Live Theatre's Studio to be transformed for Museum of Austerity
Live Theatre Newcastle will house the award-winning mixed reality installation Museum of Austerity between Wednesday 17 and Sunday 21 April. This highly anticipated project is produced by ETT (English Touring Theatre) in co-production with National Theatre Immersive Storytelling Studio and Trial & Error Studio.
Winner of Best Immersive Production at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, Museum of Austerity combines the skills of director Sacha Wares with the in-depth knowledge of Disability News Service editor John Pring to tell the human stories of Austerity Britain.
This walk-through headset experience will have a week-long run at Live Theatre’s studio from 17 to 21 April, with slots for up to eight people at a time, running throughout the day from 11.30am to 6.45pm.
Director and founder of Trial & Error Studio, Sacha Wares said: “Our aim is to document the human cost of austerity; to show how it has played out behind closed curtains across the nation. We have looked for a way to capture the hidden violence. Violence that there is little visual record of, but which must somehow be witnessed.”
Founder of Disability News Service and Co-Editor of Museum, John Pring said: “From the start, we knew we needed to find a different, more powerful way to tell these stories, to hear more clearly the voices of those left behind, and bring some of those we have lost back, virtually, so we could hear their stories in a way that was so visceral that it would leave no audience member unaffected. The stories told in Museum of Austerity bring home the awful truth of how so many disabled people were failed by our country’s social security system in their moments of greatest need, and of how politicians, senior civil servants and private sector contractors averted their eyes and let it happen again and again and again.”
Jack McNamara, Artistic Director of Live Theatre said: “We are absolutely thrilled to be able to welcome this groundbreaking project to Newcastle. There could not be a more crucial time for this work to be seen and for the lasting effects of austerity, particularly on disabled people, to be recognised and held to account.”
To find out more about this unmissable installation and to book tickets go to www.live.org.uk
