Emergency StopGap
Programme Notes
A Thursday Late for the curious, presented by Word of Warning with NIAMOS
Venue + Booking Details
Date: Thursday 27 February 2020, 6pm-10pm (last entry at 9pm)
Venue: NIAMOS, use side door on Chichester Rd, Hulme, Manchester M15 5EU
Tickets: NO booking required, Pay What You Decide in person on the night.
Entry: come and go as you please; some works have a limited capacity operating first-come, first-served.
Enquiries: 07488 308 111 (on the night) / 0161 232 6086 (during weekday office hours)
Access Information
Age Advisory: 18+ (mainly aimed at adults; parental/guardian discretion).
Warning: some works may disturb, for specific content warnings please click here. Strobe lighting will be used 7pm-8pm in the main auditorium.
Access: uses a number of different spaces and formats — some seated, some standing, some spoken word, some visual, some limited capacity, some participatory. We apologise but due to the nature of the NIAMOS building, some works may not have step-free access.
Specific age + access info: please get in touch with us by emailing info@habmcr.org or call 0161 232 6086 during weekday office hours.
Programme Notes (Participating Artists + Schedule subject to change)
6-7pm | Philip Bedwell | Division
A meditation on struggle, perseverance + adaptation.
How someone can resist against self-perception + the perception of others.
How we choose what to take forward in our lives + what we must leave behind.
Philip Bedwell is a Margate-based live artist. After performing as a professional wrestler for 22 years across Europe, he transitioned into live art, discovering it could lend an authenticity to his work which couldn’t be displayed in the theatricality of wrestling. He has produced work for the last six years, currently focusing on the body: its physicality, frailty + trauma.
(Includes nudity.)
philipbedwell.com | Insta: lyingprone | @philipbedwell1
6-7pm | Shkiesha | Con Verse Cups
An exploration of the emotional + complexity dynamics of navigating boundaries + gaining consent. It uses movements inspired by the interaction of matter guided by opposing forces to reflect on the common dynamics we all recognise in a relationship.
Created by Shkiesha + developed with Lyudmila. A Divergency micro-commission.
6-8pm | Natalie Wardle | Sleeping Venus — 2050
Mimicking a 1510 painting… if it was set in the future landscape of 2050.
Natalie Wardle is a performance + visual artist from Manchester who makes live work exploring body image + environmental issues. She is developing Control Pant Symphony (shown at Emergency 2018) with Random Acts North (Tyneside Cinema, True North, HOME) with showings on C4’s Random Acts + at the ICA; she has performed at HOME, CLAY + CPT.
Set creation: Bogzart.
(Includes nudity.)
nataliewardle.com | Facebook page | @nashywardle
6-10pm | Krissi Musiol | A Short Labour
Meanwhile. The timer counts down. She cannot sleep. She’s asleep + awake. She’s pacing. Her body unravels. She’s up all night. She’s relaxing. Cucumbers over eyes. She’s still there. Pacing around. At the after-party.
An investigation into motherhood, the maternal body as archive, labour (birth) + labour (work). In between contractions, find new ways of working fruit + vegetables into energizing exercises. A durational performance in two parts.
Krissi Musiol is a deviser, writer, performer, lecturer, mother + bad-dancer. She has been making ensemble + solo performances since 2004, in studio theatres, galleries + cafes, one-to-one performances, sited work, festival pieces + public engagement projects. Her interests focus upon culture, identity + autobiographical live art + performance.
(See content warnings here.)
krissimusiol.com | Facebook page | @KrissiMusiol
6-10pm | Tink Flaherty | Sit With Me
A participatory performance in which the audience are invited to sit with the artist for as little or as long as they want.
Sitting side by side with another person is the foundation of this work, which is driven by the artist’s own experience as a neuro-divergent person + the challenges they face connecting ‘appropriately’ in a predominantly neuro-typical world.
This intimate performance is offering people a place to sit on a first level + secondly the opportunity to think about how + why we connect with each other.
Tink Flaherty is a working-class theatre practitioner; a queer gender rebel; a loving parent living with a disability. They began developing their artistic practice as a performer in The Butch Monologues; have performed with Take Back Theatre, Manchester; are a member of the Queer Collective Theatre Group. They recently founded Larkers, a community-based theatre company focusing on inter-generational collaborative performance as a way to combat loneliness + isolation.
(Limited capacity operating first-come, first-served; see content warnings here.)
6.30-7pm + 8-8.30pm + 9-9.30pm | Bethany Mountain | 15.8% Tired
When asked ‘how are you?’ 15.8% of people replied ‘tired’. The word tired is used to say that someone is not okay but doesn’t want to talk about it. This performance shows the decline into depression, told through metaphors + performed in a confined space. Audience can come + go as they please, but who will stay to offer help?
Bethany Mountain is currently studying at the University Centre, St Helens + has been exploring taking work into the local community, working with the Heart of Glass + St Helens Libraries Cultural Hubs.
(See content warnings here.)
6.30-7.30pm + 8.30-9.30pm | TomYumSim | HOTLINE
Ring my bell + call me on that HOTLINE! Call now for a good time. *
HOTLINE is a voicemail performance platform that subverts the need for tickets + theatres, giving the audience direct access to the show. HOTLINE is harking back to late-night chat lines, rave location information services + times when phone-to-phone communication ruled. Grab your phone + dial to give you a smile: call 0161 850 6739 OR 07774 351 868 from 6pm on the night. Alternatively, come by when Tom’s sitting in the ‘phone booth’ + listen in to him taking calls LIVE!
* At least 30 seconds of good time guaranteed.
Tom Halls is a performance artist, writer + co-artistic director of TomYumSim, an absurdly fantastical performance duo. Hailing from Boon wurrung + Wurundjeri Land (Melbourne, Australia), he focuses on queer experience + disrupting normalised narratives. He recently made his panto debut in Snow White’s Privilege at NIAMOS + is a regular posse member on The Dead Good Show for BBC Radio Manchester.
(See content warnings here.)
tomhalls.co.uk | Facebook page | @TomYumSim
6.30-9.30pm | Chris Owen | We kissed in a dark sea of stars.
A queer, durational dance piece. Loneliness + love.
Chris Owen studied fine art in Newcastle, Tromso (Norway) + theatre at Bristol Old Vic. They have participated in visual art residencies, made solo + group performance pieces at arts events, scratch nights + queer club venues in Glasgow, Bristol, London + Berlin. They most recently toured with Manchester-based Chris Bailkoski’s PROFORMA.
Thanks to all staff at Bristol Old Vic + Chris Bailkoski.
chrisowen8.blogspot.com | Insta: kittfantasyy
6.30-9.30pm | Martin Hamblen | The Caller
Calling out the names of living artists is an attempt to give each name equanimity. Drawn from a hat, each artist will inspire a micromental performance. 180 names, 1 per minute.
The Caller (2020) represents a turn away from Martin Hamblen’s modus operandi of performing phrases. At NIAMOS he has taken inspiration from Paul McCarthy’s The Painter (1995).
@uistkunstist
6.30-9.30pm | Oliver Ford | How Can I Help You?
The mundane routine of a 9–5 life. A durational performance about the humdrum routine which holds our society. We sleep, we wake up, we go to work, we come home, + repeat.
Oliver Ford is an artist from St Helens, Merseyside. His work explores visual language + how each of us as spectators can gain something individual from viewing. There is a story behind everything you see in his work. Looking at issues such as mental health, gender identity, + what it is like to be a 24-year-old in the world today.
@ollter
6.30-9.30pm | Susanna Amato | Landfill of Memories
In a world of waste, why can’t we just hold on to everything?
Susanna has been hoarding items for twenty years, + today will attempt to discard the final five boxes of shit she’s secretly hoarded in her Mum’s attic. Join her in a one-off, interactive, durational performance exploring the process of holding on + letting go…
Susanna Amato is a performer, theatre-maker + director. Trained at the University of Salford she has co-devised sited work, explored durational clowning, acted on BBC Radio 4, + presented Performing Monkeys talk show on Shock Radio. She is an associate artist of bouffon group La Tete de Babel, + a member of Les Femmes Ridicule, who presented Legacy at Co:Lab at the Royal Exchange Theatre.
(See content warnings here.)
susannaamato.squarespace.com
7-8pm | Kris Canavan | All Roads Lead To Shit
When those who hold the balance of power refuse to show remorse for the hate-filled words they spew + cannot be held accountable for their actions, then all roads truly do lead to shit.
Since 2001 Kris Canavan has used their body as a site to be manipulated, contorted, sculpted, pierced + mined for the creation of artworks. They see their methods used in the creation of artworks (by utilising their body + its resources) as a political ownership of their body; a rejection of the status quo + subservience that is expected of us by the state — essentially their works can be viewed as gestures of defiance + dissent.
(Includes nudity + uses strobe lighting; see content warnings here.)
kriscanavan.com | @kriscanavan
8-10pm | Powder Keg | Line Dancing In Clitheroe
In this space, Powder Keg + a group of performers reflect on how learning a dance routine shaped our lives, + what it meant for you as a generation, as a gender, how it informed who your friends were. Why did you want to be the centre of attention at a disco, hyped up on panda pops? Reach For The Stars or The Macarena? What was your song? Would the DJ let you have it? Is it Steps’ routine or did you make it up? Or did you just slide around the room on your knees instead? This is part-dance, part-theatre, part-reflection. Come have a boogie.
Powder Keg explore contemporary politics with a gut-punch response. They make theatre to provoke anger + empathy. Care is a central part of their practice both inside + outside the rehearsal room, + they are constantly exploring + evaluating their social responsibility as artists.
(See content warnings here.)
Facebook page | @powderkeg_
Credits
Emergency StopGap is produced by hÅb + supported by NIAMOS | Image: Shkiesha