Mental, physical and societal health will be discussed, laughed at, raged at, mulled over and set to rights at a three-day festival this month; launching a year-long programme of work from unheard voices and perspectives.
The Sick of the Fringe: Care & Destruction will be a mixture of premieres, established shows, work-in-progress and talks, addressing some of the most pressing issues in health and societal justice.
The festival will take place across three venues: Wellcome Collection, The Place and Camden People’s Theatre, hosting some of the most ingenious writers and performers from cabaret, comedy, theatre and dance, as well as speakers from the worlds of television, poetry, art and music.
Festival highlights will include HighRise Theatre’s #UKDrillProject exploring truths, perceptions, and the frenzy in the media, in politics and on the streets surrounding the controversial music genre, asking if musicality really can cause criminality.
Le Gateau Chocolat’s Raw Cacao does disco, opera, musicals and pop from one end of the spectrum to the other, featuring the Little Cocoa Orchestra, made up entirely of women of colour.
In two shows about parenting, comedian Laurence Clark, star of BBC1’s documentary We Won’t Drop the Baby, explores his experiences of being a dad with cerebral palsy, and married couple Frauke Requardt and Daniel Oliver present Dadders, an interactive performance for five people at a time about parenting with dyspraxia and ADHD.
Director and choreographer Lanre Malaolu presents a physical theatre, hip-hop dance and spoken work fusion Elephant in the Room exploring the mental health crisis. In As Far As Isolation Goes, live artist Tania El Khoury and musician and street artist Basel Zaraa create a piece on the mental and physical health experiences of refugees in the United Kingdom.
Gary Carter is a leading figure in the international TV format industry whose career includes developing the hit series Survivor! and the international roll-out of formats such as Big Brother, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Pop Idol. He’ll be joined by a guest to discuss the public health function of soap operas.
The Sick of the Fringe, was co-founded by Tracy Gentles and Brian Lobel in 2015 to support artists and to connect art, health and social change.
When: 5th – 7th April 2019
Where: Wellcome Collection, The Place and Camden People’s Theatre, Euston, London
£: Ticket prices vary, depending on the event. Some events are free
More info: thesickofthefringe.com