London International Mime Festival 2020 ^expired Free

For 2020, the 44th year of London’s annual festival of contemporary visual theatre, 10 overseas companies join 8 British groups, including 4 LIMF co-commissioned productions: This Time, a tender take on relationships and ageing from aerial theatre company Ockham’s Razor; Romancing the Apocalypse from multi award winning dance duo Thick & Tight; Dead Good, a funny and poignant story of dying from full mask theatre company Vamos Theatre; and the story of one of showbiz’s long overlooked partnerships, The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel performed by Told by an Idiot at new festival venue, the iconic Wilton’s Music Hall. Belgium’s dance-theatre company Peeping Tom and the movie/theatre/dance ensemble Kiss & Cry Collective return with new shows, there’s exquisite puppetry from New York, France, and by London’s String Theatre on its unique Puppet Theatre Barge, and the Barbican Cinema will screen a triple-bill of remarkable silent movie classics with live jazz accompaniment. Workshops for 2020 include an exclusive course taught by faculty members from the École Jacques Lecoq, Paris, and a residential course celebrating 30 years of the David Glass Ensemble. Opposable Thumb, a new company formed by Dik Downey after 20 years as co-director of Pickled Image present the London premiere of Coulrophobia (fear of clowns); 80 minutes of brilliant slapstick, mime, puppetry, existential angst, big shoes and disappointing nudity.Galactik Ensemble, all graduates of France’s famous national circus school at Rosny sous Bois present the UK premiere of Optraken. Unstable ground disappears underfoot, walls wobble, ceilings collapse, dangers come from every side. Forget elegant tumbling and spangly tights – this wonderfully inventive and original piece of physical theatre is a battle in which every movement matters for survival as five fantastic acrobats pit themselves against a hostile environment. New Zealander Trygve Wakenshaw is back with the UK premiere of Only Bones v1.4. Rubber-limbed, oozing with whimsy, dripping with charm, master of the risqué and magnificently mad, Trygve Wakenshaw takes on the challenge to create micro-physical comedy productions set by fellow New Zealander, Thomas Monckton.The PappyShow (UK) present BOYS, a celebration of male tenderness, silliness, vulnerability and community performed by a cast of young men. Unscripted, and each story uniquely told in every performance, BOYS is a joyful, electric, occasionally raw but always tender piece that hopes to unravel preconceptions and uncover the endless possibilities that can make up a man. Described as ‘one of the most innovative jugglers worldwide’.Wes Peden returns with his new solo show, Zebra, whose aesthetic has been described as that of a futuristic chandelier with a sense of humour. Creating never before seen sequences of evolving shapes and constellations with incredible new throws and catches, he transforms his props into mesmerising waves of movement and gives astonishing new life to vinyl records. Wes has performed around the world from Olympic stadiums in Tokyo to Broadway theatres in NYC and glacier museums in Iceland - he was also a part of Water on Mars, a sell-out sensation at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe. His energetic, playful and complex style has won awards from the International Juggling Association and Cirque de Demain.