April 2008

Sep 27 2007

7th April - 10th May

Dreamthinkspeak - One Step Forward One Step Back

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral

A world premiere commissioned by the Liverpool Culture Company for European Capital of Culture 2008.

One Step Forward, One Step Back is a major new site-specific work specially created for Liverpool’s magnificent Anglican Cathedral.

Inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, the piece will respond uniquely to the cathedrals’ awe-inspiring interior, while also looking out to the city of Liverpool beyond, asking the question: What is Paradise? One Step Forward, One Step Back will weave a magical journey for intimately sized groups through areas of the cathedral previously unseen by the public.

Throughout, the company’s visual language of film, music, installation, models and live performance will interlink and echo to create a vivid and rich voyage through this remarkable building.The production will be created in collaboration with local designers and technicians and performed by a company of Liverpool-based multi-disciplinary performers, drawn from a variety of communities throughout the city.

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12th & 13th April

Viennese Balls

St George's Hall

Commissioned by the Liverpool Culture Company, a weekend of viennese balls with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra playing live at St George's Hall. In the preceeding 4-6 weeks there will be workshops and rehearsals in community settings, with ballroom dancers teaching people basic steps.

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17th & 18th April

Into The Little Hill

Pacific Road Arts Centre

UK premiere presented by the Liverpool Culture Company as part of the European Capital of Culture 2008. George Benjamin’s ‘Into the Little Hill’ is a political updating of the Pied Piper story, with a libretto by the playwright Martin Crimp, in which a minister tries to reassure a restless voting public by commissioning an extermination of rats. It’s a tale with many dark and sinister implications, as the ‘rats’ - a possible metaphor for immigrant workers - are spirited away by the ghostly stranger hired by the minister. Nobody claims responsibility for their vanishing, but when the latter refuses to pay up; the stranger abducts his baby and takes him into ‘the little hill’.

An economical, yet, perfectly formed opera, this ‘Simple, small, enchanting and under-your-skin’ production is a must-see for any serious opera lover, according to the critics. Commissioned by the Festival d’Automne à Paris in association with the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the Opéra National de Paris, the Ensemble Moderntogether with the Forberg Schneider Foundation.

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17th to 29th April

Variable Capital

Bluecoat

International artists explore the diverse ways in which artists respond to contemporary cultures of commodity. Common Culture select artists who look beyond the seductive allure of commodity and cultures of excess. Artists include Santiago Sierra, Andy Warhol, Op de Beek and Ken Probst.

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18th April - 10th August

Art in the Age of Steam

Walker Art Gallery

Featuring artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Edward Hopper, Art in the Age of Steam will explore the fear and excitement of early train travel as it captures the artist’s response to the advent of the steam locomotion.

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18th April - 8th June

Al and Al

FACT

Launching the second strand of the Human Futures programme - My Mind - Al and Al premiere a new commission at FACT developed through an 18-month residency at Liverpool’s Metal.

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21st April

The People Show - Ghost Sonata 119

Sefton Park Palm House

Co-commissioned by Liverpool Culture Company for European Capital of Culture 2008, Sefton Park Palm House and the Arts Council of England with support from LIPA and Unity Theatre.

An epic promenade performance that moves the audience outside and inside the iconic Palm House at Sefton Park, inspired by the play ‘The Ghost Sonata’ by August Strindberg.

A classic simple fairy story of a beautiful dying Princess living in a decaying household, awaiting the kiss of her Prince. A piece of vaudevillian anarchy underpinned by the moral tale of ageism in the form of vested interests. Employing, then betraying and ultimately destroying the utopian ideals of youth. Featuring live music, imagery and text with performers from Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, Hope St, Merseyside Dance Initiative and People Show. Directed by Josette Bushall-Mingo, with original music by Mike Figgis and lighting by Chahine Yavroyan.

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23rd April

Shakespeare 24

Venues tbc

Following the schools festivals in 2007, Youth Theatres across the UK to be engaged in a Festival of Shakespeare competition that will culminate in a finale night at the Liverpool Playhouse in Summer 2008.

On April 23rd – Shakespeare's Birthday 2 schools from Liverpool will perform 2 x half hour plays at 9pm – 10pm as part of an international 24 hours celebration of Shakespeare.

in different time zones across the globe will ensure the continual performance of the works of Shakespeare for 24 hours.

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24th - 27th April

Special Effects On the Edge of Reality

FACT

FACT and Picturehouse present a special programme of films and events celebrating developments in special effects and computer generated images in film. Two films created by the winners of Young Liverpool Film Night 2007 will be premiered at FACT during this weekend.

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24th April

An Audience with Shankly

Liverpool Olympia, West Derby Road

A Liverpool Commission, commissioned by the Liverpool Culture Company for European Capital of Culture 2008.

One actor, 45 minutes each way – first half in black and white with half time oranges, then second half in colour - a live television event in a theatre. 

Shankly is a new piece of interactive multimedia documentary theatre, using digital recording technology and giant projection screens – a cross between a personal audience with Bill Shankly, the legend and the myth and an in depth documentary about Liverpool and Match of the Day.  This is not just a play about Bill Shankly - but also about an age, a city and its people.

Never before have a football club, a television company and a production combined with the community in such a way.

This production is a new representation of Liverpool’s cultural identity on a map of the world drawn by football and popular culture. Shankly gave football a significance beyond itself, an influence which reverberates to this day.  But this production goes far beyond football and seeks to recreate the spirit of optimism, pride and hope that Shankly brought to Liverpool and the world. This project has been created by Andrew Sherlock and Brian Machin. Produced by AS Producations.

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26th April to 13th May

Plethora

An evolving, multiple genre programme aimed at promoting shared awareness and responsibilities in the improvement of public health inspired by the concept of intrinsic control and synchrony found within blood.

This university of Liverpool programme partnered with Liverpool Biennial in 2006 with Inherent Acoustics and the Liverpool Culture company in 2007 with Waiting: rhythms 1 and 11. In 2008 the new partnership will be with the Bluecoat Display Centre on Trois Couleur Rouge. this will be a three site exhibition between 26th April to 31st May at the Bluecoat Display centre, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Roald dahl Centre at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

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Launches in April

Wet & Sea

Exact location TBC

A Liverpool Commission, commissioned by the Liverpool Culture Company for European Capital of Culture 2008. Wet & sea, by artists Jacques Chauchat and Ben Parry is a giant wind and water powered environmental sculpture, exploring the importance of water to survival in the 21st century and celebrating Liverpool’s maritime history.

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April - September

Out of the Shadows

St George's Hall

A city-wide reminiscence project recording the experiences of older people with a range of physical and mental disabilities.

The project will trace their stories - from childhood institutionalisation, attitudes of ‘normal people’, sexuality and relationships – to their treatment by society today.

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April - September

Around the City in Eighty Pints

City wide

A city wide celebration of Liverpool's unique pubs and pub culture

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Exact dates tbc - two dates in Spring and two in Autumn

Twilight City

Venue tbc

A Liverpool Commission, commissioned by the Liverpool Culture Company as part of Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008. The Hive Collective has been at the forefront of developing innovative electronic music and audiovisual performance in Liverpool since it was first established in 2003.

Hive Twilight City will be a series of four high profile audiovisual performances over the course of 2008 in tribute to a potentially overlooked part of Liverpool's essence: its industrial and business buildings, its bricks and plate glass; the iconic and the mundane, the city centre and the suburb. Culminating with a CD and publication, each audiovisual performance will work as a celebration of existing city structures as the city itself moves onwards, a snapshot prior to mutation: familiar sounds reworked, familiar sights distorted.

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Launches in April

Rotunda Pavillion

Vauxhall Pavilions

Specially commissioned for and by their communities will ensure that residents in Vauxhall, Garston and Kensington will show their creativity in awe-inspiring structures built by international artists and architects.

Community engagement is a key element of the 2008 public art programme and, like the Winter Light series, will be led by the Big Table partner organisations across the city; Rotunda College in the north, Metal in the east and Garston Cultural Village in the south.

The Pavilions will be inspirational and create a sustainable connection between the city centre and the neighbourhoods and act as catalysts for interaction and engagement with the local community.

All three sites have been selected as representing a focus for transformation and change for those areas and all three commissions are specific to those areas needs and character. The involvement of the pavilion designs in the three areas will re-introduce the local residents to existing underused space with which events and cultural exchange for community cohesion will be programmed for throughout 2008. (Part of public art programme, commissioned from Liverpool Biennial by the Liverpool Culture Company for 2008).