How would you interact with art, performance and drama when your senses are taken away?
Well this Saturday the Re:Con team from Oxford Road’s Contact theatre as they come to the end of their year long pioneering initiative want you to find out.
The four young arts practitioners have created Sensored , a one-day festival of art and performance that asks you to look, listen, touch, taste, smell and even dance your way through a body of work that each omits a different sense.
They came up with the idea from a TED talk that centered around making everyday things more interesting for users and culminated in a clock which besides telling the time, emitted smells.
Lasting nine hours beginning at 3pm on Saturday, Sensored will invite audiences to create their own scores, feel, hear and see their way through a three course “dinner” and enter a scent tent, creating heightened yet intimate accessible experiences which encourage audiences to let down their guard and step into the shoes of another.
Five Manchester based artists have been commissioned by the team with premieres from Frances Kay, Subtle Kraft Co. with Jose Puello, Ali Matthews, IOrganic, and Façade Theatre.
The theme of the works consistently asks the question of the audience, what it would be like to engage when you have no sight and sound.
One of the commissions features a wheel chair user dancing without music while inviting audiences to create their own scores, feel, hear and see their way through a three course “dinner” and enter a scent tent, creating heightened yet intimate accessible experiences which encourage audiences to let down their guard and step into the shoes of another.
Outside of the five plays is the Dinner, taking its inspiration from a restaurant in Berlin where diners are served in the dark by blind waiters. The waiters won’t be blind but the food, especially selected for its smells, taste and texture, will be served in the dark.
There is also a panel discussion exploring ways to be creative about accessibility and special guest Jo Bannon returns with Exposure, a tender one on one autobiographical performance which sold out it’s run at Flying Solo 2014.
It’s a fitting end to the year long programme for the Recon team, who will leave the contact theatre having experienced full exposure to theatre both on the stage and all the support and technical knowledge that goes on behind it.
Listings information
Date: Saturday 27 June
Time: 3pm-midnight
Venue: Contact, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6JA
Tickets: £9 Full/£5 concession
Dinner in the Dark: £5 and must be booked separately via 0161 2740 600. Seatings at 3:30pm, 4:30pm, 5:30pm, 6:30pm, 7:30pm and 8:30pm.
Suitable for Over 14’s
Tickets available: http://contactmcr.com/whats-on/35694-recon-sensored/ or 0161 274 0600
