebba Susso; the return of Baby Loves Disco Mini Roadshow, for parents and children age 0 - 6; and the popular Town Hall Tea Dances, monthly afternoons of dancing and entertainment with the aptly named Mr Wonderful. Further activities include SwingDance UK's Swing into Spring and a Smoking Apples workshop, Flux: Puppetry and the Female Body, which celebrates International Women's Day.

ANU & CoisCéim Dance Theatre
UK Première
THESE ROOMS
By David Bolger, Owen Boss, Louise Lowe
Co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW, LIFT and Shoreditch Town Hall
Supported by Culture Ireland as part of GB18: Promoting Irish Arts in Britain.

June 2018 (part of LIFT 2018)

On 28 April 1916, five days into the Easter Rising, 15 civilian men were killed in house-to-house raids by British soldiers on a single Dublin street. An intense, immersive blend of theatre, dance and visual art by David Bolger, Owen Boss and Louise Lowe, These Rooms tells two stories: those of The Civilians who were victims of and witnesses to the North King Street Massacre, and those of the men of the South Staffordshire Regiment who committed this act - their identities largely anonymous, their actions controversially exonerated at a military enquiry.

Created by two of Ireland's most original companies, These Rooms received unanimous critical acclaim when it was first presented in a dilapidated Dublin building in 2016 as part of the centenary commemorations of the Easter Rising. Wholly reimagined for its London run, this riveting work sheds new light on a pivotal moment in British-Irish relations.

These Rooms is accompanied by Beyond These Rooms, an installation touring the UK in 2018.

Access All Areas
MADHOUSE RE:EXIT
Tuesday 13 - Wednesday 28 March 2018, various times (see website for details)

Inspired by a refusal to be silent, and a history of being ignored, five learning disabled artists take us on a wondrous adventure underground. A goddess, a baby, a bird, an eater and a ghost guide us through a maze-like institution, growling to be heard, and waiting for the revolution that is forever promised. As they tear back the walls to their lives, past and present spin together in a powerful expression of what it feels like to be learning disabled today.

Over two years, MADHOUSE re:exit has built on the legacy of Mabel Cooper, a learning disabled resident of a long-stay hospital, who pressed the button that blew up one of the last of these institutions in the UK. Now, award winning theatre company Access All Areas return with a fantastical, disruptive, immersive experience that explores what this history means to learning disabled people today.

Developed with the Barbican, Shoreditch Town Hall, The Lowry, Battersea Arts Centre, Wellcome Trust, Arts Council England and the Open University.

HACKNEY PROMS
Sunday 25 March 2018, 11.30am

Breakneck-speed jazz kora player Jally Kebba Susso is a UK based griot, born and raised in 74 generations of Gambian musical heritage. But he is not your ordinary griot. Forging a new trajectory of sound for the West African harp, Jally Kebba skillfully blends the traditional repertoire into his own heady-jazz concoction that is immediately accessible and uplifting and yet filled with nuances and intoxicating rhythmical layers that give the music depth and intrigue.

Raised in a household of musicians, Jally Kebba was exposed to incredible musicianship from a very early age and under the guidance of his father Bully Suso, a very well-respected kora player and his elder brothers by 13 he was touring internationally across Europe. He honed his own sound over years of experimentation on the London underground scene since 2002 when he relocated to UK. In 2007 he formed his band Manding Sabu and has since released two albums of original compositions - Banjul-London (2017) and Malaye Warr (2012) and gigged extensively. Precision, speed and a merciless energy characterise their performance style making them solid crowd-pullers at festivals such as Wilderness, Shambala and Secret Garden Party in UK. Songs are sung in Mandinka and are songs of praise and love and are a timely call for togetherness and solidarity, palpable to all language speakers.

Vincent Gambini
THE CHORE OF ENCHANTMENT
Work-in-progress
Thursday 5 - Friday 6 April 2018, 8.30pm

Critically acclaimed magician and theatre artist Vincent Gambini returns with brand new material. Performing with his trademark ironic detachment, Gambini plays expertly with our understandings of magic and theatre.

In this show Gambini exposes the hidden difficulties of being a magician: the arduous job of creating genuine wonder and enchantment, particularly in times of deep political turmoil. What are magicians to do in the face of the growing disillusion that pervades the world today? This is an ambitious performance about artifice and illusion, politics and deception, total wonder and total disenchantment and an opportunity to see brand new material from Gambini, as he prepares a new theatrical magic show.

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Developed with support from Cambridge Junction, the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts, University of Sussex, Shoreditch Town Hall, and ARC Stockton Arts Centre.

Age guidance 14+

SUICIDE NOTES... THE SPOKEN WORD OF CHRISTOPHER BRETT BAILEY
By Christopher Brett Bailey
Wednesday 2 - Friday 4 May 2018, 8pm

A different-every-night, shouting and reading show... stories, poems and black humour.

Christopher Brett Bailey's words deliver a linguistic kaleidoscope of caustic cartoons, crackpot prophesies and demented erotica. Verbal diarrhoea, dirty jokes, venomous poetry and tall tales that corkscrew deep into nightmares. Tonight, he is a voice box and a microphone and nothing more: a potty mouthed poet, a reverend with a forked tongue, a standup comedian from hell, delivering a symphony of verbal adrenaline and twisted humour. This is a dense, poetic blend of the hallucinogenic and the hardboiled; a live action short story collection for the depraved, the depressed and the death obsessed.

Supported by Arts Council England. Commissioned by Theatre in the Mill. Support from ARC Stockton Arts Centre and The Marlborough Theatre.
Age guidance 16+

SwingDance UK and Shoreditch Town Hall
SWING INTO SPRING
Friday 11 May 2018, 7.30pm (doors); 7.45pm (beginners & intermediate Lindy Hop Dance Classes); 8.30pm (dancing)

Don your sharpest threads and head to Shoreditch Town Hall as we Swing into Spring! Get in the groove with the beginner and intermediate swing dance classes to kick off the evening where you can learn some hot moves that will keep you dancing all night long. There'll be great vintage tunes from the 30s, 40s and 50s courtesy of DJ Simon 'Mr Kicks' Selmon, and cabaret performances from SwingDance UK. There will also be live music (band to be confirmed shortly) to get the joint jumpin' as you jive, jitterbug and hoochie coochie and shim sham shimmy your way through the evening"

Smoking Apples
FLUX: PUPPETRY AND THE FEMALE BODY
Workshop
Thursday 8 March 2018, 5pm - 8pm

Celebrating International Women's Day, join the award-winning UK puppetry company Smoking Apples for a three-hour workshop exploring puppetry and the female body.

Achieving critical acclaim for their puppetry work, Smoking Apples' latest show in development, Flux, will explore the role of women in science. In this practical and discussion workshop, the company invite participants to join them in exploring how the female body moves and how we can translate this into puppetry. Participants will also explore puppets as objects and how this could relate to female objectification.

Suitable for ages 15+

BABY LOVES DISCO MINI ROADSHOW
Saturday 24 March, 19 May, 16 June 2018, 10am

The original family dance party returns to Shoreditch Town Hall.

Baby Loves Disco's resident club DJs mix feelgood chart floorfillers with nostalgic pop classics from the years before parenthood struck - for parents and babies, toddlers and young children to enjoy together. There are play tents and inflatables, balloons, bubbles, dressing up, arts and crafts, healthy snacks and dance floor fun with games and giveaways.

TEA DANCE & BEGINNERS' DANCE CLASS
Monday 5 February, 5 March, 9 April, 4 June 2018, 1pm

Come and dance the afternoon away in the magnificent surrounding of Shoreditch Town Hall's Assembly Hall. Join us for a cup of tea and a slice of cake, and relive those tea dance memories with entertainment led by the aptly named Mr Wonderful. New dancers, group parties and all ages are welcome.

A Beginners' Dance Class led by former world champion, Raymond Root will take place for an hour before every dance.

Welcoming over 70,000 people through its doors every year, Shoreditch Town Hall is an established independent arts, events and community space housed in one of the grandest former civic buildings in the capital. Comprising over 48,000 square feet across 70 individual rooms, the Town Hall has undergone something of a transformation in recent years, from a beautiful but under the radar hire space, to a thriving flagship cultural and events venue for Hackney, London and beyond.

Shoreditch Town Hall is now more in use than at any other point in its recent history with a year-round programme of bold and adventurous new theatre, music, dance, comedy, talks and events, alongside a range of learning, community and engagement activities. The venue is also occupied by one of the most talked about restaurants of recent years, the Michelin starred Clove Club, in the west side of the building.

With eight main spaces from 40 to 800 capacity, the Town Hall works with 130 artists, community groups and arts organisations, programmes over 60 productions, hosts up to 700 events, and commissions up to 8 new pieces of live performance, every year.

The Town Hall's programme has recently included work with Andrew Schneider, dreamthinkspeak, Jamie Lloyd, Kneehigh, Manchester International Festival, Nigel Barrett & Louise Mari, Royal Shakespeare Company, Spymonkey and The Wardrobe Ensemble, alongside events with the likes of Alexander McQueen, Amazon, Fred Perry, Red Bull and the filming of Florence Foster Jenkins and The Lady in the Van.

Shoreditch Town Hall is a registered charity (1069617) and receives no regular or revenue funding.

14-18 NOW is a programme of extraordinary arts experiences connecting people with the First World War, as part of the UK's official centenary commemorations. It commissions new work by leading contemporary artists across all art forms; the programme has included over 200 artists from 35 countries, with commissions taking place in 160 locations across the UK. Over 30 million people have experienced a project so far, including 7.5 million children and young people. 16.7million people took part in LIGHTS OUT in 2014, and 63% of the population were aware of Jeremy Deller's 2016 work 'We're here because we're here'. The UK tour of the iconic poppy sculptures by artist Paul Cummins and designer Tom Piper have been seen by over 3.5 million people to date. 14-18 NOW has won many awards for its work, including the National Lottery Heritage Award 2017, a Museums Heritage Award and the Chairman's Award at The Drum Social Buzz Awards 2016. It is supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England, by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and by additional fundraising.

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