CELEBRATIONperformance for theatres / 55 minutes / 2016



'Let's all celebrate and have a good time’ - Kool and the Gang

Amidst global crises and 24-hour rolling news, in the year of Brexit, the Trump election and all the celebrities dying, CELEBRATION was made in response to a provocation: create an hour of joy.

Taking the form of a sort-of-variety-show of games, song, dream-like images and clumsy dance, the piece explores joy and optimism as political tools. An unseeing dog becomes a prophet, Donald Trump is reborn as a deity in drag, and two performers with golden faces sing a folk-dirge to the words of Kool and the Gang. The show is exuberant and melancholy in equal measure, a catalogue of the hopes and fears of youth.

Created and performed by: Clara Potter-Sweet and Ben Kulvichit
Lighting design and technical management: Ciara Shrager
Original song: Nat Norland
'All Downhill from Here' choreographed by: Elisabeth Stowell
Producer: Emily Davis

Photos Aenne Pallasca, Richard Lakos, Giulia Delprato, Ang Kia Yee

CELEBRATION was developed with support from the Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL)
PREVIOUS DATES> 01 July 2018 / LyricFest, Lyric Hammersmith, London
> 05 November 2017 / Emerge Festival, Warwick Arts Centre
> 03-05 September 2017 / New Diorama, London
> 15-28 August 2017 / ZOO Venues, Edinburgh
> 23-24 July 2017 / Theatr Clwyd, Mold
> 23 June 2017 / Warwick Fringe, Warwick Arts Centre
> 11 June 2017 / Incoming Festival, New Diorama, London
> 10 April 2017 / National Student Drama Festival, Donald Roy Theatre, University of Hull
> 02-03 December 2016 / Warwick University
RESOURCESSee the reading list/texts that went into the show


SELECTED PRESS "A small but glorious remedy for despair... a touching and thought-provoking theatrical gift."
The Stage / August 2017

“A unique and mesmerising cocktail of stand-up, dance, poetry and song"
- The Sunday Times / April 2017

“Every celebration rolled into one surging, joyful package... I want to see what comes next”
 - Exeunt Magazine / August 2017
OTHER REVIEWS/WRITING Noises Off / April 2017
> Young Critics Wales / July 2017
> Peeled and Portioned by Salome Wagaine / September 2017