Make Hope Possible - A Little Weekend For Big Ideas
Screen star Toby Jones joins North East legend Charlie Hardwick, Futureheads singer Ross Millard and acclaimed international author Preti Taneja for society-bending festival at Live Theatre Newcastle.
Over the course of one radical weekend, Live Theatre, Newcastle becomes a centre for new ideas about society and how it can be reshaped to make the world better, brighter and kinder. Make Hope Possible from Friday 1 to Sunday 3 July, will bring together writers, thinkers and makers who will present manifestos that explore playfully and seriously how big changes can be made that bring back hope to the world.
The weekend opens on Friday 1 July with the official North East launch of Selina Thompson’s acclaimed installation Race Cards followed by the first ever staged reading of writer and activist Preti Taneja’s stunning text Four Models In Bright Hats Think About The Future plus a short piece from Experiments in Imagining Otherwise by black feminist writer Lola Olufemi.
Race Cards features 1000 cards, containing a question about race, hand written by Selina Thompson, one of the most important contemporary theatre artists in the UK. The readings will be followed by live turntables from Mariam Rezaei.
On Saturday 2 July from 11am to 2pm, internationally acclaimed Metis Arts will run Love Letters To A Liveable Future: An Environmental Workshop for arts practitioners and the general public about making theatre and imagining otherwise in the context of the climate crisis.
From 3pm on Saturday, Emmerdale actor Charlie Hardwick will present a reading of Paint Your Town Red a major new manifesto about how Preston broke away from Westminster and we can too! Charlie will be accompanied by live music from The Futureheads’ Ross Millward. This will be followed by a panel discussion with Mayor of North of Tyne Jamie Driscoll about community wealth building.
The evening of Saturday 2 July brings an animated reading by celebrated screen actor Toby Jones of Alex Niven’s ground-breaking manifesto New Model Island, about a reshaped Britain. Newcastle based electronic folk innovator Jayne Dent will perform music from her experimental and beguiling project, Me Lost Me in accompaniment.
The weekend closes on Sunday 3 July from 6pm with Live Theatre Is Curious - The Future Is Queer. Presented by Curious Arts, this exciting celebration showcases work by young people, exploring LGBTQIA+ themes.
Jack McNamara said: “We are an unashamedly political theatre. Make Hope Possible is a provocative weekend, dedicated to reshaping society and stirring up a vision of the world that has hope at its centre. As Raymond Williams said, ‘to be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.’ We’re delighted to be hosting ground breaking thinkers and artists and staging powerful performances for our little weekend of big ideas.”
Make Hope Possible is presented in association with Repeater. Tickets are on sale now for £6 per event and a Make Hope Festival multibuy offer for those wishing to see and do more is available at Box Office on (0191) 232 1232 or online.
