Whirligig Fun Palace, Cathryn Peach, Rowan Hoban, Jennifer Scott (Photo: Tom Parker Photography)
When: 4th & 5th October 2014
Where: Nationwide, see the website for your nearest Fun Palace
£: Free
What is it?
This weekend (4th and 5th October 2014) in arts centres, museums, marquees, school halls, parks and high streets something remarkable will be occurring. There will be a vast communal celebration of arts, culture and sciences quite unlike anything seen before.
Marking the 100th birthday of Joan Littlewood, one of the twentieth century’s most significant theatre directors and cultural innovators, Fun Palaces will bring to life the vision she created with Cedric Price. For spaces linking arts and sciences, entertainment and education; a campaign of culture at the heart of all of our communities.
Crystal Fun Palace (L-R) Liesa Brierley and Anthony Lewis (Photo: Tom Parker Photography)
Visit one of the pop up Fun Palaces across the country and immerse yourself in an interactive treasure trail, learn the secrets of Victorian magic, go underwater dancing in your local Lido, make art with your food, or watch cardboard robots battling it out on the high street.
In Cheshire visitors can pop into the ever so curious Whirligig Woods for a day of fun and frolics. Marvel at the curious characters, send a letter with the pigeon post, unwind with some woodland yoga and join in with gusto at the camp fire singalong.
In York visitors can create chocolate postcards at the York Chocolate Fun Palace and in Cornwall there will be a fabulous, movable theatre tent called The Asylum.
Brockwell Lido Fun Palace (L-R) Lily Rose, Barry Westwell, Shelley Silas, Maggie Saunders (Photo: Tom Parker Photography)
In London? Why not learn to play the violin in the Barbican Library Fun Palace or build a telescope and make electricity at The New Factory of the Eccentric Actor’s Fun Palace in Kentish Town?
At Brockwell Lido you can swim with mermaids and paddle in a kayak, learn sign language, hear spooky stories and walk with sound. Why not learn a new dance, watch Barrie the illusioneer, play eco games, be a Bishop in a human chess game, smile for the underwater camera or simply enjoy their Victorian seaside?
Fun Palaces brings together over 100 partners, including Joan Littlewood’s own theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, as well as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Roundhouse, Turner Contemporary in Margate, Gladstone’s Library, York Cocoa House, Brockwell Lido, Old Bexley CofE Primary and a Canadian radio station, as well as a Digital Fun Palace; in one of the most ambitious creative collaborations the UK has ever seen. So why not join in?
More info: funpalaces.co.uk