Presented by Word of Warning

####In Brief
A pair of life-affirming performances explore our notions of ageing via tea, biscuits + immortal jellyfish.

Watch Ira Brand’s trailer here; watch Nicki Hobday + Sara Cocker’s trailer here.

####Venue + Booking Details
Date: Wednesday 26 February 2014, 8pm (Double Bill)
Venue: STUN Studio at Z-arts, 335 Stretford Road, Manchester, M15 5ZA
Tickets: £9/5 | Please note there is a limited capacity.
Box Office Tel: 0161 232 6089

####Access Information
The performances will last approximately 2 hours overall, including an interval; includes some strong language, and deals with the topic of death, which might be inappropriate for younger children. Age advisory: 14+ (parental discretion).

##Ira Brand
####More
A Cure for Ageing is a piece about being young and foolish, and becoming old and wise. Or about being young and wise, and becoming old and foolish. It asks how we can talk more honestly about ageing, drawing together true personal accounts and shameless speculation in a celebration of life and an attempt to fall in love with our own decline. A show of indelicate questions and immortal jellyfish, we consider numbers, years, the passing of time, and the fact that we have all, already, started dying.

I’m sorry to do this so early in the show. It’s really quite rude of me. But do you mind if I ask you how old you are?

####Who is she?
Ira is an artist, performance-maker and writer, working across theatre and live art. Her practice is rooted in the experience of being human, rather than singular narratives, and aims to make an audience re-consider themselves, and the world within which they live, through work that is evocative and intimate. A Cure for Ageing is Ira’s second full-length solo performance. Her first solo show, Keine Angst, toured the UK in 2011-12. Her work has been presented at Camden People’s Theatre, The Junction, The ShowRoom, PULSE Festival, Buzzcut Festival, Forest Fringe, Norwich Arts Centre, and A Cure for Ageing was part of the SPILL Festival National Platform in 2012.

Ira’s work often draws on autobiography, and research in the form of found images or objects, scientific, biographical, and factual sources. She likes talking to an audience, and her work increasingly includes elements of participation. Ira primarily makes live performance, and her work strives to be visceral, exciting, funny and tender. She is committed to making work that uses experimental modes of performance but remains humorous, playful and accessible to a wide audience. Ira was a founding member of collaborative performance groups Tinned Fingers and Antique Women. She regularly also works in collaboration with other companies and artists, which currently include Made In China and Andy Field.

####What people have said about her

Brand is passionate, knowledgeable, inquisitive and tender in her approach to the audience and the subject matter… Through an hour that passes by all too quickly, Brand explores how it feels to become old, the effects of ageing on our bodies and minds, and the impact our own ageing has on those close to us. This is not a show one would describe as pleasant or entertaining. It’s powerful, uncomfortable, and beautiful… Her methods are unashamedly unscientific yet the work carries an authority born out of absolute honesty.
Fringe Review, Highly Recommended Show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013
At times gut wrenchingly honest, and at others quite humorously direct, this piece opened more questions than it answered… Just what theatre should be; with an engaging aesthetic, a weaving narrative of the author’s own, and at least one thought to take way and chew over.
Audience member, London

####Credits
Created and performed by Ira Brand. Dramaturgy by Wendy Hubbard. Co-produced by Ira Brand and DREAM.
Developed at and supported by Cambridge Junction, Camden People’s Theatre + The Yard Theatre. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

####Websites
www.irabrand.co.uk | @irabrand

##Nicki Hobday + Sara Cocker
####More
Age Concerns is an authentic, warm and witty performance sensitively investigating the art of ageing — exploring the past, present, future, tea and biscuits.

Inspired by Nicki Hobday + Sara Cocker’s ongoing experience of working with old people in the care industry — they have worked with older people separately and together, they have made shows separately, now they are making a show together. The time they have spent with the elderly has given them a lot of fond memories, and “memories live longer than dreams” — that’s what Hilda told them anyway. Hilda helped them make the show.

Sharing the conversations they’ve had and the dances they’ve learnt with Hilda (an 88 year old lady who previously entertained “the old dears” in care homes before retirement) Age Concerns centres around Hilda’s advice to Nicki + Sara on how to be entertaining.

####Who are they? Nicki Hobday is a Manchester based theatre maker and performer. She makes her own work, as well in collaboration with other artists and companies currently including Michael Pinchbeck (The Beginning) and 30 bird (Domestic Labour: A Study in Love).

Sara Cocker makes and performs live work alongside other people. She is one fifth of Eggs Collective, recently creating and performing work for Southbank Centre, Duckie, Latitude and The Royal Shakespeare Company. Sara delivers a creative storytelling project for older people in communities across Manchester.

####What people have said about them

… really beautifully performed and thoughtful work.
Alice Booth, on an early sharing of Age Concerns
Experimental, dangerous, funny and occasionally profound…
The Stage, on Nicki Hobday Conquers Space

####Credits
Commissioned by hÅb + The Future. Seed commissioned by Live at LICA. Supported by Contact + The HUB (Slung Low). Development supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

####Websites
www.nickihobday.co.uk | www.saracocker.com | www.the-future.co.uk
@Nickihobday | @SaraCocker | @thefuturemcr