A unique 360 degree panoramic experience entitled The Roof will be staged under the night sky in a venue opposite the National Theatre as part of the 20th LIFT festival later this year.
Presented in association with the acclaimed South Bank venue, The Roof will play from 30 May to 7 June. The show requires audience members to stand throughout to enable them to experience “a breathless mix of 360 degree hair-trigger movement, influenced by free running”, taking in the show’s three dimensional music and sound through individual headphones.
In the purpose-built venue from designer of the 2012 Paralympic opening ceremony Jon Bausor, audience members will see an immaculate figure step through a door before being plunged into the body of this reluctant hero who is desperate to stay alive.
The intriguing show is just one the diverse productions playing as part of the annual festival, which throws its doors open to the world and brings some of the globe’s most exciting theatrical events to the capital. The 2014 festival features 30 inspiring productions from 13 countries around the world and will play in 14 venues across London.
Works from countries including Russia, Germany and the USA will come to the Barbican in June. Testament (3 to 7 June) will see German performance collective She She Pop take to the stage with their real fathers in an audacious show that confronts the complex dynamics between generations using Shakespeare’s King Lear as a backdrop.
One of Russia’s most influential theatre directors Dmitry Krymov will bring Opus No7 to the Barbican Theatre from 4 to 14 June. Placing the audience on stage tantalisingly close to the action, the production depicts the oppression of Soviet Jews and the censorship of Shostakovich under Stalin through larger-than-life puppets.
Completing the Barbican’s collaboration with LIFT in 2014 is The Shipment, which plays in the Pit from 10 to 14 June. The biting satire invites audiences on a rollercoaster ride through the assumptions, clichés and distortions that arise when exploring the experience of African Americans today.
The 2014 LIFT festival will also include Red Forest, a new piece by Belarus Free Theatre. Receiving its UK premiere at the Young Vic from 12 June to 5 July, the production examines the effects of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster by incorporating true stories and native folklore from Belarus, Brazil, Nigeria and India.
Elsewhere, the Unicorn Theatre will host Next Day, in which 13 performers aged between eight and 11 provide a moving and honest account of everyday life. Returning following a sell-out run at LIFT 2012, the production sees the children’s normal rituals become extraordinary, absurd and provocative under the direction of Paris-based visual artist and director Philippe Quesne.
For a full list of events taking place in LIFT 2014, visit www.liftfestival.com