Artists from eight countries will present nine UK premières and one world première across Birmingham at the first Fierce Festival under new artistic director Clayton Lee.
Many artists will present work in the UK for the first time in venues including Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham Hippodrome, the Library of Birmingham and the Festival Hub at the Birmingham Black Box Theatre.
Lee said, “at a moment when we’re teetering on the precipice—global violence, Birmingham's effective bankruptcy and the creeping financial precarity of our sector—this programme is a love letter to the act of making, witnessing and gathering at the edges of contemporary performance. I love these artists and they give us reason to continue: to indulge in the stickiness of the unknown and to insist on ways of moving through the world.”
Birmingham’s Selina Thompson Ltd will stage its first new theatre show in seven years. Twine will be the black and disability-led company’s first production since joining Arts Council England’s national portfolio in 2023. A show about adoption, families and the power of the state, Twine tells a true story of how a shattering moment can transform multiple family trees for generations to come.
Classical and contemporary forms will “collide with pop culture across a range of dance and choreographic UK premières” from international pioneers including Jeremy Nedd (USA), Ramona Nagabczyńska (Poland), Steven Cohen (South Africa), Joshua Serafin (Phillipines), Harald Beharie (Norway / Jamaica), Alessandro Schiattarella (Switzerland) and Tiran Willemse (South Africa).
Queer bodies will be “celebrated, mourned, mythologised and reimagined” across many of the UK premières. Norwegian-Jamaican performer and choreographer Harald Beharie will make his UK debut with his “extremely physical and brutal” solo show Batty Bwoy. In Joshua Serafin’s Pearls three performers imagine a future where trans bodies become divine, inspired by the non-normative genders celebrated in the pre-colonial Philippines.
Fierce Festival will run from Tuesday 15 until Sunday 20 October. The full programme is available at the Fierce Festival web site.