Summerhall, Edinburgh’s year round multi–arts venue, is proud to announce its 2015 Festival Programme

Tickets on sale at summerhall.co.uk 00.01 Thursday 4 June

From climate change, humanitarian aid, terrorism, the worldwide crisis of modern poverty to TED talks, drag and award winning theatre; visual art as healer, storyteller, vehicle for change, this year’s Summerhall programme brings a mix of true tales and worlds reimagined.

Summerhall’s 2015 Festival Programme has all the diversity, internationalism, risk and surprise that our audiences have come to expect. This is the fifth Summerhall programme at the Fringe, and perhaps reflecting our increasing maturity as a venue, we are working in partnership with more theatre and producing companies than ever before.

We have collaborations with organisations including The Place, Aurora Nova, Northern Stage, Big in Belgium, Theatre Uncut, Paines Plough and The Arches bringing brilliant programmes of work from around the world to Summerhall this festival. Our new live music nights, which have invigorated the Edinburgh live music scene, Nothing Ever Happens Here…, represent our dedication to providing a platform for world-class homegrown and international talent.

Northern Stage will have their own dedicated theatre space at the top of the church galleries. The Place, the boldest centre for contemporary dance in the UK, comes to the Festival Fringe for the first time to Summerhall, bridging the gap between Fringe and International Festival with new work from their Work Place artists. Paines Plough return with the Roundabout for a second year, the bespoke in the round theatre venue also hosting musical-comedy this year from Jonny and the Baptists. Summerhall is proud to underline its support for The Arches, and two Autopsy Award winners from Arches Live, Ellie Dubois’s Ringside and Mona Bozdog’s Lost in Transition, are central to the festival programme.

A third of this year’s British Council Showcase will be at Summerhall and the venue looks forward to inviting arts delegates from across the globe. Igor and Moreno’s Idiot-Syncrasy (The Place presents) soon to be known as ‘that bouncing show’ explores commitment and perseverance as agents for change; Confirmation (Chris Thorpe and Rachel Chavkin), brings dialogue about political extremism in a show about the gulfs we can’t simply talk across. Assembly of Animals (Tim Spooner) turns original feature of the old Veterinary college, the Small Animal Hospital, into a laboratory in this creative and hands on show for kids, and To Sleep To Dream (Earfilms) blindfold their audiences and immerse them in a society where dreaming is illegal.

Summerhall hosts work included in Made in Scotland Showcase, from families brought to life through live performance, animation and music on stage in Grandad and Me (The Letter J) to your morning service and daily blessing with legendary trans playwright, performer and poet Jo Clifford in The Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven. Also at Summerhall, a new show from Grid Iron and the return of Catherine Wheels’ The Voice Thief to our basement bolster the incredible offering of work from Scottish makers.

The wildly innovative and heartfelt story of survival and 2014 Total Theatre Award winner, Near Gone (Two Destination Language) and a gig inspired by Clytemnestra’s Greek revenge myth, The Furies (Kiln Ensemble/British Council Showcase) return after highly successful 2014 festival runs at Summerhall. Lungs and Every Brilliant Thing both return to the Roundabout.

Globalisation and internationalism from Ndebele Funeral by New York’s socially engaged Smoke and Mirrors Collaborative which delves into modern poverty, health care and mortality in modern day South Africa. ABACUS (Early Morning Opera) toys with our evolving relationships to screens, from pockets to billboards. Going Viral (ARC Production with Northern Stage) is a new work about how things spread, from our ever-increasing connection worldwide to the ‘right now’ live in the theatre. 17 Border Crossings (Aurora Nova) sees Thaddeus Phillips examining international cultures and customs from passenger jet wheel wells and invasive body searches.

Also this year’s programme features stories we maybe know better from the newsreels. Newcastle’s ZENDEH theatre company brings CINEMA (in collaboration with Northern Stage) – a cat paws through the wreckage of the Rex Cinema fire Abadan in 1978, a terrorist attack which killed 422 people. Who were these people? Why were their lives taken? Summerhall is proud to support ZENDEH in commemorating the lives lost 37 years ago on 19 August, the anniversary of this horrific event. Both Alexander Litvineko (The Litvinenko Project) and Lance Armstrong (Ventoux) get their moment under the lights in productions by 2 Magpies theatre.

Shakespeare comes to Summerhall with Titania – A Solo Cabaret – a one woman reimagining of A Midsummer Nights’ Dream by Anna-Helena McLean, renowned cellist and performer. Milton gets the once over in Ben Duke’s Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) a very modern retelling of the epic poem.

Our Visual Arts Festival 2015 programme will offer free exhibitions under the banner Allegories and Existence. Allegories and Existence explores the role of the artist as provocateur – challenging audiences’ perceptions through uncovering and toying with myths. Performance is a key element within the exhibitions, making enquiries into the relationship and synergy between the visual and performing arts.

Summerhall presents two pioneers and revolutionaries of performance from very different angles, Hermann Nitsch and Tadeusz Kantor. Nitsch’s Das Orgien Mysterien Theater, includes paintings, framed photographs, print on paper and installations within the traditional vitrines of the War Memorial Library. Tadeusz Kantor: Inbetween Structures, presenting a new perspective on the work of the acclaimed 20th century Polish theatre director, centres round the rarely shown and previously lost film “Attention… Painting!” which presents interactions between painting and moving-image – the exhibition also features drawings, paintings, collages, manifestos and photographs by Kantor.

A Lady’s not a Gent’s, curated by Julian Spalding and Glyn Thompson, explores the performance of deception. Spalding and Thompson controversially pose – who really made Duchamp’s Fountain?

Considering similar controversy surrounding historical works of art, Derrick Guild’s After A.D, inspired by Durer’s Young Hare, must ask – is Durer’s hare a hare?

Arts organisation Unlimited Exhibition is a collection of installations, short films, paintings and sculptures that explore the world around us, sharing the very personal viewpoints of a group of outstanding disabled artists. This unique collection will challenge perspectives on disability and Summerhall is proud to premiere their first ever exhibition in the four rooms of the Meadows Suite.

David Sherry’s One Million Years of Laughter explores the quirks of truth, with his ideas manifesting through a new series of performances and paintings that highlight the evolutionary advantages of a good giggle!

Our Dissection Room will be buzzing into the night time with our Nothing Ever Happens Here… live music line up including Sun Kil Moon, Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat, The Sun Ra Arkestra, Stanley Odd, Orkestra Del Sol and our Opening Night Party presented alongside Braw Gigs featuring Prosumer live and a DJ set from Summerhall resident Lindsay Todd (Firecracker Records).

For further information, images and interview requests please contact: press@summerhall.co.uk

To book: www.summerhall.co.uk from 00.01am June 4 or edfringe.com

You can download a copy of our press release here: Summerhall Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015 Programme Announcement