WHAT’S THE STORY?

IN a world where Donald Trump is President of the United States, a performance festival focusing on kindness and inclusion feels almost radical.

Yet that’s the vibe organisers of this year’s Into The New festival are trying to achieve with their theme The Perfect Antidote.

“It’s meant to be an antidote to modern life which feels very chaotic, very hectic and sometimes frightening,” explained student producer Emily Picardi.

“We want it to feel like a retreat from the outside world – a place that is very welcoming, encouraging and very accessible.”

She added: “I’m really excited about what these particular artists have been working on and that we are presenting a new face to the festival. It’s normally very edgy but we are changing the format a bit so it is a bit more accessible and welcoming.”

TELL ME MORE …

SHOWCASING the work of the graduating students on the BA (Hons) Contemporary Performance Practice programme (CPP) at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the festival will again be held at the Pearce Institute in Govan.

As well as performances from the graduating students there will be a symposium and, for the first time, a book launch.

Everything in My Head At One Time In My Life will be launched by CPP graduate Lucy Hutson, who wrote the book while in a couple of different mental health facilities over the period of three weeks.

The symposium will also focus on mental health, with the speakers sharing their perspectives on art and how it can heal.

This year’s speakers are
playwright and performer Jo Clifford, performance maker Mamoru Iriguchi, performance artist Lucy Hutson, visual artist, teacher and researcher Ashanti Harris, freelance producer and artist Steve Slater and artist Rosana Cade.

WHAT ELSE IS THERE?

THE festival will include 11 individual performances by CPP graduating students, including Grace Ward who challenges capitalism through the eyes of a powerful business woman and the T-Rex from Jurassic Park while Yas Mawer explores the misunderstanding and misrepresentation of feminism in social culture and the media, focusing specifically on sexual assault, anger, and hope in A Way To Calm The Angry Voice.

I Just Go On And On And On by Sinead Hargan is a vocal experiment exploring heartache and loss. Involving members of the Dundee Gaelic Choir, it weaves together Scottish landscapes, Gaelic song and pop culture references.

The Angel And Devil Inside Me by Hannah O’Boyle examines the intersection between Queerhood And Catholicism, asking questions about love, faith, compassion and where these fit in the current world climate.

Fusing together classical Indian dance, autobiographical text, comedy, and history, Sanjay Lago examines his identity as an Indian, Glaswegian, and an individual in Mein Kaun Hoo? (Who Am I?) while Theo Seddon’s absurdist comedic play Hairy Beast explores what it means to be a man with a vagina.

AND THE OTHERS?

LEWIS Fraser and his Third Thread company focus on the Greek poet Sappho through improvised movement and sound in If Light Appears while Dan Cox explores human connection with technology in a piece called F333L! where TV screens have more human personalities than the person in the space.

In Bathe Here, Anya Wigdel-Bowcott and her collaborators playfully perform repetitive actions that work simultaneously to exhaust the possibilities and complexities of their bodies and their chosen material – soap.

Incorporating film, text, sound and movement, Sea Flights (every one of them landed on a beach like this) is a live conversation exploring the spiritual-ancestral relationship between five diasporic bodies and the sea by chan teck guan egan and their collaborators.

Last but not least is MEAT, an endurance-based performance where Sinead PG pushes physical exhaustion to its limits, exploring the fears of exposure and exhaustion and reclaiming them as empowerment and strength.

Tickets sales are already going well, according to Picardi.

“A couple of shows are sold out but we are adding more tickets,” she said.

“We’re expecting a lot of people and we really want to open it up to everyone in community.”