Winter 2015 News

We’re preparing a travelling cavalcade of delights for 2016 as the second Wye Valley River Festival has won funding to go ahead next Spring. Read on to find out more! 2015 has also been a vintage year, with praise rolling in for Slapstick & Slaughter and a great summer working on Bristol Loves Tides and DNAarts. Frankly, our stockings are full – you can give the chocolate coins to the reindeer.

The Wye Valley River Festival will return in 2016 with fire, flame, a travelling cavalcade and a theme exploring our complex relationship with water (Picture shows WVRF 2014. Picture credit: Jim Ozanne)

WYE VALLEY RIVER FESTIVAL 2016

“We came for an hour and stayed all day” – Audience member, WVRF 2014

With a central theme of ‘Global Arteries’, the second Wye Valley River Festival will explore our complex relationship with water and its vital influence on our humanity and culture. It will run from April 29th to May 15th 2016 in the stunning Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with events from Hereford to Chepstow.

At the heart of the festival will be a beautifully wrought travelling caravan train called the Wye Serai that will take a cavalcade of water-inspired art, performance, spectacle and experience down the river. Other planned events include a Fire Garden labyrinth, haunting sound installations and a series of night-time spectaculars, all free. Click here for more details or here to watch a video of the 2014 festival.

BOOKING NOW – SLAPSTICK & SLAUGHTER

“The true spirit of Dada” – Neil Innes, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

Our DADA-inspired WW1 show has been knocking ’em dead wherever it plays; some say it’s the best thing we’ve ever done (click here to listen to Neil Innes talking it up on Radio 4 at 38 mins 30 seconds in). It’s designed to work indoors and outdoors so take a look at the video for an idea of its anarchic, trouser-wrenching wonderfulness, get in touch now to find out more or go to the website for more information.

BRISTOL LOVES TIDES

Proxi and Peri, the tides made flesh, bade farewell to Bristol this autumn after a summer of tidal theatre and education. Bristol Loves Tides took audiences deep into the rhythm of our city’s water with an education programme using performance and film to explore water flows, tides and systems. Click here for more information about the project. Proxi and Peri have now retired to the Mediterranean but their adventures may continue on film.

DNAarts

Commissioned by Bath and North East Somerset Council, this project aims to find ways for everyone to experience high quality art in all its forms, especially families that rarely come into contact with it. Our work as part of the DNAarts consortium has included bottling the essence of Radstock, leading mountaineers up the slopes of Snowhill and bringing love to Twerton on Valentines day – click here to find out more.

PACTS refurbishment

We celebrated 21 years of Mivart studios earlier this year, and now thanks to a grant from Arts Council England our own PACTS studio and offices will spring into 2016 with a full refurbishment, allowing us to offer an improved space to visiting artists and studio hires. Watch this space for updates.

THE LIGHT PRINCESS

Richard Headon is playing the King in the Tobacco Factory’s Christmas production of The Light Princess, an adaptation of George MacDonald’s Victorian fairytale about a princess who is lighter than air. The show is produced in association with Peepolykus and will run until January 10th 2016. Click here to read a preview in The Guardian by Lyn Gardner and click here to find out more and book tickets!