We had a great time performing Mobile Incitement at the Freedom and Independence Theatre Festival, with some amazing audience feedback. We feel deep gratitude to the many people who made it happen but especially Kazi Ruksana Begum, Tower Hamlets Arts Development Officer, who is an absolute force of nature, making amazing things like this festival happen on tiny budgets, while calmly dealing with the Herculean task of coordinating lot of artists and companies, both professional and amateur. Big thanks also to Mushahed Ahmed, Jules Deering, Ali Campbell and everyone else.
We’re very excited to be joined by Saida Tani for our performances at Freedom and Independence Theatre Festival. Normally, at each place we visit with the project, we work with local people to create a bespoke version of the piece that reflects the radical history of the area. But here, well, we’re back in East London, our home territory. We’re the locals. So why not work with a locally much-loved star?
Make sure you get to see this! You can get your tickets here:
Hope to see you there!
Our artistic director, Paul, was on Channel S last night to talk about bringing Mobile Incitement to Freedom and Independence Theatre Festival, along with representatives from some of the other companies involved. You can watch it on Facebook here:
You can book your tickets for Mobile Incitement here:
We hope to see you there, for a unique combination of gig, theatre and celebration!
After having its tour cancelled due to the pandemic, Gerrard Winstanley’s True & Righteous Mobile Incitement Unit is back! And not just that – it’s returning to Daedalus’s home turf: London’s East End.
The show, made in collaboration with The Black Smock Band and Rua Arts, with funding from Arts Council England, been invited to open the Freedom and Independence Theatre Festival with a bespoke version of the show, featuring guest artist Saida Tani. Who is amazing. It’s all quite an honour, frankly. It’s next Friday and Saturday at the Brady Centre in Whitechapel.
You can find out about the festival and download the brochure here – there are lots of great shows and other events. Do have a look.
You can also jump straight to buying a ticket for Mobile Incitement (as we call it for short) here on Eventbrite.
We hope to see you there!
We should be on tour now with Gerrard Winstanley’s True and Righteous Mobile Incitement Unit. Today we would have been at Slung Low’s venue The Holbeck. Slung Low’s work during the pandemic has been a source of inspiration nationwide, and it’s hard to think of a better place for a piece of theatre that’s all about reclaiming the collective, progressive side of England’s chequered past. Hopefully we can be there in 2021.
Health and the preservation of life obviously come first so we’re happy to postpone. But one of the ironies of the situation is that the original version of Mobile Incitement, made well before the first case of Covid-19 was detected, was an outdoor show and naturally quite socially-distant. Not only our subject matter but our format are truly of our time! Still, we need to be confidently past the worst of the pandemic before we can tour. John Ball, during the Peasants’ Revolt, famously declared that “Now is the time”. But right now, no, it isn’t.
We hope you’re all well and staying safe.
We’ve had to reschedule our activities, and we really only have one active project at the moment: Gerrard Winstanley’s True and Righteous Mobile Incitement Unit, which was to start touring in June, with a second leg in the autumn.
We’re working on the basis that we should still prepare for autumn activities, while being ready to move them to if we have to. To this end, we’ve come up with a plan based on two priorities: to protect the health and safety of everyone we work with, artists, venues stuff, the public and all, and to maximise opportunities to provide paid work for artists during this emergency by moving as much of our activity online as possible. (We’re only funded on a project-by-project basis so have no funds to pay artists outside of project work.)
You can read our statement here. It will be updated as the situation develops. We also welcome any advice, because we’re just finding our way through this strange new territory, just like everyone else! You can always get in touch with us by via email or social media.
Our collaboration with Bangladeshi literature group Bishwo Shahitto Kendro continues. The leaders of our East Storytelling Project will be performing as East 3 at this year’s Boishaki Mela in Weavers Fields, Bethnal Green on Sunday 30 June, and Great Day Out in Victoria Park on 3rd August – details to come.
East 3 are internationally renowned storytellers Shamim Azad and Sef Townsend, supported by musician and theatre-maker Paul Burgess, pictured below at last year’s Mela.
In other news, with several London venues and a Latitude Festival performance behind us, we’re now tour-booking for our gig-theatre/art/protest piece Gerrard Winstanley’s True and Rightous Mobile Incitement Unit. (You can call it Mobile Incitement for short, by the way.) We’re mainly looking 2020 but dates later this year are possible too. Get in touch if you want us!
Andy and Payam took some great photos of our performance at Latitude. Here’s a selection. You can see more here.
Well, that was amazing. Huge thanks to Latitude Festival for giving us, along with our project partners Rua Arts and The Black Smock Band, the chance to bring Gerrard Winstanley’s True and Righteous Mobile Incitement Unit (aka #MobileIncitement) to the festival. Thanks also to Ovalhouse, who commissioned it in the first place, and to Queen Mary University of London who supported the development of our participation programme. Last but not least, thanks to all the lovely people who joined us in the Faraway Forest and shared their experiences and knowledge. Ye noble Diggers all, stand up now!
A raucous folk gig, a community-centred political gathering and a bold reclamation of England’s radical history… It’s…
GERRARD WINSTANLEY’S
TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS
MOBILE INCITEMENT UNIT
Made with Rua Arts and The Black Smock Band, Mobile Incitement (as we call it for short – #mobileincitement on social media) was commissioned by Ovalhouse and shown at Brixton City Festival. Its participation programme was then developed at Queen Mary uni, prior to a show at Poplar Union. It’s then at Latitude Festival before touring late 2018 into 2019. Get in touch to book us or find out more or, if you’ve seen it, give us your feedback: www.daedalustheatre.co.uk