From Tuesday 5th to Sunday 10th March, A Festival will take over the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield.
The 2019 event dives into gender and identity, starting with two brave shows confronting the damaging alignment of masculinity with power and femininity with innocence. What does it mean to be masculine, and how does the term confuse, pressure and endanger men in 2019?
Vincent Dance Theatre investigate through dance, spoken word and rap in highly-charged new work Shut Down (Tuesday 5th March). Katy Dye then takes the stage with Baby Face (Wednesday 6th March) to confront the infantalisation of women.
On Friday 8th March, International Women’s Day, the Unsung Collective perform Unsung a play by Lisa Holdsworth telling stories of women who redefined history but are absent in our history books.
Jennifer Lack asks how influence and inheritance shape identity in Narratively Satisfying on Sunday 9th March. At a reading from her novel, The Author is on a literary quest concerning her grandmother and Virginia Woolf.
Following this is Narcissist in the Mirror, Rosie Fleeshman’s funny, relatable piece of drama and spoken word about discovering you’re not quite the person you thought you were.
On Saturday night Fran Bushe takes the mic to bring audiences some comic relief. Ad Libido is a hilarious show about one woman’s quest to have a satisfying sex life, and the toys, boot camps, and dolphins (!) she meets along the way.
The event will also features Queenie’s Coffee House favourite Rose Condo holding a poetry workshop, Have A (Kind) Word With Yourself, on Saturday 9th March and Condo will muse on the anxieties of a day without phones in The Empathy Experiment the following day, Sunday 10th March.
A Festival will close with Keisha Thompson’s playful, poignant piece about mental health in the family, Man on the Moon, on Sunday 10th March. It features poetry, storytelling and sound to explore alternative communication when simple dialogue isn’t enough.
There’s also an Artist Toolkit (Wednesday 6 March) giving attendees a crash course in production and promotion, Identity in Performance (Thursday 7 March) with Ellie Harrison and Leeds Playhouse artist development programme Hello from Furnace (Friday 8 March) to look forward to.
Victoria Firth, Outgoing Director of the LBT said: “We had so much fun last time, it was impossible to resist another A Festival! It’s a joy to see fringe theatre alive in the buzzing centre of Huddersfield and support talented artists in the process! I love the shows we’ve got lined up this year and think you will to. Tips for this year’s festivities? Take a chance on something you wouldn’t usually see, you won’t be disappointed, and definitively try our workshops. We’re all about new ideas at the LBT and want to see yours grow too.
As I say farewell as Director it’s wonderful to see A Festival – which represents all I love about the LBT – return for a second year. Here’s to many more”
For more information and to buy tickets visit https://www.thelbt.org/.
