Devoted & Disgruntled: NOW what are we going to do about European theatre?

An invitation from Sharlit Deyzac & Amy Clare Tasker, Voila! Europe festival directors, and Will Mytum, Actors Centre theatre programme co-ordinator:

In April, the Actors Centre and Voila! Europe present A Piece of the Continent Festival, a celebration of European artists. We want to make Europeans feel welcome and valued in the UK, and we want British audiences to appreciate the contributions Europeans make to our culture.

Whether you’ve been out in the streets with your protest signs since 2016, or keeping calm and carrying on, Brexit is now upon us. As we write this invitation, we still don’t know what that’s going to look like - but by the time the festival takes place, we may have have some answers. We may have crashed out of the EU without a deal, or we may have delayed the deadline, or we may have revoked Article 50 via a People’s Vote.

Whatever happens, we’ll need to talk about it.

How can we continue cross-cultural and cross-border collaboration now?

How can we support European artists who have made the UK their home?

What are the opportunities to tour British productions to Europe? Does anyone want us to come anymore?

Could producing European theatre in the UK help to heal the divides in our society that led to the referendum result in the first place?

How can we turn the challenges we’re facing into new opportunities, spurred on by the surge of public interest in Europe?

These are some of the questions we’re asking ourselves. You might have more, or different ones - or even some answers...

Devoted & Disgruntled is an event which uses Open Space Technology to facilitate open and inclusive conversations about questions like these - and any others you might bring with you! It invites participants from all corners of the sector - artists, press, venues, funders, audiences - to take part in the discussion.

At D&D everyone's voice can be heard, and no topic is censored. We’ll create the agenda together at the beginning of the event, and then everyone has the opportunity to choose for themselves what questions to focus on. If we’re going to change the world for the better, we all need time and space to collaborate on an equal footing. Devoted & Disgruntled is that time and space.

Hope to see you there,

Sharlit, Amy & Will

This event is fully wheelchair-accessible including wheelchair-accessible toilets. BSL interpretation is available if requested in advance. To request BSL interpretation or for any other access queries, please contact [email protected] or call 020 7240 4556.