19 - 25 August at Edinburgh Fringe 2024: showcase of 7 extraordinary artists working in live performance
From extraordinary explorations of lived experiences to absurdist comedy, the Here & Now showcase is a carefully curated showcase of live performance art, that offers something distinct at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Presenting a programme of contemporary performance, the Here & Now showcase continues the work of the Horizon showcase in platforming work created in England, at the Edinburgh Festivals.
Spanning dance, drag, installation, multimedia, performance and sound, these works explore themes across identity, neurodiversity, race and sexuality, and areas that include ancestorship, empowerment, power, queerness and resistance.
The showcase delivers a programme of exciting international-quality, tour-ready performance, and runs from Monday 19 August - Sunday 25 August 2024.
The performances that have been chosen for the Here & Now showcase gives people the opportunity to see something they wouldn't otherwise experience.
As a showcase, we challenge the status quo as we aren’t presenting traditional theatre. We appeal to international audiences, and those who seek to be immersed by performances that have a real, raw, personal quality to them.
Work will be hosted at Dance Base, Pleasance, Summerhall and ZOO Southside, platforming four formidable performances created by first-class artists and companies, that will be presented alongside a programme of industry events which showcase a further three extraordinary artists.
Public performances are Enowate by Olivier award-winning choreographer, dancer and composer Dickson Mbi, L’Addition by experimental theatre maker Forced Entertainment’s Tim Etchells with Bertrand Lesca & Nasi Voutsas, TESTO by drag and movement artist Wet Mess, and You Heard Me by artist and theatre maker Luca Rutherford.
These will be positioned alongside three inspiring industry events delivered by dance maker Ziza Patrick, multidisciplinary artist Nwando Ebizie and performance artist, comedian and writer Krishna Istha.
About the shows
Enowate
Winner of the 2023 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance, Dickson Mbi is a dancer of extraordinary power and grace, who will present Enowate as a Scottish Premiere at The Pleasance this year.
Enowate, meaning ‘truth stands’, was inspired by a trip to his family’s ancestral village in Cameroon in 2016, which brought him closer to his African heritage and his modern East End upbringing.
This culminates in a performance that draws on elements of hip-hop and contemporary dance, combined with original music and otherworldly animated projections, to ask the relatable question,‘who am I?’
L’Addition
In this absurd, witty piece of performance theatre, two men are trapped in a single scene, where a customer orders a drink from a waiter. Artists Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas find themselves in a nightmarish spiral when things begin to go awry.
Directed by Forced Entertainment Artistic Director Tim Etchells, this work at Summerhall will leave you laughing, as well as questioning the roles and relationships as the ‘power’ shifts between the two – but who will pay the final bill?
You Heard Me
In contrast You Heard Me by Luca Rutherford at ZOO Southside is for anyone who has been underestimated or told to ‘shut up’.
It presents a blend of movement and is a loud show about quiet power; a refusal to be silenced, taking up space and a story of one woman's power to re-make, re-mould and disrupt.
Testo
Drag and movement artist Wet Mess brings their first full length production to the Festival; a no-holds barred look at the messiness of life.
The performance explores transitions, testosterone, the edges of drag, the blurry line between performance and reality, character and self, and the magical in the mundane.
When, where and how?
The 2024 showcase programme was curated via a nomination and selection process that involved international festival programmers to ensure the programme has strong appeal to international delegates, who will engage with the programme at the Edinburgh Festivals.
Funded by Arts Council England, the showcase is presented by partner organisations Battersea Arts Centre, FABRIC, and GIFT, platforming a geographical spread of work from England, during the Edinburgh Festivals Performance dates: Monday 19 August - Sunday 25 August 2024
Venues include: Dance Base, Pleasance, Summerhall and ZOO Southside.
For the full Here & Now programme visit the website here.