The London International Mime Festival is the longest established annual theatre season of its kind which showcases innovative visual theatre from Britain and around the world. The 2015 season will span 24 days and feature 18 companies. 64 performances of productions, almost all London or UK premieres, will be presented across multiple venues around London.
This upcoming season is particularly significant if you hail from New Zealand, like yours truly, as among the international ensemble of performers are two very talented New Zealanders: Trygve Wakenshaw and Thomas Monckton.
These two Kiwi performers have received highly acclaimed training from France so are extremely skilled in their craft – Wakenshaw was trained by master clown Philippe Gaulier and Monckton is a Jacques Lecoq physical theatre school alumni.
Wakenshaw will be staging the London premiere of his award-winning show KRAKEN at the Soho Theatre. A blissfully funny hour of physical stream-of-consciousness, this delirious follow-up to smash hit SQUIDBOY has been receiving rave reviews, from critics and audiences alike.
More details can be found here and if you want to get a taste of what to expect, check this video out. I had the pleasure of catching KRAKEN at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe and it was quite extraordinary – very entertaining, wonderfully whimsical, thoroughly unpredictable and just something a little bit different!
Meanwhile at the Southbank Centre, a grand piano is set to take centre stage for The Pianist which is a co-production between Monckton and Finland’s international contemporary circus group Circo Aereo. This show was a hit at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, enjoying a sold-out season. Described as a “spectacular concert catastrophe”, The Pianist mixes highly skilled physical comedy with a refined contemporary circus-theatre attitude.
Further details can be found here and for a sneak preview of the show, check out this video.
To find out more about the London International Mime Festival, go to mimelondon.com.
Thank you to Arthur Leone PR for the information!
