artswith


by Amy Powell Yeates


Environmental and feminist campaigning on screen, a community choir, immigration and an epic reimagining of the Trojan War in theatre are among offerings this season. There’s also human rights in art for all the family, Europe in the media and Bridget Christie’s fight for gender equality in books, and a small but perfectly formed music and arts festival in North Wales.


Film How to Change the World Limited release From 7 September When a group of young activists, including hippie journalists, photographers, musicians, scientists and American draft dodgers, set out to stop Richard Nixon’s atomic bomb tests in Amchitka, Alaska, they ended up creating the worldwide green movement known as Greenpeace. This is their story, drawn together by accounts from journalist Bob Hunter, who became Greenpeace’s lynchpin. Directed by Jerry Rothwell, the film comprises a weave of archive footage, interviews and animations inspired by Hunter’s comics. Keep an eye on the Facebook page for updates. www.facebook.com/ howtochangetheworldfilm


Suffragette Focus Features National release From 30 October The long-awaited film follows the women who drove the early feminist movement as they fought


22 | theJournalist


for their right to vote. Met with great resistance, they were driven underground and radicalised, becoming willing to sacrifice everything in their fight for equality. The film follows the story of working woman and campaigner Maud, played by Carey Mulligan. Mulligan is joined by Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter in the all-star cast. www.focusfeatures.com


Theatre The Choir Citizens Theatre, Glasgow 24 October-14 November Billed as a musical play, Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue fame and actor Paul Higgins have collaborated on a stage show about a group of strangers who meet weekly to rehearse in their community choir. Will their shared love of music suffice to keep the disparate group, which includes a Tory councillor and Iraq refugee, from falling apart? www.citz.co.uk


indepth Talking about a revolution


Belarus Free Theatre marks a decade of antagonism with a fortnight-long festival Radical underground theatre


company Belarus Free Theatre (BFT) has a two-week festival of performance, music and discussion to mark its 10th anniversary. The event in October, I’m with the Banned, brings together artists who


live in political freedom with those who have been banned in Belarus, Russia or Ukraine. The diverse line- up includes female Russian punk activists Pussy Riot, Belarusian punk-rockers Brutto and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, who will play at a show in London’s Koko. The festival will include BFT-


acclaimed works such as Being Harold Pinter and Generation Jeans; revivals with Sarah Kane’s 4:48 psychosis and Shakespeare’s King Lear; and a new work, Time of Women. Some performances will take


place in BFT’s London home, the Young Vic. Others will be held in


undisclosed locations; audiences will receive a text 24 hours before with a meeting point from which they will be guided to an unknown location – the same way in which BFT’s productions were forced to take place in their home country. If you don’t manage to catch a


performance, take a look at the Ministry of Counterculture website, set up in 2015 by BFT co-artistic director Nikolai Khalezin. Khalezin’s newspapers were shut down in Belarus, but his new website aims to broaden understanding of the role the arts can play in social change.


www.youngvic.org www.moc.media/en–


attitude


Lampedusa HighTide Festival, Aldeburgh (10-20 September) Unity Theatre, Liverpool (24 September-3 October) Critically acclaimed on its premiere at London’s Soho Theatre this summer, Lampedusa now tours the homes of the co-producing companies that put it together. Politically engaged playwright Anders Lustgarten’s play is set on the paradisal island of Lampedusa, where North Africa meets Rome. Stationed on idyllic white sands, it is Stefano’s job to pull the bodies of drowned migrants out of the Mediterranean.


Meanwhile, in the bleak corners of the UK, Denise collects payday loans and hears complaints about immigration. HighTide’s artistic director Steven Atkinson directs Lustgarten’s bold play about the state of immigration. www.hightide.org.uk


Iliad Carmarthenshire 21 September-3 October Mike Pearson and Mike Brookes, who received acclaim for their large-scale interpretations of The Persians and Coriolanus, will bring their trademark vision to a multimedia staging of the last weeks of the Trojan War in a theatrical staging of Christopher Logue’s War Music. www.nationaltheatrewales.org


Exhibitions We are all Born Free Aberystwyth Arts Centre Until 3 October Commissioned and promoted by Amnesty International UK, this family exhibition, suitable for ages six and up, brings together commissioned


Some of the best things to


see and do with a bit of political bite


For listings email: journalist@NUJ.org.uk


SIMON KANE


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