The Barbican has announced Inside Out; a year exploring the relationship between our inner lives and creativity.
The theatre will showcase the work of artists who have found interesting and new ways to articulate their inner worlds. These performances will be throughout 2020 and will integrate all forms of art across the Barbican’s learning events, exhibitions, screenings, live performances and concerts in all of the Barbican’s venues and public spaces.
Exploring themes of identity, self expression and privacy in the face of an increasingly socially connected world, the programme will promote artists who challenge society’s definition of them, including those creating art under censorship. Some of these projects have been supported by the Wellcome Trust.
Related Article: Royal Shakespeare Company is returning to The Barbican
Sir Nicholas Kenyon, Managing Director of the Barbican, said:
‘Throughout the year, Inside Out will draw on ideas from the arts, learning, philosophy, politics and culture to present a thought-provoking programme that invites our audiences to delve deep into the minds of extraordinary artists who found revolutionary ways to share their individual experience of the world.’
Louise Jeffreys, Artistic Director of the Barbican, said:
‘In an increasingly frenetic world, when we’re under pressure to both reveal more and more of ourselves and to conform to societal expectations, Inside Out will create a space for us all to take a step back to consider who we really are and how we share this with others.’
Rhiannon Faith’s Drowntown. Credit: Fonteini.
Announced performances include:
Isadora Now: An evening of performance inspired by American and French dancer and icon of modernism, Isadora Duncan.
Death in Venice: directed by Ivo van Hove and written by Ramsey Nasr, this new adaption of Thomas Mann’s novella will be performed by Internationaal Theater Amsterdam.
The Glass Menagerie: Odéon–Théâtre de l’Europe put on a new production of Tennessee Williams’s autobiographical work, starring Isabelle Huppert.
Belarus Free Theatre: Dogs Of Europe
Drowntown: marking Rhiannon Faith’s return to the Barbican, Drowntown looks to speak to how we choose to engage with society and our communities. It features autobiographical stories about loneliness, addiction, forgiveness and change.
Dogs of Europe: a new production from Belarus Free Theatre, whose work has been banned in their home country.
There will also be a range of art, film, music and multimedia pieces, including Damon Albarn’s new musical project inspired by the Icelandic landscape he uses as an escape and Out In The Shadows; a film season which will feature LGBTQ+ filmmakers attempts to convey queerness under times of censorship and oppression of arts and individuals.