How BE FES­TI­VAL is trans­form­ing the the­atre experience

At the height of sum­mer 2019, the Birm­ing­ham Euro­pean Fes­ti­val is cel­e­brat­ing its tenth edi­tion in typ­i­cal style. It’s the des­ti­na­tion to indulge your taste for inno­v­a­tive and unique reper­to­ry the­atre, as the organ­is­ers have brought togeth­er a pro­gramme of per­for­mances, work­shops and talks that can be enjoyed in the com­fort­able (and well catered) envi­rons of a top flight festival.

High­lights this year include: a UK pre­mière of acro­bat­ic wild west tale ​‘Dead­town’ by the For­man Broth­ers The­atre – con­nect­ed to the late great Oscar-win­ner Miloš For­man; ​‘PUNK‽’ which is a head­bang­ing dance piece with added pogo sticks; and A Land Full of Heroes, a doc­u­men­tary the­atre meets auto-fic­tion­al work cen­tring on the life of Roman­ian writer Car­men-Francesca Ban­ciu. To hear more about how BE FES­TI­VAL came togeth­er, we spoke with one half of its artis­tic direc­tion team, Miguel Oyarzun.

LWLies: When you were at the stage of build­ing a pro­gramme, what kind of mate­r­i­al were you look­ing for?

Oyarzun: As Artis­tic Direc­tors of a Euro­pean fes­ti­val (along with Isla Aguilar), our respon­si­bil­i­ty is to give the audi­ence a taste of what is cur­rent­ly hap­pen­ing in the Euro­pean per­form­ing arts scene. At the heart of our pro­gramme lies our ethos of cross­ing bor­ders, which isn’t just a ref­er­ence to the coun­tries that our artists come from; it extends to break­ing down lin­guis­tic bar­ri­ers, the tra­di­tion­al bound­aries across artis­tic dis­ci­plines and those which may lie between artist and audience.

Each evening has been curat­ed to pro­vide the pub­lic with an enrich­ing jour­ney through a range of work that takes risks in its con­tent, explores the bound­aries of per­form­ing arts, inspires us through its form, or pro­vides us with an incred­i­ble and fun ride. This year, as we are cel­e­brat­ing our 10^th edi­tion, we have been par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in work around the themes of mem­o­ry and archive.

How do you get peo­ple to see the more exper­i­men­tal pieces?

The evening pro­gramme includes three pieces, offer­ing access to a wide range of work as well as min­imis­ing the risk tak­en by com­ing to see unfa­mil­iar work. This for­mat allows us to present in one evening the exper­i­men­tal along­side the more acces­si­ble. We feel it is very impor­tant that atten­dees to the fes­ti­val are some­times chal­lenged but at the same time that they are pleased with their experience.

The fes­ti­val seems to be fuelled by a very pos­i­tive ener­gy – is this a con­scious effort to com­bat the sense of des­o­la­tion in the world right now?

We would like to trig­ger a dia­logue in the audi­to­ri­um on the work we expe­ri­ence and more wide­ly on what is in the art that moves, pro­vokes, inspires, makes us dream, mobilis­es and ulti­mate­ly changes us as audi­ences and as peo­ple. At the fes­ti­val, we cre­ate space for the exchange between audi­ence and artists, through meals, host­ing, dis­cus­sions, feed­back and work­shops, mak­ing the fes­ti­val a week long lab­o­ra­to­ry to share and explore cur­rent issues through art. The fes­ti­val becomes a tem­po­rary com­mu­ni­ty where we can cel­e­brate our differences.

Many of the the­atre pieces and per­for­mance events involve a lot of inter­ac­tion with the audi­ence. Do you find that audi­ences are more inclined to be involved with these types of per­for­mance than they once were?

We are inter­est­ed in work that tran­scends the fourth wall and that pro­pos­es inno­v­a­tive ways of address­ing or inter­act­ing with the audi­ence, in order to pro­vide an active expe­ri­ence. We are inter­est­ed – and feel the audi­ence is too – in the com­mu­ni­ty rit­u­al of being all in the same room, which makes it unique com­pare to what new tech­nolo­gies can offer to us at home. Artists are look­ing into explor­ing this too, through rela­tion­al the­atre or sim­ply acknowl­edg­ing the sit­u­a­tion we are all in at that par­tic­u­lar moment. Audi­ences are also more used to this and are look­ing for immer­sive proposals.

What do you think is your biggest per­son­al coup in this year’s line-up?

We have look­ing to include a large scale work in the pro­gramme for a while. And this anniver­sary feels like the right moment to do so. For the first time, we will be pre­sent­ing a piece in the main house of the Birm­ing­ham Reper­to­ry The­atre. We have been look­ing for an inter­na­tion­al piece that is acces­si­ble to audi­ences of all ages where move­ment is at the core. We found ​‘Dead­town’ by the Fore­man Broth­ers, a piece that delight­ful­ly brings cin­e­ma alive mix­ing it with cir­cus and pay­ing homage to silent films and westerns.

The 10^th anniver­sary BE FES­TI­VAL takes place from 27 June to 6 July. For info on list­ings and tick­ets, head to befes​ti​val​.org