Dear Europe

SWG3, Glasgow

March 2019

Five people are silhouetted against the European Union flag. Four stare straight ahead into the distance, whilst one person jumps up to reach for one of the stars on the flag.

Overview

Come together at SWG3 as diverse performances, food, film and music play us out of our old relationship with the European Union.

Challenged to explore their relationship with Europe, some of Scotland’s most adventurous artists and theatre makers will present powerful, playful and provocative responses, signalling the end of an era.

National Theatre of Scotland invites you to join what could be a party? A wake? Or simply the last blowout? Who knows, but it is for one night only.

One Night, Many Voices

A collection of artists will work to create six performances in response to their feelings around our relationship with Europe and the different countries within it.

Daniel Hughes and Nima Séne will take found footage and archive film to create moving through shadows, a piece inspired by the civil rights “red experience” in Soviet-era Poland, reflecting on contemporary experiences of people of colour in present day Poland and the Polish community in Scotland.

Angus Farquhar’s Second Citizen will see him writing to the heads of every European Member State asking to be fully legally adopted as a new citizen; not on the basis of wealth, but what can be offered through long term artistic exchange with Scotland

Alan McKendrick takes inspiration from German artist Jules Buchholtz to develop his project Cadaver Police In Quest Of Aquatraz Exit, a science-fictional jailbreak musical following the theatrical-fictional band Cadaver Police as they become the first international export out of a blockaded country after decades of total embargo.

In Death Becomes Us, Leonie Rae Gassonand her musical collaborators, including a specially formed community chorus of Scotland based European migrants, blend intimate audio performance with exuberant live music to tickle the senses whilst looking at our obsession with taking back control.

Focusing on Ireland’s unique relationship with the UK, and the role the Irish border has played in the current debate, Nic Green and Ruairí Ó'Donnabháin will present d'tús maith is leath na h'oibre | a good start is half the work a performance reimagining the customs of boundaries and lines.

No slipper skipper or gentleman angler, Tam Dean Burn is wading into Scotland and Europe’s fisheries policies with a livebait performance. Aquaculture Flagshipwreck tackles new and ancient mariner music, trawls William Blake’s prophetic European images and casts a net wide across the continental shelf-life of capital’s insatiable appetite for the fruits of the sea.

Dear Europe will be hosted by Gary McNair.

National Theatre of Scotland in association with SWG3, curated By Jackie Wylie and Stewart Laing.

Cast

Creative team

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