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Digital Programme: This & That (MimeLondon)

This & That performance image of shadow play

Find out more about the production and the creative team behind it in our digital programme. 

Welcome

Welcome to the Barbican and thank you for joining us for our new season. To mark the start of a new year, we look back and also celebrate new beginnings. 

For over twenty years, we have presented breathtaking and extraordinary shows in collaboration with the ground-breaking London International Mime Festival. The festival has now ended but we’re delighted to be working again with Helen Lannaghan and Joseph Seelig, the festival’s directors, as they find new ways for us to connect audiences with companies across the world who specialise in visual storytelling. We are delighted to present four exciting international productions in The Pit between 23 January and 17 February, as part of MimeLondon (the new season in which Helen and Joseph will curate an enticing programme in collaboration with several partner venues).

This year, we welcome back two French companies. Les Antliaclastes’ Ambergris is a darkly comic adaptation of Pinocchio set in the belly of a whale and told through a mesmerising blend of puppetry, music and machines. Next, the delightful duo Stereoptik return with a new mini-spectacle, Antechamber, a transformative love story created live on stage through sketching, painting, music and film. 

This is followed by two companies making their Barbican debuts this year. From Spain, El Patio Teatro use hand-crafted anatomical objects to unravel the mysteries of what makes us human, in Entrañas (or, as we might say, Insides!) Finally, award-winning experimental American theatre-makers Phil Soltanoff and Steven Wendt invite us into a world of wonder with This & That, a playground of live performance mixing abstract video projection, music and enchanting hand shadow puppetry. 

We hope you enjoy your visit, whether you are choosing just one show or coming back for more than one of these intricate and spellbinding contemporary performances.

Toni Racklin, Barbican Head of Theatre & Dance

 

We began very humbly. There was no master plan. Steven and I took some old sound and video equipment that was lying around in storage and put it in my studio in Hoboken New Jersey. Then we played with the stuff. And continued playing. We invited some people to come and see us play and they invited us to their theatres. And now we find ourselves here. Our ambition has always been to create simple, human, poetic, fact-driven theatre: visual theatre that doesn’t need any words. We’re thrilled that we can now share that vision with an audience at the Barbican.

Phil Soltanoff and Steven Wendt

Company

Performer Steven Wendt

Co-writers Phil Soltanoff and Steven Wendt

Director Phil Soltanoff

Technical Director Stéphane Chipeaux-Dardé

Producer The Institute of Useless Activity

Coproducer The Bushwick Starr

Delegated producer (outside US) Compagnie 111 - Aurélien Bory

Digital programme image Brian Rogers

With the support of The Jim Henson Foundation. Phil Soltanoff and Steven Wendt received  the Jim Henson Award for Innovation and the 2023 Allelu Award from the Jim Henson Foundation in support of the performances at the Barbican in London. Phil Soltanoff is the recipient of the Herb Alpert Award for Theatre 2020.

Related events

Post-show talk (BSL-interpreted)

Thu 15 Feb

Phil Soltanoff and Steven Wendt in conversation, hosted by Joseph Seelig and BSL-interpreted by Samuel Rojas.

Members event: Puppets in Theatre – Bringing New Life to the Stage

Tue 13 Feb

Discover more about the imaginative art of puppetry at this MimeLondon   in-conversation event with Basil Twist and Phelim McDermott, facilitated by Cheryl Henson. 
Free for Members

About the performance

THAT uses light and video technology as abstract puppetry.

THIS investigates hand shadows.

THAT paints with light and imagines the universe.

THIS is about the people in it, their romantic sense of longing, loss and alienation.

THAT uses cameras, projectors and tripods that come to life;

zooming in and out, manoeuvring visual feedback loops, dissolving images together

and apart – creating an abstract video puppetry right in front of our eyes.

THIS tells stories about loss and love. A cowboy sleeps under the stars, a family puts their child to sleep for the night, a crooner serenades his lover, a jazz pianist fantasises while he plays.

THAT is inspired by Basil Twist’s Symphony Fantastique.

THIS brings to life characters inspired by the sculptures of Henri Moore.

A process of discovery

We are committed to discovering what we don’t yet know about something. To that end, we engage in extended research and development. Each rehearsal starts from a blank page (metaphorically speaking). We investigate something – an object, process or convention – without knowing where we are going or where we will end up. We have the faith and confidence that we will stumble upon something interesting along the way. 

We’re swimming in technology in our daily lives. Consequently, we use technology to build our work. We don’t, however, use the technology in the way it was intended. For example, we might attach a homemade contact mic to a tensor lamp. The lamp then transforms from a light source to something musical – and something mysterious.

We are committed to discovering and using what we call the ‘facts’ in the space. We are not trying to hide the truth of any object, process or space. We acknowledge their truth. And by doing so, we explore the honest transformations possible when we create work by juxtaposing the facts as they are.

We avoid slickness by rediscovering the poetry in simple objects.

We are interested in creating new forms by combining and juxtaposing familiar forms.

We believe in what John Cage calls ‘purposeful purposelessness’. Our work does not have to be useful politically or socially – just playful and naive; curious and full of wonder. Useless art is very useful.

Phil Soltanoff and Steven Wendt

Biographies

Phil Soltanoff

Co-writer and Director

This & That was featured at The Chocolate Factory Theatre (Queens) in association with The Bushwick Starr; HERE Arts Center (NYC). Recent projects include Oyster at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn; Sanctuary for Independent Media; Skidmore College M-Docs; A Evening with William Shatner Asterisk, featured in the Coil Festival; Fusebox Festival; PuSh Festival; Mass Live Arts and Live Arts Exchange; SITSTANDWALKLIEDOWN on Governors Island (SITELINES) and The Williamstown Theatre Festival; The Soltanoff/Findlay Project, commissioned by the Center Theatre Group; and I/O created in collaboration with sound artist Joe Diebes, which was featured in Festival Novelum at Theatre Garonne. L.A. PARTY, which premiered at PRELUDE09, was featured in UNDER THE RADAR, Fusebox Festival, PS122, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, the Hopkins Center, The Flynn Center, PuSh Festival and Mass Live Arts, among others. Phil Soltanoff has created two works in collaboration with Aurélien Bory and Cie 111: Plan B (2003) and More or Less, Infinity (2005) have performed around the world including at the Le théâtre Garonne in Toulouse, Kampnagel in Hamburg, Eurokaz Festival in Zagreb, Trafo in Budapest, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne in Lausanne, Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon, Pina Bausch’s NRW International Dance Festival in Düsseldorf, Maison de la Danse in Lyon, London International Mime Festival, Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, BITEF-42 in Belgrade and The New Victory Theatre in New York City, among others. To Whom it May Concern, performed in an abandoned office building in NYC, was also featured at BITEF-31 in Belgrade. Co-founder of five myles with Hanne Tierney, he is also the founder of The Institute of Useless Activity. He was nominated for a Molière Award in 2007, a recipient of The Doris Duke Creative Exploration Fund Award and the 2020 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. www.philsoltanoff.net

 

Steven Wendt 

Creator/Performer
Work includes: This & That at The Chocolate Factory Theater (NYC) and HERE Arts Center (NYC); and Blue Man for the Blue Man Group at Astor Place Theater in New York City 2012-present. Wendt assisted to develop and perform the 2022 Blue Man Group North American tour, and appeared in Under Influence, a film by Sidney Leoni (Belgium). Wendt has been puppeteer on various commercials and web shows for Cartoon Network and Kids W.B. Other projects include contributions to The Soltanoff/Findlay Project at The Center Theater Group in Los Angeles, Ground to Cloud by Christine Marie at REDCAT (Disney Hall Los Angeles), and Growing Up Linda by Marsian De Lellis at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Steven Wendt is a recipient of the Puppeteers of America Jim Henson Innovation Award 2023 and was nominated for a Henry Hewes Notable Effects Award 2023. Steven is a graduate of Walnut Hill School for the Arts and The California Institute of the Arts ’09.  www.stevenwendt.com

About Compagnie 111

Compagnie 111

Compagnie 111 was founded in Toulouse in 2000 by Aurélien Bory. The company works with a range of collaborators, developing a physical and visual theatre which is focused on the relation between space, bodies and physics with an important focus on scenography. Its repertoire of fifteen works has been presented worldwide to wide acclaim. 

Compagnie 111 – Aurélien Bory is under a funding agreement with the Regional Directorate for Cultural Affairs Occitanie / French Ministry of Culture and Communication, Region Occitanie / Pyrénées – Méditerranée and the City council of Toulouse. It is supported by the French Institute for some of its collaborative projects and tours abroad. cie111.com

MimeLondon

MimeLondon is a new curatorial project created by Helen Lannaghan and Joseph Seelig, directors of London International Mime Festival (LIMF), which ended in 2023 after five decades of award-winning success. MimeLondon will support occasional seasons of contemporary visual theatre, in collaboration with different partner venues. 

For its first series in London, which runs from 12 January to 17 February 2024, the Barbican, the National Theatre, Sadler’s Wells and Shoreditch Town Hall are hosting eight productions new to London, the work of four overseas groups, and four UK-based companies co-commissioned by London International Mime Festival in its final year. A series of workshops organised in association with the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and Shoreditch Town Hall is taking place during the same period. mimelondon.com

For the Barbican

Barbican Centre Board 
Chair 
Tom Sleigh 
Deputy Chair 
Sir William Russell 
Deputy Chair 
Tobi Ruth Adebekun 

Board Members 
Randall Anderson, Munsur Ali, Stephen Bediako OBE, Farmida Bi CBE, Tijs Broeke, Zulum Elumogo, Wendy Mead OBE, Mark Page, Alpa Raja, Jens Riegelsberger, Jane Roscoe, Irem Yerdelen, Despina Tsatsas, Michael Asante MBE 

Clerk to the Board 
John Cater and Kate Doidge 

Barbican Centre Trust 
Chair 
Farmida Bi CBE 
Vice Chair 
Robert Glick OBE 

Trustees 
Tom Bloxham MBE, Stephanie Camu, Tony Chambers, Cas Donald, David Kapur, Ann Kenrick, Kendall Langford, Sir William Russell, Tom Sleigh, Claire Spencer AM, Sian Westerman 

Directors 
Chief Executive Officer 
Claire Spencer 
Director of Development 
Natasha Harris 
Director of People, Inclusion and Culture 
Ali Mirza 
Head of Finance & Business Administration 
Sarah Wall 
Acting Director for Buildings and Renewal 
Cornell Farrell 
Director of Commercial 
Jackie Boughton 
Senior Executive Assistant to Claire Spencer 
Jo Daly 

Theatre Department 
Head of Theatre and Dance 
Toni Racklin 
Senior Production Manager 
Simon Bourne 
Producers 
Liz Eddy, Jill Shelley, Fiona Stewart 
Assistant Producers 
Saxon Mudge, Mali Siloko, Tom Titherington 
Production Managers 
Jamie Maisey, Lee Tasker 
Technical Managers 
Steve Daly, Jane Dickerson, Nik Kennedy, Martin Morgan, Stevie Porter 
Stage Managers 
Lucinda Hamlin, Charlotte Oliver 
Technical Supervisors 
James Breedon, Charlie Mann, Jamie Massey, Matt Nelson, Adam Parrott, Lawrence Sills, Chris Wilby 

Technicians  
Kendell Foster, David Kennard, Burcham Johnson, Bart Kuta, Christian Lyons, Josh Massey, Kieran Poynter, Fred Riding, Fede Spada, Matt Turnbull 
PA to Head of Theatre 
David Green

Production Administrator 
Caroline Hall 
Production Assistant 
Michaela Harcegová 
Stage Door 
Julian Fox, aLbi Gravener 

Creative Collaboration and Learning 
Head of Creative Collaboration 
Karena Johnson 
Producer 
Josie Dick 
Producer  
Lauren Brown 
Assistant Producer 
Rikky Onefeli 
Assistant Producer  
Carmen Okome 

Marketing Department 
Head of Marketing 
Jackie Ellis 
Deputy Head of Marketing 
Ben Jefferies 
Senior Marketing Manager 
Kyle Bradshaw 
Marketing Assistant 
Olivia Brissett and Rebecca Moore 

Communications Department 
Head of Communications 
James Tringham 
Senior Communications Manager 
Ariane Oiticica 
Communications Manager 
HBL 
Communications Assistant 
Sumayyah Sheikh 

Audience Experience 
Deputy Head of Audience Experience & Operations 
Sheree Miller 
Ticket Sales Managers 
Lucy Allen, Oliver Robinson, Ben Skinner, Jane Thomas 
Operations Managers 
Ben Raynor, Elizabeth Davies-Sadd, Samantha Teatheredge, Hayley Zwolinsk 
Operations Manager (Health & Safety) 
Mo Reideman 
Audience Event & Planning Manager 
Freda Pouflis 
Venue Managers 
Scott Davies, Tabitha Goble, Nicola Lake, Maria Pateli 
Assistant Venue Managers 
Rhiannon Brennan, Sam Hind, Bronagh Leneghan, Melissa Olcese, Daniel Young 
Crew Management 
Dave Magwood, Rob Magwood, James Towell 
Access and Licensing Manager 
Rebecca Oliver 
Security Operations Manager 
Naqash Sheikh 
Audience Experience Coordinator 
Ayelen Fananas

With thanks...

The Barbican is London’s creative catalyst for arts, curiosity and enterprise. We spark creative possibilities and transformation for artists, audiences and communities – to inspire, connect, and provoke debate. 

We’re committed to making a difference locally, nationally and internationally by showcasing some of the most inspiring and visionary work by artists and communities. We’re not-for-profit. Each year we need to raise 60% of our income through fundraising, ticket sales, and commercial activities. Our supporters play a vital role in keeping our programme accessible to everyone, which includes our work with local schools; development opportunities for emerging creatives; and access to discounted and subsidised tickets. 

Barbican supporters enjoy behind the scenes access across the centre and see first-hand what their gift enables through enhanced priority booking, as well as access to tickets for sold-out performances and exclusive events. For more information please visit www.barbican.org.uk/join-support/support-us or [email protected]

With thanks... 

Founder and principal funder 
The City of London Corporation 

Major Supporters 
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch) 
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art 
SHM Foundation 
The Terra Foundation for American Art 

Leading Supporters 
Trevor Fenwick and Jane Hindley 
Marcus Margulies 

Programme Supporters 
Goodman Gallery 
Romilly Walton Masters Award 
Jack Shainman Gallery 
The Rudge Shipley Charitable Trust 

Director’s Circle 
James and Louise Arnell 
Farmida Bi CBE 
Jo and Tom Bloxham MBE 
Philippe and Stephanie Camu 
Cas Donald 
Alex and Elena Gerko 
Trevor Fenwick and Jane Hindley 
Sian and Matthew Westerman 
SHM Foundation 
Sir Howard Panter and Dame Rosemary Squire 
Anonymous (1)

Corporate Supporters 
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John S Cohen Foundation 
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U.S. Embassy London 

We also want to thank the Barbican Patrons, members, and the many thousands who made a donation when purchasing tickets.  

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