Roll Play / IRMÃ-sister

This year’s Garden Party will look a little different to our usual get together in the park, but you can bet it’ll still be a magical weekend of free performance. This year, we’ll have four Zones, each with several performances from incredible artists and companies. Book this Zone to see Simple Cypher’s Roll Play and IRMÃ-sister by Damae Dance.

SIMPLE CYPHER
ROLL PLAY

Prepare to be amazed by the explosive tricks and artful dexterity of Simple Cypher’s newest outdoor production Roll Play. Three performers blur the boundaries between hip hop and circus, using intricate moves and virtuosic agility to give a captivating, cheeky and effortlessly cool performance.

A folding bench is the meeting point for three strangers from different walks of life; a park bench, a bus stop, a waiting room. What unfolds is a series of playful interactions challenging identity, status and societal roles. Divisions between class, race and education are shattered as the characters go on a journey of building trust, lending support and discovering connections between one another.

Simple Cypher fuses circus and hip hop to create new, uplifting experiences. Simple Cypher is a company built through the foundations of Hip Hop and Circus. Style, originality and unity are key fundamentals of Hip Hop culture and have a profound influence on the work the company creates.

DAMAE DANCE
IRMÃ-SISTER

DamaeDance’s mesmerizing outdoor work IRMÃ-sister is an exhilarating, cutting-edge exploration of the beauty and challenges of women’s relationships, looking at how they affect and shape the way we perceive ourselves and our surrounding environment. Narrated with an athletic and restless movement language, two women face a journey through conflict and harmony, tenderness and anger, misunderstanding and support, from which they can emerge only with a renewed understanding of themselves and the other.

Complex and thought-provoking, IRMÃ challenges classic preconceptions about women’s representation on stage, celebrating their strength and power and ultimately portraying women, who have weight, can sustain weight and at the same time display vulnerability.

Access Information – What to expect from the performances

Roll Play: Roll Play is a circus hip-hop mashup, performed with audiences on three sides. There is no spoken or written text in the main performance, although there is an encore in which some of the movement is related to lyrics in the music. The main performance can be enjoyed without hearing this music, although the encore is heavily linked to the lyrical text.

There are audio descriptions and photos of the characters available pre-show, with a video intro from each character. The relationship between the characters are explored through the music, movement and the costumes they wear.

IRMÃ-sister: IRMÃ-sister is a contemporary dance duet performed on a circular stage. It can be watched and appreciated from all angles. There is no spoken or written text in the performance, but there is music which is important in the emotional development of the story (although it can be understood without hearing this). This music does get louder and more intense towards the end of the piece, but there are no sudden noises. Beyond themes of struggle, there are no obvious elements of the story which could be triggering.

If you have any questions about the accessibility of this year’s Garden Party, or any of our Festival events, please email Rachael at access@nnfestival.org.uk

Explore the other Garden Party Zones

MEarth MOthers / BONDED

Why? / The Rascally Diner

GOOD YOUTES WALK