Programme
Friday 15 June
4.30pm – 7.30pm, Gillingham
Saturday 16 June
12noon – 5pm, Chatham followed by Barricade by NoFit State Circus at 9pm, The Great Lines
Sunday 17 June
12noon – 5pm, Rochester Castle Gardens
Open the XTRAX Fuse Artist Directory 2012
Download the Fuse Medway Festival Brochure (pdf)
Friday 15 June
4.30pm – 7.30pm, Gillingham
Opening parade
Kick start your Fuse Festival experience with our opening parade
The Sparky Initiative have been working with local schools, the University of Kent, community groups and recreational groups, as well as professional and amateur performers, to create a really unique and vibrate parade, celebrating river Medway and its heritage. This is a true spectacle of the creative talents here in Medway.
Gillingham High Street - 4.30pm
Central School of Speech & Drama
Whatever Floats Your Boat
Come and be astounded as this band of travelling misfits take you on an exciting journey discovering the forgotten tales of the River Medway.
Be amazed at the stories of heroism, tragedy and little old ladies darning socks. Prepare to be engulfed in a wave of colour, fun and adventure as this travelling troop sail through the years exploring Whatever Floats Your Boat.
Commissioned by Fuse Medway Festival
Tangled Feet
All That is Solid Melts into Air
Industries have changed, bombs have fallen, tower blocks have soared and markets plummeted. The past is wiped away and new futures promised. How does a city survive as all that is solid melts into air? What does it take to let go of the past when the future is still out of reach? Tangled Feet tell the exhilarating and moving human story of urban regeneration in a gravity-defying piece of highly physical storytelling.
Green Street - 6.45pm
Saturday 16 June
12noon – 5pm, Chatham
Big Dance flash mob
Get involved in a Big Dance 2012 Flash Mob for the Fuse Medway Festival Street Arts Day
dANTE OR dIE
La Fille A La Mode
As you walk towards the Nucleus Arts Centre, you glimpse a mysterious accordionist who beckons you to follow. You are sprayed with perfume as you walk towards the gallery, where a harpist serenades you and eyelashes flutter.
La Fille à la Mode is an immersive, musical journey through surprising locations in and around the Nucleus Arts Centre in Chatham. Seven beautiful female dancers, actresses and musicians, dressed in sumptuous vintage costumes, lead you on a playful and seductive exploration of the continued celebration and exploitation of glamorous ‘It Girls’ throughout the ages.
Fevered Sleep
Little Universe (premiere)
From the biggest of galaxies to the smallest things in the world, Little Universe reveals the patterns and movements that set everything in motion. Visually striking and playfully anarchic Fevered Sleep presents a brand new performance for three and four-year-olds, created especially for the outdoors.
Fevered Sleep’s work is produced in association with Fuel.
Little Universe is co-commissioned by Fuse through Small Wonders.
Jane Pitt
Ri-Zound
Jane Pitt’s Ri-zound takes the festival to the river as 100 floating Medway voices resound the river aboard the Kingswear Castle Paddle Steamer. Sounds and images from this festive voyage are installed inside the Kent Cultural Baton for all to enjoy over the Fuse weekend.
A Spark commission supported by Kent County Council.
Accidental Collective
EveryONE’s Looking for SomeONE
Two peculiar figures are wandering about, lost. One is looking for the other, who is looking for the other… Have they been separated, or have they never met before? Will you help them find one another?
This humorous, touching piece is about the essential human drive – to look for and find someone. At times surreal, at times moving, and often out-right-funny, this is a playful meditation on our desire to ‘pair up’. The two Monty Python-esque figures pop up all around and, when they finally meet, will delight you with theatrical sketches: from the tale of Zeus and past poetic lists of famous duos, to cheesy Barbara Streisand love songs.
Supported by Applause Outdoors 212
Bureau of Silly Ideas
The Small Job
Road works are always a pain but these acrobatic fools make a song and dance out of it. Combining walkabout, circus skills, hard hats, shovels and possibly a cup of tea.
Etta Ermini Dance Theatre
Roadworks
Roadworks is an in and outdoor urban dance theatre piece, in which a dancer and a BMX flatlander meet and spark a battle of curiosity and prejudice.
The movement sequences are inspired by Hip Hop and acrobatics with a strong physicality as well as by contemporary dance elements and BMX flatland tricks.
Fittings Multimedia Arts
Master Juba – The Wonder of the World
A potent mix of rhythm and words, reclaiming the streets with a frenzy of beats, a call and a song, improvised tap and the heart of the drum. Master Juba is an urgent visceral performance that recounts the amazing tale of Juba, complete with signed songs, the greatest dancer who ever lived, the eighth Wonder of the World.
Granny Turismo
Granny Turismo have been delighting audiences wherever they go and is one of the most talked about acts around. When Doris and Mary arrive on their souped-up shopping trolleys with their pumping tunes, everyone takes notice. N.B. the grannies are loud.
Los Kaos
Meet the Dinosaur
Come and meet Tiny, a 125-million-years young dinosaur brought to life by the wonders of modern science. You can pet her, you can feed her, you can talk to her in dinosaur language; just make sure you avoid the dreaded thagomizer or you might end up extinct yourself.
Our dinosaur is accompanied by a palaeontologist, audiences are encouraged to share their knowledge of dinosaurs and to come up with some scientific theories of their own – comparative anatomy has never been so much fun.
Pif-Paf
The Submercycle
Beautifully crafted and expertly piloted, waiting to take you on a voyage into the deepest seas of your imagination. All you have to do is find the jetty and your trusty steward Bergamot, will take care of the rest. Set off on the voyage of your life with surprises and adventures along the way. Pince the pincers, ring the ships bells and wonder at the wonders.
The Submercycle has been commissioned by The Sheffield Children’s Festival.
Polymathematics
Puppit + Digit
Welcome Puppit + Digit, robotic alien life-forms from the Andromeda Galaxy. Help them learn about our planet and explore their experiences. Using their technologically advanced sensors, you’ll be able to share your stories with Puppit + Digit by logging your videos, photos and written words into their memory banks. Join in the interactive fun as they meet new friends the world over. Commissioned by Applause Outdoors 212.
Rannel
Fhlip Fhlop
Take a whole bag full of classic comedy routines, shake them up and update them for the hip-hop age and you have the exhilarating and hilarious Flhip Flhop.
Life can be really boring, especially when you’re a decorator with time on your hands and beats in your head. But when your mate’s into the same sounds as you are, work gets a bit funkier. This crazy pair of painters escape the monotony of their dull jobs by taking refuge in hip-hop, MC-ing and beatbox, mixing it up but usually ending up just mixed up.
Reckless Invention
The Temple of Boom
The show starts with Turbo searching for the ultimate phat beat. The audience is taken on a musical journey through some of the most dangerous and heinous tracks of the 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s, all the way back to Mozart. It’s an endorphin rich soundtrack that assaults, transforms and transports the audience through their memories of tunes that rock.
You will be left stunned and astounded by the aural ride with the one and only, Turbo Jonez and Temple of BOOOOOOOMMMMM!
Swank
Jolly Holiday
Join the Jones on their Jolly Holiday. Big Mam, Wee Dad, their kids delectable Dolly and the ever naughty little Willy push Nana Noreen in her armchair around the beautiful sites of your town. They are joined by Uncle Neville the recently returned uncle. This comedy odd ball, seaside postcard family are in search of a jolly good time.
Tangled Feet
The Hide
Everyone loves watching other people, there are an infinite amount of stories in the everyday; theatrical moments of happiness, hope and oddity. But do we see all the stories? Step inside The Hide and gaze across humanity in it’s natural environment. You may be even be in for a surprise.
The Galloping Cuckoos
Driftwood
A group of fisherwomen roam the coast, hauling their small fishing hut, made of worn, splintered driftwood, rusty timber and sailcloth. They seek places to drop anchor and connect with the locals – to share their sea stories through choral song, old folk tunes and live music.
Supported by Applause Outdoors 212
What’s Coming Out of the Box?
Spread the Love
Spread the Love is a walkabout piece, exploring sensory responses to the question: What is Love?
The love is spread by our love machines, performers who are the two-halves of a single heart, using all five senses to ask and propose answers to our question. Look through a hole in the love machine’s heart hat and watch a short animation film about what love is, hear love songs from around the world, by listening through the love machine’s gloves. You might even want to touch the fluff, the fur, the sticky, the warm and the ice-cold through feely pockets concealed in the performer’s cloak.
Supported by Applause Outdoors 212
NoFit State Circus
Barricade
9pm, The Great Lines
Two trucks block the Great Lines. They disgorge their contents of wires and tyres, creating an obstacle to normal paths and daily routines.
Suddenly, the wind is rising. People are building a barricade to defend themselves from the storm. They hurry to bring tyres, ladders and other objects in impossible volumes. The barricade they build, a spectacular aerial playground, sets the scene for a maelstrom of breathtaking circus. A powerful story of separation and unity, acrobats, aerialists and tightrope walkers explore the mighty human effort required to overcome the walls, barriers and defenses we find, or place, in our path.
Barricade is the stunning new open-air show from internationally acclaimed NoFit State – the company behind Parklife, Labyrinth at the Eden Project and Tabu.
Barricade invokes a glorious spirit of resistance to empower its people to fight for freedom. A freedom from their own fear, doubt and suspicion.
Sunday 17 June
12noon – 5pm, Rochester Castle Gardens
Fuse Big Picnic
Padox in Medway
Who are those weird beings who keep on popping up in Medway’s streets and public spaces this weekend? They’re the Padox, created by French company Houdart-Heuclin, and they’ve chosen Medway for their very first visit to the UK.
The Padox are you, me, Punch, Tintin or Mr Bean. The Padox are everybody we know as well as the other, the stranger. They perform everyday acts within the crowd – they are the crowd, inhabiting various towns of Medway to help us look at our daily surroundings in a different light.
Bureau of Silly Ideas
The Pineapple Car
Come and ride our pedal powered limousine in the style of a pineapple.
Canopy
The Preeners
Mrs Preener, a raucous, northern mother, wants to see her new romantic son, Graham, settle down with a nice bird but he has other ideas.
Think Spring Watch meets Blind Date circa 1985. The Preeners bring you comedy characters, sensationally sparkly animated costumes and a healthy dollop of audience participation.
Company Chameleon
Search & Find
Search & Find explores the idea of connection and disconnection between people, as two protagonists search for a way to find a sense of shared understanding and purpose.
Physically awesome and sensitive, the work invites you to consider your connection with others.
Dans la Poche
Identi-Tea (brand new show)
Enjoy a refreshing cup of Oolong tea served in the traditional manner, as you are entertained with stories of transformation from east and west.
Through the setting of an old shanghai tea house, Dorothy Soo, daughter of fu Manchu, blends the traditional tea ceremony with stories, divination and close-up magic to make a heady brew that will revive, refresh and amaze.
Dizzy O’Dare present…
The Last Apothecary
If you suffer from knobbly knees, lazy husband syndrome or random levitation, Floggit and Scarper have the cure for you. Catch the intrepid empirics as they stoop to conquer the world of medical science armed with only a few brain cells between them and a travelling apothecary full of embrocations and liniments. The Last Apothecary, a roaming treatment centre full of daft and nutty treatments for equally foolish ailments.
Supported by Applause Outdoors 212
Drama Workshop
Run Tortoise, Run!
The hare and the tortoise from Aesops fable are on tour with the hare up to his old tricks, challenging you to compete in a series of fun races.
Directed by Rick Bolinger
Design by Estelle Rosenfeld
Etta Ermini Dance Theatre
Picnic (premiere)
A young couple’s lush and joyful picnic is disrupted by the quirks and pitfalls of their relationship. Audience interaction, food, comedy and a highly dynamic movement vocabulary make Picnic an enjoyable experience for children and adults alike.
Commissioned by Fuse Medway Festival
Little Universe
Frolicked
The Alchemist
The Alchemist is a medieval man who desperately wants to make his name in his contemporary scientific community, and make a small fortune on the side. Unfortunately, due to another dangerous attempt to make gold, his latest assistant has met a grisly end.
As the Alchemist continues with his experiments alone, he makes several mistakes with potentially catastrophic consequences. If only he could get some peace from those mischievous rats and that damned bluebottle.
Institute for Crazy Dancing
Life Boat
The Life Boat is a beautiful skeleton of a boat. It is an exceptionally slow-turning ride containing four hammocks. Set within a heavy rope circle, participants are invited to gain their bearings at north, south, east and west prior to a pre-boarding briefing. Participants are then free to spend as long or as little time as they wish in a hammock – looking at the world from a different and slowly changing point of view.
Kawa Circus
Kawa Circus is coming to Medway. As the itinerant troupe of artists from a circus of Rajasthan (India) arrive with all their material and happiness in rhythms and music, the public immediately shares the intimacy of this company with the tyrannical director, the mesmerized traditional dancer charming everyone, the joyful acrobat and funambulist acting like a film star, the naïve but concerned acrobat and pole-vaulter and the musician always laughing at his colleagues.
Kazzum
Paper People
Based around a mobile newspaper stand, the vendors use their papers to tell the smaller tales within the BIG story that is the Olympics. Watch the characters emerge in 3D from the pages, before the Paper People wheel off to sell their papers, and tell their stories, elsewhere.
Les Goulus
Horsemen
Three very smart French horse-riders make a demonstration of training in preparation for the Olympic Games. Even if, sometimes, they are a bit ridiculous, they always keep ‘the French attitude’.
Little Cauliflower
The Machine
Experience an interactive street performance that engages the audience in a new and innovative way.
Professor Allen has called in sick and his two bumbling assistants have been left in charge of The Machine and they need your help. The performers use suggestions from the audience to help them fix the machine, that is powered by bicycles more than three meters tall. The audience sit on the bicycles and pedal in order to animate the machine building to a finale where sunflower seeds pour out for every child to take home and plant.
Supported by Applause Outdoors 212
Polymathematics
Puppit & Digit
Rebecca Ashton, Sophie Fuller and Alix Godden
Changes in the Current
Changes in the Current is a dance promenade created by the local community specially for Rochester Esplanade. Four community groups of all ages will share their stories and memories of The River Medway, supported by music, photographs and the written word, taking you on an exciting journey looking back at memories and workforces that were once conspicuous on the river Medway.
A Spark commission supported by Strood Library and Guildhall museum
The Honk Project
Mr Honk’s Sad Trombone
What do you do when your musical instrument has a mind of its own? How do you cope when your team starts to test you? In this hilarious, family-friendly walkabout show, meet the loveable Trundlehonk, a keen member of the local brass band, whose troublesome trolley and extremely willful horn simply refuse to play along.
Supported by Applause Outdoors 212
Fuse Big Picnic Finale, 5pm
Les Krilati
Fando Comme Lis
Fando Comme Lis is a modern, burlesque, tender and poetic mime show. Fando, a shy boy, and Lis, a mischievous girl, meet near the old railway station with the same dream. It is their language, a special language made of words without words, using aerial circles and tissues, ropes, Chinese mast and acrobatics. Be captivated in a true hymn to love and imagination.
Performance supported by Interreg IVa through ZEPA
