Delivered by ArtCouple (Ursula Troche and Simon Bradley)
Our performance ‘Don’t Mention the Wall’ is an entertaining, humorous and imaginative journey into the meaning of the wall, and its similarities and differences with the Berlin Wall – and other walls, borders, as well as transformed, fallen or abandoned divisions.
We take a spoken- and sound-journey from wall to wall, and explore ways of getting over, past or beyond a wall, from one wall to another, creatively responding to space and place(s).
This show is adapted from our ‘Compressed Time Frames’ show, performed in Leeds and in Somerset, connected by the theme of ‘time’ , being at the heart of the Hadrian’s Wall 1900 Festival. And so we respond to and imagine time on the wall, telling time- and places-tales beside the wall itself, at its tallest point.
The crumbling wall also illustrates the transformative power of time, along with its challenges, such as climate change, which is endangering our future as well as our past, our heritage and land-marks, and so we want to raise awareness of the impact of changes, not only social but environmental too.
Length of performance: Hadrian’s Wall took 6 years to be built, and the Berlin Wall fell 33 years ago on the day of this performance. We will translate that into performing 33 + 6, and so perform for 39 mins. If the weather is bad, then we calculate 33 – 6. and so perform for 27 mins.
If the weather is good, there will be time afterwards for (more) participative activities afterwards, such as connecting through a string of yarn across the wall, and sharing stories of crossing places.
Funding: We did not ask for funding for this particular event, as we recognise the importance of performing on the wall on our particular date of the 9th November – so are happy to give our homage to the Wall and the Festival.
Visit site