Forced Entertainment (United Kingdom)
Real Magic
Caught in a world of second-chances and second-guesses, variations and changes, distortions and transformations, Real Magic takes you on a hallucinatory journey, creating a compelling performance about optimism, individual agency and the desire for change.
In Real Magic, Forced Entertainment create a world of absurd disconnection, struggle, and comical repetition. To the sound of looped applause and canned laughter, a group of performers take part in an impossible illusion – part mind-reading feat, part cabaret act, part chaotic game show – in which they are endlessly replaying the moment of defeat and the moment of hope.
“Beckett meets trash TV” – Nachtkritik (Germany)
Commissioned by PS122
Co-presented with La MaMa
Jan 5 – 6pm
Jan 6 – 3pm
Jan 7 – 9pm
Jan 8 – 12pm
80 minutes
at La MaMa, Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East 4th Street, Manhattan
$20
Coil Pass Holders:
Log in to redeem
Conceived and devised by the company.
Director Tim Etchells
Devised with and Performed by Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon and Claire Marshall
Created with input from Robin Arthur and Cathy Naden
Lighting Design Jim Harrison
Design Richard Lowdon
Production Management Jim Harrison
Sound Technicians Greg Akenhurst, Doug Currie
Project Assistant Anna Krauss
Music Electronics & Sound Editing John Avery
Loops Tim Etchells
‘Grave’, from Telemann Fantasia Number 1 in B-Flat Major Aisha Orazbayeva
Forced Entertainment Creative Team Robin Arthur, Tim Etchells (Artistic Director), Richard Lowdon (Designer), Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O’Connor.
Forced Entertainment Management Team Eileen Evans (Executive Director), Jim Harrison (Production Manager), Natalie Simpson (Office Manager), Callum Berridge (Marketing Intern)
Forced Entertainment is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.
Forced Entertainment are a group of 6 artists who have been making performance since 1984 – questioning, pushing and breaking theatre to see what can be built from the wreckage. Based in Sheffield, UK, their work has been seen all over the world and was recently honored with the 2016 International Ibsen Award. Known for being a fearless innovator of theatrical form, Artistic Director Tim Etchells is the current recipient of the Spalding Gray Award from the commissioning consortium of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh; Performance Space 122 in New York; On the Boards in Seattle; and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. www.forcedentertainment.com
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. Founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, La MaMa is recognized as the seedbed of new work by artists of all nations and cultures. To date, La MaMa has presented more than 150,000 artists from over 70 nations. Each season, we offer more than 80 productions and receive 34,000 visits from people of all ages and all backgrounds who attend performances, exhibitions, educational activities and the Archives. We support the people who make art, and it is to them that we give $2 million of in-kind support including free theatre and rehearsal space, and audio/visual package, tech support, marketing support, and ticketing services. We enable artists explore their ideas and translate them into a theatrical language that can communicate to any person in any part of the world. La MaMa is the place where emerging artists learn from established artists and where artists from around the globe share work and ideas. Our East Village campus has grown to include four theatres, an art gallery, artist work and living space and an extensive Archive. For more information, visit lamama.org.
Featured image by Hugo Glendinning.
Forced Entertainment’s Real Magic is co-produced by PACT Zollverein Essen, HAU Hebbel Am Ufer Berlin, Künsterlhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt, Tanzquartier Wien Vienna, ACCA Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, University of Sussex and the Spalding Gray Consortium – On the Boards in Seattle, Performance Space 122 in NYC, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
Partners:
