Written by our IYAF volunteer press team, the newsletter will be published every Saturday, Sunday and selected weekdays. Providing reviews, previews, interviews and event listings the newsletter is an excellent way to keep up-to-date with IYAF 2014.

The newsletter is available to download here: IYAF 2014 Newsletter #9

Tim Fulker of Our Friends Records is responsible for co-ordinating music across the whole of IYAF. Our volunteer press team caught up with him to see how his festival is going.

Click here to see the interview!

4 stars!

An Explosive Showcase

Rich in history, bursting with passion and built on strong foundations of creative expression, self-discipline and multicultural appreciation – this could be a martial arts school of dreams. Axe Capoeira UK’s talented students bring you A Taste of Brazil, a diverse showcase of the art of capoeira. The term refers to a Brazilian martial art made up of music, dance, acrobatics and games. This unique combination of skills is said to have been created by African slaves in Brazil sometime after the sixteenth century and it continues to spread…

This whirlwind event shook the Rose Theatre main house to its very foundations. Felix Hagan and the Family careered onto the stage to begin the chain reaction of steam punk and rock and, in seconds, audience members of every age had rushed onto the dance floor and surrendered to the thundering beat. The band performed a stream of high energy numbers with barely a pause for breath. Felix Hagen and the Family fed off the enthusiasm of the audience, interacting with them at every opportunity, even asking someone to come onstage and…

Today the volunteer press team caught up with Artistic Director of Creative Youth and IYAF, Aniela
Zaba. She shared with us some quick thoughts about how the festival has been going so far.

Much Ado About Nothing by Wild Donkey Theatre – 3 stars

Shakespeare’s familiar characters were brought to life once again in this rustic adaptation by the talented Wild Donkey Theatre Company. The cast was surprisingly small which resulted in many actors and actresses playing more than one part. However, this did not detract from my enjoyment of the play and proved once again that quality is often more important than quantity. Some of the casting decisions were also daring, for example; a woman as the infamous villain Don John.

On…

Kawaakari by Jessica Fulker – 5 stars

Kawaakari – (n.) the gleam of last light on a river’s surface at dusk; the glow of a river in the darkness.

The night was packed full of experimental visual, light and sound performances, organised by the wonderfully talented Jessica Fulker.

 First to grace the stage and the ones to conclude, was Kimatica, presenting their unique body mapping performance. Using technical software designed by themselves, vibrant grayscale patterns were splashed across the screen being influenced and manipulated by the performer, Maria. She…

Our volunteer press team bumped into Judith Meuwly-Correll and Robb Correll, international IYAF fans who have travelled to Kingston for the festival especially from Switzerland. They visit London as often as possible to see theatre, but did not think to look any further than the city limits until now. Once they heard about IYAF, they decided to visit. Robb says: “Kingston was a real surprise. It’s a totally different place, like nothing in London – we love it!” Judith added: “It’s a beautiful place, we never would have considered coming here.”

Written by our IYAF volunteer press team, the newsletter will be published every Saturday, Sunday and selected weekdays. Providing reviews, previews, interviews and event listings the newsletter is an excellent way to keep up-to-date with IYAF 2014.

The newsletter is available to download here: IYAF Newsletter #7

Out Of The Cage by The Actors Group In Association with Kudos – 4 stars

 A large, colourful advert is projected across the stone wall in front of us, ‘these women are doing their bit – learn to make munitions’. Bits of paper are arranged on a modest little table, made to seat four, with a small bench in the background. 1916 – war struck Britain.

 Six strong, yet very unique, female characters are introduced onto the stage to take part in a secret discussion over women’s equal…

Review: Grim – A New Musical (3 stars)

It’s a breath of fresh air to watch something as ambitious – perhaps too ambitious – as The Untold Theatre Company’s brand-new full-length original musical, Grim. Even more engaging is the show’s ingenious (and a bit creep-tacular) premise: namely, a romance between the Grim Reaper (Grim), angel of death, and Cupid, angel of love. These two mighty forces collide whilst disguised as students in a secondary school, resulting in a story full of frights, friendship and first love.

It’s a…

Review: Method in Madness – 4 stars

Through contemporary dance, music and words, Method in Madness tells the tragic tale of a young American actress struggling to connect with her role as Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. After her portrayal of the famous young woman is rejected time and again by the director of the production, she turns in vain to method acting. But how far is too far? And is it necessary to let some of your own emotions and characteristics go in order to fully inhabit the…

Spoken word: the bane of English literature and horror of many a school child. Widely considered to be old-fashioned, long-winded or just plain boring. But Word Up! brings spoken word crashing into the twenty first century, and boy does it land with a bang!

Presented and arranged by Kosha Hussain, the two hour slot at Woody’s Bar and Kitchen last week forms part of a wider touring poetry show, with a particular emphasis on humanitarianism and community development. It comprised of poetry with music, poetry without music and poetry which was music, and…

Hidden away in the ACT Theatre, a magical cave of arts, theatre and creativity, Circus Suburbia presents their thoroughly anticipated cabaret show featuring their exceptionally talented Youth Circus. Presented by compere-come-magician-come-musician Jamie Longcake, expect to be enthralled by spectacular solo and synchronised trapeze, dazzling hula hoop acts, group acrobatics, LED Poi, stupendous silks, ropes and many themed performances including Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. There is something for the whole family in this beautiful, dynamic youth circus show.

Their Youth Circus show last year went down…

Written by our IYAF volunteer press team, the newsletter will be published every Saturday, Sunday and selected weekdays. Providing reviews, previews, interviews and event listings the newsletter is an excellent way to keep up-to-date with IYAF 2014.

The newsletter is available to download here: IYAF Newsletter #6

‘I remember that face!… Can it be?…” Yes, it’s Phil Hetherington, star of the 1980’s cult detective drama Finnington of the Yard, which, due to the short-sighted nature of ITV Anglia executives, was cancelled after three episodes.

Phil became disillusioned with the entertainment industry but careers in refrigeration logistics, badge making and owl farming all failed to inspire Phil. He decided to channel all of his passion and energy into his favourite pastime – Darts.

An avid arrower since birth, Phil played daily – scheduling in a game…

4 stars

One of the shows performed in the laid back facilities of the Ram Jam Club was the Black Hoods project. Developed by the Knuckle and Joint Theatre Company, the artists’ duo, Rebecca O’Brien and Peter Morton, talented University of Kent graduates, presented their puppetry show. Originally a 10 minute show, developed shortly before the festival started, it is now a near-hour long performance, which only proved the group’s quality.

This was confirmed at the very beginning when energetic entry accompanied by lively music opened the evening. Although the…

Review ‘As You Like It’

Riding on the success of last year’s excellent production of A Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare Napa Valley launched themselves into the deep end with an incredibly daring adaptation of As You Like It. With no sets, no period costumes, no shoes and no stage directions, the production was a blank canvas a soundboard for the actor’s voices.

The actors interacted fearlessly with the audience, even handing out Orlando’s love letter carvings to audience member ‘trees’ and speaking directly to audience members, at times…

Written by our IYAF volunteer press team, the newsletter will be published every Saturday, Sunday and selected weekdays. Providing reviews, previews, interviews and event listings the newsletter is an excellent way to keep up-to-date with IYAF 2014.

The newsletter is available to download here: IYAF Newsletter #5

Review of Szambalia

From the Red Light district in Second World War Germany to the lost tunnels under the Red Gate of Tibet, this original rock opera by the Maciej Pawlowski Musical School follows the adventures of four ambitious young Germans in their search for the lost civilisation of Szambalia.

The story is portrayed through contemporary dance and operatic style arias, accompanied with great pizzazz by  Dominik Roslon on piano, Piotr Filipowicz on bass and Piotr Pietrzak on drums. The choreography by Wiola Fiuk (winner of ‘So You…

A Rough Guide to Theatre Etiquette – Wherever, Whenever, Whatever  

We’ve all sat next to the gentleman with a tendency to explode into coughing fits at all the wrong moments. We’ve all gritted our teeth at a gaggle of questionably sober ladies giggling in the row behind. And we’ve all suffered the second-hand humiliation of hearing someone’s mobile phone blast out a truncated 8-bit version of Bolero mid-way through the onstage hero’s death scene.

Ring tones are one thing, of course, but surely a quick text to that…