New Mayfest Website & Blog

Mayfest has a new website and blog for 2012, found at:

www.mayfestbristol.co.uk

Save Me: A Conversation Across The City

For two hours each day, for eleven days during Mayfest 2011, Bristol-based performance duo, Search Party, spoke to each other across Bristol Harbour using semaphore. Arnolfini is now working with Mayfest and Theatre Bristol to publish and launch a new book with Saearch Party and The University of Chichester about how a simple act of performance in May became to represent the struggles of distant connection.

Join us on Saturday 22nd October 6.30pm at Arnolfini for the launch night of the publication, a performance from Search Party and hear the artist share a few thoughts on the acts of coding and decoding that occur within daily acts of communication.

30 Cecil Street at the Cube

Dan Canham's beautiful, haunting 30 Cecil Street wowed audiences at this year's Mayfest, and went on to be one of the hit shows at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. So, if you've yet to catch it, then here's some good news! It's coming back to the Cube this October.

Developed through Bristol Ferment, 30 Cecil Street is a heartbreaking elegy for a lost and ruined theatre in Limerick – a moving performance of fragments of memories, of wild nights and long-disappeared communities.

It will be shown in a double bill with a new dance film by Bristol Based choreographer and film-maker, Lisa May Thomas.

You can book tickets through Bristol Old Vic box office.

Lunchtime Talk with The Ice Book at Watershed

Lunchtime Talks are a series of informal presentations at Watershed's Pervasive Media Studio. They normally take place at 13:00 on a Friday, are free and are open to everybody who is interested in what they do.

This Friday's talk is with Davy and Kristin McGuire, the people behind the mesmerising The Ice Book which came to Mayfest 2011. The pair have recently joined the Studio to continue work on the project. In this talk, Davy and Kristin will speak about their previous work, their progress with The Ice Book so far and their plans for its development. Following the talk, there's also a opportunity to see a performance of The Ice Book here at the Studio if you missed it.

Full details available here.

Mark My Wordle

Cast your minds back to May. Fun wasn't it? Here's a little summer treat - a Wordle made up of all your Twitter comments from during the festival (click to enlarge):

To Treasure Forever

"On 2 May 2011, a group of Bristolians engaged on a 14-day theatrical intervention into their daily lives that asked them to be creative, responsive and playful. They sent and received emails, SMSes, MMSes, post and tweets and visited interactive objects hidden throughout the city. This is a book that chronicles some of what happened."

To purchase a copy of the Fortnight book, click here.

"A Boisterous, Intelligent Energy knits everything Together"

Guardian reviewed Epic during Mayfest and you can read their thoughts here.

"What Kimmings does is to Tell us Like it is, Frankly and Hilariously Honestly"

Even more reviews from A Young Theatre. Here they have reviewed Sex Idiot as well as Stationary Excess which you can read here.

Peek a Booth!

Here's a collection of brilliant images from the Peek-a-Booth photobooth at Electric Garden during Mayfest to give you a taste of the fun and shenanigans going on at Rolling Stage's latest party.

Mayfest 2011 in 42 Tweets

So there we go. Mayfest 2011 has come and gone in a flash. After this frantic festival though, before we all return to the more natural pace of life, let's just have a quick look back at another great year and what better way that through the wonderous medium of Twitter?

"Such a Rich and Moving Dialogue without one Word being Uttered"

Exeunt have reviewed Mayfest 2011 as a whole here, with particular praise for Save Me and The Blind Tiger.

Patch Things Up, Make Amends, Our Hearts are still Beating

Finally Search Party's semaphone marathon, Save Me, has reached its conclusion. For 2 hours for 10 days Pete and Jodie stood at either end of a portion of Bristol's Floating Harbour squinting at eachother in a painstakingly slow but utterly captivating and beautiful conversation. Between the 5th and 15th of May some of the topics discussed without one word being uttered were seperated twins, messages in bottles, long-distance telephone calls, the wind, home, and the Apollo 11 astronaunt Michael Collins. Below you can read exactly what was communicated via semaphone during Mayfest (click on each chalk board image to enlarge):

Monday 9th

Tuesday 10th

"A Wonderfully Inventive performance"

Two more reviews from A Younger Theatre here. You can read their thoughts on Like You Were Before here and I Guess If The Stage Exploded... here!

"An Intriguing Exploration, Not only of the 20th Century, But also of Dramatic Representation itself"

It's now officailly a tsunami of reviews on Monday morning! Here's what Exeunt had to say about Epic.

"A Hero in the Making"

And the reviews just keep flooding in! Here's four more from Venue. You can read their thoughts on May here, Epic here, the four and a half stars they gave to Sam Halmarack & The Miserablites here and their two stars for Ousia here.

"A Rich Mix of Surrealism, well-observed Teenage Gaucheness and high-speed Madcappery"

Veune have reviewed three other Mayfest shows, Operation Greenfield which you can read here, The Guild of Cheesemakers which is here and Fortnight readable here.

"A Fascinating Glimpse into the Mind of a Fascinating Man"

Here's a couple of Mayfest reviews from the local blogger, Bristol Culture. They reviewed Fortnight here, and The Invisible Journey here.

"Frantic Passionate Dancing"

Here are another couple of reviews of Mayfest shows from A Younger Theatre. They reviewed May here and Ouisa here.

300ft Up Bristol looks like a Model Village

It was Saturday 14th May and Fortnight (two weeks of letters, texts, emails, tweets and treasure-hunts) finally drew to a close. Proto-Type weren't going to let it all end quietly though and sure enough, sticking to the proverb of saving the best till last, Fortnight participants were treated to a very special party in the sky across the entire top floor of one of Bristol's very tallest buildings, Castlemead. There was laughing, chatting, dancing, boozing and much admiring of the view. It was a great and very poignant way to end this special project with the city all the participants had been exploring and getting to know a little better now laid down beneath them all like a model village. Here are a few pics from the night:

Showing Today - Sunday 15th May

Sex Idiot - Bristol Old Vic - 9.30pm

Save Me - Harbourside - 11am till 1pm

The Ice Book - St Paul's Church - Various Times