The Famous Lauren Barri Holstein plunges into the ghostly underworld of popular culture, examining the myth of Medusa, Nicki Minaj and her own legendary self(ie), to interrogate pop culture’s take on the female monster, blurring the lines between live art, dance and theatre.

A pioneer in the field of performance and live art, Holstein’s irreverent blend of music, dance and witch-b*tch ritual searches for redemption in the face of promiscuity. Combining pop culture with striking physically embodied visuals, The Famous continues to take risks with this new interdisciplinary performance following on from Splat! which sold out at the Barbican in 2013.

“Holstein’s shows are a riot of shameless showmanship and live-art provocation” — Time Out

Access, as published in 2019

BSL interpreted by Yvonne Strain / Hearing Loop / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Presented by Take Me Somewhere and Outspoken Arts. Followed by the TMS x PUSH IT party at Stereo. The Famous also took part in the Live Art Lunch (12 May) and presented her Witch-B*tch Research Paper (25 May). Images: Tim Fluck and Manuel Vason. Video: Claire Nolan and Charlie Cauchi.

Witch, please.

PUSH IT is joining forces with Take Me Somewhere to give u the fiercest club night like no other! We’ll be invoking the spirit of the WitchBitch rituals of The Famous Lauren Barri Holstein & unleashing the bossiest performances, on top of the spellbinding femme focused R&B, hiphop & pop sorcery of PUSH IT. Get light as a feather, stiff as a board & use your muscle, carve it out, work it & hustle. Call ur coven. It’s gunna get witchin’!!

With performances from Ultimate Dancer & Michelle Hannah, CC-Time and Kevin Le Grand. Two floor party: MRSBAXTER2U & MS. NICEBOY playin’ the 1st deck, PUSH IT DJs on the 2nd floor.

Access, as published in 2019

All performances will be held on Stereo’s first floor (wheelchair accessible via a lift with an accessible toilet). Stereo’s basement is not wheelchair accessible as it is down two flights of stairs. The performances will be BSL interpreted.

Credits

Presented by Take Me Somewhere and PUSH IT with support from The Old Hairdressers. Party photographs: Tiu Makkonen.

The Museum of Hope in the Dark is a library of texts from local and international older women, each reflecting on the idea of hope in a darkening world. These texts have been translated into Morse code and are presented as a series of flickering lights, apparently faulty but actually working just as they need to.

Passersby are invited to try to decipher the messages, before discovering the messages in full.

Access, as published in 2019

Highly visual with no spoken text / wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Presented by Take Me Somewhere and Luminate. Photo: Jenny Huang.

Get to know the artists in the Take Me Somewhere programme a little better through a series of informal conversations over food in Tramway’s beautiful Hidden Gardens. All welcome — a light lunch will be provided.

Sun 12 May: Pop culture, persona & power — a conversation with The Famous Lauren Barri Holstein and Nima Séne.

Sat 25 May: Risk, obedience & disobedience within performance involving young people, with Ásrún Magnúsdóttir and Lucy Gaizely & Gary Gardiner (21Common).

Access, as published in 2019

Wheelchair accessible. This event was not BSL interpreted, due to a lack of available interpreters.

Credits

Supported by the University of Glasgow’s School of Culture & Creative Arts as part of its 2018–19 season on the theme ‘Inclusive/Exclusive’.

Palestinian choreographer Farah Saleh and Professor Victoria Tischler are investigating the collective mental health of the residents in the UK since the Brexit vote. Looking at what led to that vote, but more importantly in what is happening right now: the fear, anger, polarization of the society, the explicit racism and most importantly, what will happen next.

Where is the threshold between democracy and dictatorship in fear-led campaigns? What does Brexit entail on a personal level for the ‘remoaners’ who have been branded liberal hysterics, those who consider themselves citizens of the world, but also for those who voted to leave? Do you feel targeted? Are you feeling the tension of Brexit? How does that fear manifest itself, physically, emotionally and socially?

Through movement, text and film, this performance and discussion explores the rising nationalism and racism around the world; and reflects, with you, on ways of working together to build collective resilience.

Access, as published in 2019

BSL interpreted (Amy Cheskin) / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Presented by CCA & Take Me Somewhere. Supported by The Wellcome Trust, Creative Scotland and Dance Base. Farah Saleh was Associate Artist at Dance Base, Edinburgh.

Danish choreographer and dancer Mette Ingvartsen examines the powers of pleasure and the pleasures of power in this tour-de-force performance on pornography, from the Marquis De Sade to the 70s happy heydays, to war-, torture-, and news-porn.

The legalisation of pornography in Denmark in 1967 expanded erotic freedom towards more gender equality. Pornography today includes a politically wide range of expressions and uses, from queer and feminist stances to sexualised torture in war. Starting from this idea that pornography has leaked into many areas of society, Ingvartsen explores the operations of the pornographic through a collection of erotic and affective materials. Most of them have little to do with explicit sex, yet they show some characteristics of the pornographic: expressions of cruelty, clinical precision, violence and pain, but sometimes also of laughter, excitement and thrill.

“Porn and war taste ugly. Perhaps we already know this, but when Ingvartsen shows it to us, we are reminded of it in an entirely new way.” — Magasinet Kunst, 2018

Access, as published in 2019

Hearing loop / captioned / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Presented by Take Me Somewhere. A production of Great Investment. Co-production: Volksbühne (Berlin), PACT Zollverein (Essen), Kaaitheater (Brussels), NEXT festival / Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk), Les Spectacles vivants – Centre Pompidou (Paris), Dansehallerne (Copenhagen), BIT Teatergarasjen (Bergen), Julidans (Amsterdam), CCN2 – Centre chorégraphique national de Grenoble. With the support of Nanterre-Amandiers, Centre Dramatique National, Musée de la Danse / Centre Chorégraphique National de Rennes et de Bretagne and Kustenwerkplaats Pianofabriek. Funded by the Flemish Authorities, the Flemish Community Commission (VGC) and the Danish Arts Council. Images: Marc Domage.

This is an invitation to the séance. A vent of desperation, a call for empowerment from the ancestors. This is our language to describe our experiences; we stand together, we lose ourselves in musical rapture.

Looking at the past, present and future, subverting elements used to shape and manipulate us for the imperialist gaze, Sonic Séance is a passage through the minerals of our earth, ancient symbols, sexual leverage and colonial primitivist fantasies.

Created and performed by Patricia Panther, Letitia Pleiades, Ashanti Harris and Mele Broomes (Take Me Somewhere Constellation artist). V/DA is a multi-disciplinary, collaborative collective, crossing the lines between dance, theatre, music and events.

★★★★★ “An absolutely remarkable display of physicality; a terrifying, chaotic, controlled performance that is as beautiful as it is disturbing.” — Broadway Baby, on VOID, 2018

Access, as published in 2019

BSL interpreted on 16th and 18th by Bea Webster / Subpacs / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Presented by Take Me Somewhere. Supported by Creative Scotland, The Work Room and Dance Base. Images: Marios Ento-Engkolo and Eoin Carey.

In a durational work that examines our unique relationship with time, Gillian and Adam will ask 1,440 people in Glasgow to share a specific time that is important to them, and over the course of 24 hours they will set an alarm for each of them to create a unique sonic sculpture which will remain in situ for the following 24 hours. A ledger featuring all 1,440 reasons for that person’s favourite time of day will be available to view.

Gillian Jane Lees is a Glasgow based performance practitioner. She makes rigorous attempts to build and control her environment over hours, and sometimes days, by undertaking physically demanding and mentally exhausting durational performances. Gillian’s interest lies in the fleeting moment where her will to succeed meets her diminishing physical ability to complete each task.

Adam York Gregory is a scientist, games designer, typesetter, film-maker and visual artist. His practice reflects each of these disciplines, often combining them to create novel areas of exploration, using his background in creating scientific investigations as a starting point for artistic explorations and methodologies. Together, their practice seeks to explore the notion of ‘the imagined ideal’ through subjective performance, objective experimentation, documentation and observation.

Access, as published in 2019

Not published on the 2019 listing.

Credits

Supported by Creative Scotland and the British Council.

365 cylinders of ice. An act of marking time and letting go.

In this unrepeatable piece of intimate performance, live artist Amy Rosa will rest on top of a plinth of ice collected over the course of a year. Every cylinder containing the concentrated thoughts and feelings from each day.

Amy Rosa is an award-winning live artist based in Scotland. She works predominantly with elemental materials from woods, beaches and parks. Most recently she has been working with live electric fencing, woad and ice. She explores the act of shaping an installation intuitively, and creates spaces that attempt to dissect ideas around health and wellbeing in invisible disabilities. One of her main focuses is on creating an open dialogue about invisible medical conditions using live action and installation. Altering perception of time is an important facet of her practice, and how it can be explored through quiet, repeated acts.

“Deeply affecting” — Exeunt, on Gallanach at Tramway’s UNLIMITED festival, 2018

Access, as published in 2019

Highly visual with no spoken text / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Amy Rosa was the winner of the Adrian Howells Award for Intimate Performance 2018, led by the National Theatre of Scotland, Battersea Arts Centre and Take Me Somewhere, with support from the University of Glasgow and the Live Art Development Agency. Images and video: Tiu Makkonen.

This event brings artists, producers and researchers working in Scotland together with practitioners from the UK and around the world to explore ideas of risk and resilience in Live Art. In particular, this event addresses the relationship of Live Art to contemporary demands to innovate and take creative risks while also developing resilient ways of working. If Live Art offers ‘a space in which artists can take formal and conceptual risks’ (LADA), what kinds of support are needed to nurture that space and those working within it? Does risky and challenging work require a particular kind of support, particularly as it enters or influences the mainstream?

In asking these and other questions, this event picks up the trail of a more than decade-old report commissioned by the Scottish Arts Council in 2007 concerning the infrastructure and support of Live Art in Scotland. While many of the major institutions named in this report no longer exist — most notably the Arches and the National Review of Live Art — its assessment of the fragility, resilience and vitality of Scotland’s Live Art ecology remains strikingly prescient.

Twelve years later, we ask: what do ‘resilience’ and ‘risk’ mean for people working in and around the Live Art sector, in Scotland and beyond? What might resilience mean for practitioners from culturally diverse, queer and/or working-class backgrounds? How does the idea of resilience intersect with different experiences of disability? Scotland’s longstanding institutions most closely associated with Live Art proved to be incredibly fragile, though their collapse has also resulted in a range of new networks and organisations — how do we imagine the longer-term stability and sustainability of the sector? Is stability even desirable?

Access, as published in 2019

Hearing loop / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible / BSL interpreted on request.

Credits

Hosted by the University of Glasgow Theatre Studies Department.

I couldn’t help but wonder… might my old collection of box sets hold all the answers?

Join artists FK Alexander, Rhiannon Armstrong, Katy Baird, Dan Cox, Rachel Gomme, James Ley, Mustafa Ozpek, Owen G. Parry and more on the sofa with their favourite box sets. In a world that can feel really scary, come in from the battlefield, hold each other tight, reflect and see things through a fresh set of eyes…

BINGE, a new interactive installation curated by Brian Lobel, creates the space to slow down, disconnect from the noise of everyday life, reconnect with the comfort of a duvet and a listening ear. BINGE is a collection of one-to-one and intimate conversations based around your favourite box sets, that exist somewhere between radical self-care and playful self-indulgence. Warmly nostalgic, BINGE collapses the distinction between the high-brow, the low-brow, and the freshly-plucked brow.

Leave your own drama behind, and insert yourself into a world where whatever the drama, it’ll probably be solved in under 30 minutes.

The box sets on offer included Owen Parry with Ab Fab, Dan Cox with The Office US, Rhiannon Armstrong with Grace and Frankie, Rachel Gomme with Night and Day, James Ley with Gimme Gimme Gimme, Katy Baird with Spaced, and FK Alexander with Sex And The City.

Access, as published in 2019

All TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

A Renfrewshire Leisure Out of Place commission presented by Take Me Somewhere and Renfrewshire Council.

A Performance based on ‘P’ words (such as Piano, Pray, Pussy, Poetry, Poppers), where Ivo Dimchev invites willing members of the audience to write improvised Poetry on stage — in return for hard cash — as he transforms it into a live song at the Piano.

After the Performance the Public is invited to Play with the complex Pussy catalogue and construct their own Pussy and Print it on a Postcard!

Ivo Dimchev is a Bulgarian performing artist, known internationally for his provocative and often controversial works of performance art. His work is an extreme and colourful mixture of performance art, dance, theatre, music, drawings and photography. Dimchev is the author of more than 30 performances and has received numerous international awards for dance and theatre. He is the founder and director of the Humarts Foundation in Bulgaria, and in 2014 opened MOZEI in Sofia as an independent space for contemporary art and music.

★★★★★ “The physically present cash electrifies the room, and makes the experience hot, live, dangerous…” — The Stage

“An intriguing reflection on the relationship between audience and performer, the power of money to encourage uncharacteristic behaviour, the importance of maintaining moral integrity in the face of social pressure and the potential of art to enthuse even mundane activity with poetic meaning.” — The List

Access, as published in 2019

Captioned / hearing loop / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Presented by Take Me Somewhere and Outspoken Arts. Images: Nada Zgank.

What does your town look like from someone else’s perspective? What’s it like to hold hands with a complete stranger and walk through the city centre?

Performance art and mobile technology converge in Walking:Holding, a meditative documentary that journeys through urban landscapes exploring identity and intimacy in public space with a focus on LGBTQ+ experiences.

This film is a response to Glasgow based artist Rosana Cade’s award-winning interactive performance of the same name, which invites audience members to embark on a carefully designed route through a town whilst holding hands with a series of different local participants. Shot entirely on mobile phones, the film follows the performance to 6 towns across the UK between June and November 2016, bookended by the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump.

This unique collaborative documentary offers an insight into the intimate work at a particularly poignant time, weaving together a range of perspectives and experiences from across the country. Rosana Cade is a member of the Take Me Somewhere Artist Constellation.

“Everyone acknowledged the astute provocation in Cade’s seemingly simple concept, with its flesh and blood challenge to prejudices and its honouring of individuals and their differences.” — Herald, on Walking:Holding the performance

Access, as published in 2019

Captioned, wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Presented by Take Me Somewhere. Supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and using public funds from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

A bunch of talkative rice cookers take you on a journey through the last 20 years of Korean history.

One day when his electric rice cooker informed him that his meal was ready, Jaha Koo experienced a deep sense of isolation. ‘Golibmuwon’ is an untranslatable Korean word expressing the feeling of helpless isolation that characterizes the lives of many young people in Korea today.

Twenty years ago there was a major economic crisis in South-Korea, comparable to the financial crash in the United States and Southern Europe in 2008. This crisis had a huge impact on the young generation to which South Korean artist Jaha Koo belongs. He witnessed many endemic problems including youth unemployment and socio-economic inequality. Rising suicide rates, isolation, acute social withdrawal and a fixation on personal appearance are but a few of the symptoms.

In bittersweet and humorous dialogues, Jaha and his clever rice cookers take you on a journey through the last 20 years of Korean history, combining personal experience with political events and reflections on happiness, economic crises and death.

“A week later, I’m still haunted by the show’s sounds and images. Food for thought indeed.” — Total Theatre

Access, as published in 2019

Captioned / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Presented by Take Me Somewhere and Outspoken Arts Scotland. Images: Radovan Dranga.

Subcultures have always known the need for spaces that allow them room to thrive and blossom, think, re-think and create. Their constant struggle for continuity is part of their reality and in some ways defines subculture as such.

When we speak of spaces that serve the purpose of a specific group’s safety, we often speak of bubbles — the encapsulating worlds that promise relief from the daily threat of erasure, discrediting or even violence. Most of the time these bubbles are temporary. They can burst easily as the walls which protect their inner living from the outside world are often thin and fragile, and still they are separating their inside living from the outside world. Their inclusion is exclusion from the other side.

In this contemporary climate that has seen increased extremism on the left and right across Europe, the rise of the online echo chamber, call out culture, and social tribalism, what purpose does the queer bubble serve? Is our role as artists and curators to create safe spaces for the queer community? Ephemeral utopias that offer relief and protection? Does this ever perpetuate queer isolation, or division? Or do we need to create contexts for dialogue with a wider society?

Joined by Uta Lambertz, a programmer from Kampnagel in Hamburg who recently curated a GenderMainstreaming festival, and Daniel Chelminiak, a queer artist and curator of the Queer B-cademy in Hamburg, as well as a range of Scotland based artists and organisers, for a cross-Europe exchange.

Access, as published in 2019

All TMS venues are wheelchair accessible. The Long Table is a discussion format devised by Lois Weaver — you are welcome to come and go at any point, and can participate or simply listen.

Credits

The Long Table is a discussion format devised by Lois Weaver.

Invited into the luxurious world of self-made icon Beige B*tch, the audience take their seats and tune in as the latest audience of Beige Nation TV. Star and host, BB, scrolls through the saturated reality of their all beige everything world. In a cultural blitzkrieg of artisan anecdotes, intimate interviews and bespoke adverts, Beige B*tch poses pointed questions about white accountability, Black Culture and what it means to belong.

Made and performed by Nima Séne, Beige B*tch makes its Scottish debut at Take Me Somewhere 2019.

Nima’s artistic practice is rooted in uncovering complexity and parody within stereotypes and mainstream media portrayals of cultural identity. Their practice is rooted in embracing a sense of belonging with the unknown and the unseen. Nima was the 2018 recipient of the FST Assistant Director Bursary for End of Eddy, and received the BANNER award (Artsadmin and LADA) in 2016/17 for an early development of Beige B*tch.

★★★★ “Rooted in the politics of identity, colour and gender… Beige B*tch is a fierce provocateur on all fronts” — Herald

“A beautifully presented show, an hour of first-class visual and auditory excellence” — Greater Manchester Reviewer

Access, as published in 2019

Captioned / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Presented by Take Me Somewhere. Commissioned by Contact and Live Art UK Diverse Actions. Supported by Creative Scotland, Platform, The Work Room, National Theatre of Scotland and Take Me Somewhere. Film excerpts made in collaboration with Daniel Hughes. Images: Daniel Hughes.

Cock, Cock… Who’s There? is not your average show about rape, female bodies, online dating, feminism, the male gaze or whatever other ‘issue’ stickers are freely available to be pasted onto it.

Samira Elagoz takes us along on her personal research project across three continents, in this confrontational, unrestrainedly funny and deeply touching performance. From online platforms, like Tinder and Chatroulette, to close encounters, she showcases gender relations in their brutal and wonderful ambivalence, and takes the audience on her journey of regaining power and attempts to relate to men. In this docu-performance she explores desire, the power of femininity and the female gaze in a world in which the virtual and the real are inextricably intertwined.

Cock, Cock… Who’s There? has been an international hit, touring to Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Edinburgh, Paris, Dublin, Santarcangelo, Munich, Zurich, Copenhagen, Vienna, Oslo, Reykjavik, Brussels and Ljubljana and more to wide critical acclaim. It won the prestigious Prix Jardin d’Europe competition at Impulstanz 2017. And at the Edinburgh Fringe it won the Total Theatre Award for Emerging Talent.

★★★★★ “Cock Cock becomes a statement of fierce defiance without ever raising its voice to a shout.” — The List

“The result is a piece of art that’s far more nuanced, intelligent and adult in its consideration of sexuality and femininity than the vast majority made on the subject” — Exeunt

Access, as published in 2019

All TMS venues are wheelchair accessible. Other access details were listed as TBC in 2019.

Credits

Presented by Take Me Somewhere. Supported by The Finnish Cultural Foundation, Blooom Award and SNDO. Images: Samira Elagoz and Anieka Van Leeuwarden.

In a room of questionable hygiene; in the dark of a fairy dell; in the tinkling omnipresence of ice cream and the alluring uncovered well…

This performance is a place where children’s lives are unbounded by constant adult surveillance and all dominant generational power relations are destroyed. Do you dare to join us in our new world order?

In the Interest of… is a deranged disco, showboating the consequences of society’s reluctance to let their children take risks. Featuring some very special dancers and some very loud music, be prepared to come on in and raise merry hell. Are we living the dream or embodying the nightmare?

21Common is an arts and social action organisation dedicated to using radical arts practice for the benefit of personal and social change, led by Lucy Gaizely, Gary Gardiner, Ian Johnston and Louise Irwin.

“Necessary discomfort coupled with sheer exhilaration! This is a show for adults and some of them might find it challenging, there is very loud music and a high level of uncontrolled exuberance.” — Lucy Gaizely, 21Common

★★★★ “Full of tentative, graceful optimism” — The Guardian, on The Ballad of the Apathetic Son and His Narcissistic Mother, 2018

Access, as published in 2019

BSL interpreted by Iain Hodgetts on Fri 24 and Sat 25 / hearing loop / Subpacs / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Presented by Tramway. 21Common are supported by Creative Scotland. Rehearsal photographs: Niall Walker.

Listening Party is a party on stage, the hosts are a big group of teenagers, aged 13–17 years old. They play their favourite music. Sometimes they sing along or dance along or cry along or whatever. They talk about their music and about themselves, ideas, worries, thoughts and dreams. They hang out, listen to music together and listen to each other with their audience. They support each other, celebrate each other and their teenage years. The stage is theirs, the words are theirs, they have the power — even though it’s just during the show — it’s their party and they do whatever they want.

Access, as published in 2019

BSL interpreted by Brooklyn Melvin on 25 May / hearing loop / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Presented by Platform and Take Me Somewhere. Supported by Outspoken Arts Scotland. Commissioned and produced by Reykjavík Dance Festival and Lókal in the frame of ‘Into the City onto the Stage’ with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Education and apap – Performing Europe 2020, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Residency: Teatro Nacional D. Maria II in Lisbon. Premiered at Everybody’s Spectacular 2017 in Kúlan, the National Theatre of Iceland. Images: Tiu Makkonen.

A dance and poem made from memory and conversation.

In the Ink Dark is a series of conversations, encounters and live dance performances from Luke Pell and collaborators made with different people and places in Glasgow (and Dundee).

Dreamt as a living poem, it is a wander along the water, a seat beside someone on a bench, a conversation, a landscape of words written with bodies, a space for you to reflect, remember, imagine, in honour of things loved and lost.

Performed in public spaces around Platform; audiences met at the Platform box office.

Access, as published in 2019

BSL interpreted (Rachel Amy) / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Presented by Platform as part of Luminate. Image: Brian Hartley.

‘I’ll be ResurrecDEAD as your ultimate fantasy – a horny dead virgin.’ — The Famous

The birth of capitalism and the European witch hunts are historical step-sisters (in the deadliest way possible.) ‘Witches’ were ‘hunted’, fined, ‘tried’ and killed, to delimit women’s financial independence, access to knowledge, and governance over reproductive choices, while property was being privatised, the division of labor literally domesticated women, and ownership itself was denied to women, to the poor, and mostly, to poor women.

That relationship has persisted, morphed to disguise itself within the socio-cultural context of the moment, and, in so many ways, has laid the scene for the neo-liberal commodification of (faux) feminism and its misogynist outcomes — with similar restrictions on our rights, choices, and available subjectivities.

A principle commodity to arise from this repetition of history is a pre-packaged narrative of redemption. We are sold the story that the witch, the feminist, the whore, the prude, the lesbian, the childless, the not-white, the boss, the bitch, the hag, the artist, can all be saved with the right branding. The commodification of these figures, then, is its own kind of redemption — if it can be packaged and sold, it no longer threatens the means and managers of production. The agency of ‘the witch’ is stripped — and this is what makes the marriage of commercialism and ‘feminism’ a patriarchal problem. It’s the witch hunts with a feminist tagline.

In Notorious, the subjectivities I inhabit, and the worlds I imagine, dip their toes into the overflowing dominion of pop-commodification, and yet pose a threat to the stability of that system. From old hag, to sorceress, to sexy baby, I embody a self-exorcising, changeable monster that is both desired and denied, punished and coveted, and slips between identities — perhaps, revealing the monstrosities of pop-feminism itself.

Access, as published in 2019

All TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Full paper title as published: ‘Witch-Bitches, The Birth (and Never-Ending Resurrection) of Capitalism, and Pop-Culture’s Desperation for Its Own Exorcism: Embodying Pop-Monstrosities in Notorious’.

Celestial beings from queer dimensions transform the historic Glasgow School of Art into a kaleidoscopic, off-world temple as Brownton Abbey, the Afro-Futurist performance party with a Space Church theme, hits Glasgow.

Created by and centering queer people of colour, especially those with d/Disabilities (s/Super Powers), Brownton Abbey features an international collective of UK based artists.

The genre defying event fuses a dance party, performance art and the personal/political, as a catalyst to celebrate intersectional identities.

Take up space, drench yourself in contemporary ritual and get transcendental on the dancefloor, as Brownton Abbey takes you to church!

With The Uhuruverse, XANA, Lasana Shabazz, B2B, Sarra Wild and Yes Mel (Sista Selecta).

“It was nothing short of breathtaking and we all screamed for more” — Brighton Source

★★★★★ “Welcome and much needed… the joys and beauties of diversity in all its forms” — Argus

Access, as published in 2019

BSL interpreted by Ali Gordon, wheelchair accessible. No strobe or flashing lights were used. Haze and smoke were used.

Credits

Presented by Take Me Somewhere and Outspoken Arts Scotland. Brownton Abbey is an Unlimited Commission. Party photographs: Tiu Makkonen.

An Afro-futuristic soundclash of dance and music, inspired by Grace Jones’ legendary One Man Show, 100%POP reckons with the production and consumption of the pop sound and pop imagery in the hyper-reality of global capitalism.

Pop can be read as the art of the ordinary, the art most accessible to the people — people who don’t necessarily frequent museums and galleries. In 100%POP, Nora Chipaumire returns to the way information and knowledge was acquired by those of us who grew up in less free times — the time of African broadcast stations, colour bars, Drum magazine and active connections to rural and township lifestyles — soundclashing elements of Jones’ music with Zimbabwe’s Chimurenga music, dub and noise.

Access, as published in 2019

Subpacs / BSL interpreted (Ali Gordon) / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Presented by Take Me Somewhere. Made with the support of the Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès within the framework of the New Settings Program. 100%POP is part of the trilogy #PUNK 100%POP *N!GGA, co-produced by The Kitchen, Crossing the Line Festival and the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University. Images: Antoine Tempé.

If you try to silence me, I’ll scream this house down.

Last night three thousand people were murdered. Manfred is holding the gun. This is his chance. Seventy years later, Alicja is coming home. Back to the scene of the crime. Nothing will stop her this time, nothing can stop the truth.

Tomorrow, Under Snow is a new play by Andy Edwards (Scribble, In Burrows): a furious storm of guilt, blame and abuse, about history, populist politics and modern antisemitism.

What if you can’t change? What if you’re not who you thought you were? Set against the rising tides of populist politics across Europe, Tomorrow, Under Snow asks what can we learn from history and what do we still have to learn about ourselves.

Access, as published in 2019

All TMS venues are wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Fire Exit presents Pyromania. By Andy Edwards, a recipient of Fire Exit’s Pyromania bursary programme. Pyromania is a Fire Exit programme with Tron Theatre and support from Playwrights’ Studio Scotland and Take Me Somewhere. Funded by The Bridge Awards and Creative Scotland.

Love singing and writing music? This project is for you. The session includes coaching from Eva in singing, song-writing and performance. This is a unique chance to learn from an industry professional.

Eva Lazarus is a prolific guest vocalist whose musical flavour spans genres including Reggae, Jungle, Hip Hop, Soul and Drum n’ Bass, and was at the time being championed on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra. She had recently toured the UK, Europe and Australia and was about to release her first solo album. Bristol-based, she is KID_X’s vocal talent and central character.

“She has the ability to flow from rap into singing and back again flawlessly, relying on her huge range of vocal talent.” — Nilla Reviews

Access, as published in 2019

Tramway studio is wheelchair accessible.

Credits

Part of the KID_X strand. Note for the archive: the 2019 page for this workshop carried a copy error, opening the artist biography with ‘Teacher (MC/Composer/Lead Performer) is a prolific guest vocalist’. Corrected here to name Eva Lazarus.

ANDROID X will lead an introduction to street dance K.R.U.M.P. A highly expressive, exaggerated and energetic dance style originating from youths in south central Los Angeles. They saw the dance style as a way for them to escape gang life and release anger, aggression and frustration positively, in a non-violent way. There are four primary moves in KRUMP: jabs, arm swings, chest pops and stomps. K.R.U.M.P is rarely choreographed, it is almost entirely freestyle (improvised) and danced to upbeat and fast paced music in battles or sessions rather than on stage.

Malick Bright, known as Androidx, is a freestyle dance artist originally trained in contemporary, ballet and ballroom. After discovering London’s Trocadero Underground jam spot he honed his technique and now specialises in Krump, Afro and Flexing, regularly busking and competing in street-dance battles in London and Paris. He has choreographed and performed live and in music videos with Lady Leshurr, FKA Twigs, Fergie, M.I.A and Tinie Tempah.

Access, as published in 2019

Open to beginners. Not otherwise published on the 2019 listing.

Credits

Part of the KID_X strand.

Travel to Glenfeshie in the Cairngorms National Park for a remarkable performance journey by artist and choreographer Simone Kenyon. Inspired by Nan Shepherd’s lyrical and embodied prose, Into The Mountain explores and celebrates women’s encounters with mountain landscapes.

Take Me Into The Mountain: a bus trip to the performance as part of the festival, on Sun 2 June 2019, £40 including travel and show ticket. The bus left Tramway at 8.30am and drove to the event registration point at the Old Post Office Café Gallery, Kincraig, returning to Glasgow at 6.30pm and dropping off at Tramway between 9 and 9.30pm.

Access, as published in 2019

This is an off-site performance taking place in a mountainous environment and hill walking is an integral part of the performance. It is not wheelchair or pram accessible.

Credits

Lead artist, choreographer, researcher and project initiator: Simone Kenyon. Into The Mountain Company: Jo Hellier, Claricia Parinussa, Caroline Reagh, Keren Smail and Petra Söör. Composer and voice director: Hanna Tuulikki. Choir leader and vocal performer: Lucy Duncombe. Choreographic mentor: Rosemary Lee. Creative documentor and filmmaker: Lucy Cash. Commissioned and produced by Scottish Sculpture Workshop and co-commissioned by Cairngorms National Park Authority, City Moves Dance Agency, Dance North Scotland and Tramway. Supported by Mountaineering Scotland, Aberdeenshire Council and Creative Scotland. Took place in Glenfeshie with special thanks to Wildlands Ltd. Images: Lucy Cash.

Charting a futuristic romance between a boy with a bionic heart and a famous rooftop selfie queen, KID_X collides circus and street dance (Flexin, Krump, BoneBreaking) with hypnotic video projections and an original electronic score. Featuring stunning live vocals from singer-songwriter sensation Eva Lazarus, set over bass heavy tracks produced by legendary Scottish sound system Mungo’s Hifi.

“Bassline Circus have always occupied a unique position in UK Circus bridging the gap between worlds of youth culture and traditional Circus more than any other company.” — Doug Francisco, Director, Invisible Circus

“The fusion of dance, circus and visual arts that I saw has already created a unique experience that synergised, as well as energised, the audience… it was mind-bending and virtually life-affirming” — Lucy Loves Circus

Access, as published in 2019

BSL interpreted by Bea Webster / hearing loop / Subpacs / all TMS venues are wheelchair accessible. Due to loud music in the show, we advise that parents bring ear defenders for young children.

Credits

Bassline Circus and MHz in association with Feral. Presented by Tramway. Supported by a Tramway Commission, Macrobert Arts Centre, Creative Scotland, PRS Foundation Open Fund, Platform, NoFitState and Arts Council England. Images: Jamie Dunn and MHz Scenography.

Using KID_X’s projection setup as a creative playground, the workshop participants will learn about the interplay between physical performance and projected imagery using digital tools (VJing and generative drawing) mixed with traditional shadow making techniques.

Devised as group games with participants taking turns being on stage (in front or behind the shadow screen) or controlling the image, this taster session will inspire young performers and budding theatre-makers to combine physicality with eye-popping graphics.

Access, as published in 2019

Not published on the 2019 listing.

Credits

Presented by MHz Scenography (Bex Anson and Dav Bernard). Part of the KID_X strand.