Three of Winchester’s performing arts charities, Play to the Crowd, Hampshire Cultural Trust and Discarded Nut, have joined forces to celebrate contemporary performance with the creation of RAW – Winchester’s contemporary performance week.
This year’s RAW will run from Tuesday 25 to Saturday 29 March with performances taking place at Theatre Royal Winchester, The Arc and The Nutshell.
The week will offer audiences a programme of fresh, innovative and experimental shows featuring drama, dance, music, song, spoken word, and immersive and interactive elements. The inaugural week has been made possible due to UK Shared Prosperity Funding through Winchester City Council.
Deryck Newland, Chief Executive of Play to the Crowd that runs Theatre Royal Winchester, explained: “I am very excited about RAW! The aim of the collaboration is to bring the best national contemporary performance to Winchester, alongside providing a platform for emerging local creative talent. We want to encourage the public to step out of their comfort zone, take some risk and try something a little different to what they may normally choose to see. We are thankful to Winchester City Council for supporting this idea through their UK Shared Prosperity Funding.”
“RAW is a fantastic addition to the live performance offer in Winchester, and it’s great to be part of this collaboration that is bringing something new to the city,” said Paul Sapwell, Chief Executive of Hampshire Cultural Trust that operates The Arc.
“We’re looking forward to what promises to be a magical, challenging, powerful, joyful and creative celebration of contemporary performance in the UK.”
“I am thrilled that we are launching RAW – the culmination of a great collaborative process between The Nutshell, Play to the Crowd and Hampshire Cultural Trust,” added Harriet Morris, Executive Director of The Nutshell.
“We have curated an exciting programme of contemporary work for our first RAW week from 5-star fringe sell-outs to acclaimed performances. I urge you to book your tickets, to take some creative risks and try something new!”
This year’s programme includes:
At Theatre Royal Winchester: Theatre Re’s The Nature of Forgetting (26 – 27 March) about a man called Tom who, living with young onset dementia, is preparing for his 55th birthday party when past memories come flooding back; Platform 4’s The Alice Project – a sonic journey through the Wonderland of Alice, weaving original music together with Lewis Carroll’s text, and voices from interviews exploring transformation, identity and growing older (25 March); and James Wilton Dance’s BACH Reimagined – featuring athletic and graceful dancers, against the backdrop of a live performance by Canadian cellist Raphael Weinroth Browne (29 March).
At The Arc audiences can enjoy: Lose Your Own Adventure (29 March) a comedic new work in progress where the audience dives into a nostalgic world of 1980’s fantasy and video games and gets to choose how the story plays out; the ‘inventive left field comic’ Nate Kitch in Tomorrow Might Not Happen (28 March); and Mind Games by Panda-monium duo which includes current Hampshire Poet Laureate Damian Kelly-Basher, and a poetry performance from Stewart Taylor (27 March).
At The Nutshell Sunday’s Child’s five-star production of Eva O’Connor and Hildegard Ryan’s play Chicken (29 March) tells the story of Don Murphy – a proud Irish man, ketamine addict and a great actor – who also happens to be a chicken! Cabaret legend and musical comedian Lady Carol also brings her solo show to Winchester (28 March).
For more information or to book tickets visit www.RAWwinchester.co.uk.
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