Naima Khan talks to artistic director Adrian Berry about the upcoming Postcards Festival at Jacksons Lane Theatre.
Jacksons Lane are a venue uninterested in exclusivity. They're all for collaboration and the development of ideas and it seems their appreciation for the artistic processes has landed them right in the middle of it. Live artist Bryony Kimmings, one of the highlights of the upcoming Postcards Festival will be rocking up mid-experiment as part of her new work-in-progress Seven Days Drunk.
“She's gonna get pissed for a week basically”Adrian Berry tells me over the phone. As artistic director of Jacksons Lane Theatre, there are a number of reasons he wants her in the festival line-up. Kimmings is working with a team of scientists and a documentary film maker to look at the links between life, booze and creativity. “Her performance at Postcards will be filmed and used in her show” says Adrian, “so we've found ourselves in the centre of her art” and certainly more than just a venue for it.
Embracing their role as something more than a location for theatre, Jacksons Lane are working with some stellar cabaret and circus artists, and those great people who fall under the broad category of 'live performance' to showcase some of their best works. “We get approached with a huge amount of short pieces, but we don't have a context to showcase some of the great stuff we get” explains Adrian, “we wanted to find a way of showing really exciting work within a curated context. And we thought postcards are short and visual, often from somewhere international and the summer would be a great time to showcase the 'postcards' sent to Jacksons Lane.”
In doing so, he's recognised the gap between the larger venues that host huge shows of Cirque Du Soleil and le sept doigts de le main and the London cabaret and burlesque clubs. “Cabaret artists don't get many opportunities in theatres” says Adrian, “they're often in commercial settings or clubs. It's disappointing because circus and cabaret, are two of the most developing art forms in theatres right now. Circus is where contemporary dance was twenty years ago, we've brought it out of the big tops and into theatres but it needs more time and space to develop. The cultural landscape will look very different in the next few years”
Postcards is designed to give artists that time and space, and the opportunity to develop their work in a theatre setting. The audience appeal is in the fantastically mixed bill of performers who make up almost two months of unique entertainment. “Every night has a different aesthetic” says Adrian, “we tried to create an overall feel for the festival but each night has its own identity. Ed Rapley and Bryony Kimmings are very much live art but other nights are very much circus.”
It's on the circus nights that you'll get to see the likes of Marawa the Amazing who promises to take you through the many glamorous ages of cabaret on rollerskates. Mooky Cornish from Cirque du Soleil will also be making an appearance. His clowning and powers of illusion are set to be a highlight of the festival which runs from 8th June to 20th July.
Click here for times and price of the Postcards Festival and visit the Jacksons Lane website to book tickets.
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