This impossible déjà-vu closes the gap between frustration, hope and hilarity
Forced Entertainment once cut a dash with Complete Works : Table Top Shakespeare, in which they performed the complete Shakespeare oeuvre with household objects. In its new performance Real Magic the company creates a world full of absurdity and comic repetition. With a hilarious laughing tape in the background, the players, dressed in yellow chicken suits, set up an impossible illusion. Forced Entertainment unrolls the same scenario again and again, like a puzzle whose solution cannot be found. Thus at the same time, a chaotic game show, an illusionist show ánd a telepathic trick unfold. Are two events ever completely the same ? The answer of this internationally acclaimed Forced Entertainment is a trip full of endless optimism and pure magic ! In an indirect way, Real Magic -which premièred in the weeks preceding the Brexit referendum in 2016- criticizes capitalism in the Trump era.
For more than 30 years Forced Entertainment has been at the top of the avant-garde in the British theatre. The group from Sheffield cheerfully dismantles all theatre conventions and continually undermines the expectations of the audience. In this way it has already inspired several generations of theatre makers to take a distance from theatre that is purely plot-driven, to play with form and experiment amply with what the performing arts could be.
The contradiction in its name says it all about Forced Entertainment. Under the sharp look of its artistic leader, Tim Etchells, the group aims at humour which also gives the audience food for thought. Next to self-willed performances, the group has installations in art galleries to its name, but also
location theatre, books, photographic projects, videos and even a hilarious guided bus tour. In 2016 Forced Entertainment won the prestigious International Ibsen Award, given to theatre makers or organisations that have added a new dimension to theatre.
“Devilish gameshow is a Forced Entertainment tour de force” – The Guardian
Forced Entertainment
Real Magic
CONCEIVED AND DEVISED BY Forced Entertainment / DIRECTOR Tim Etchells / DEVISED WITH AND PERFORMED BY Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall / CREATED WITH INPUT FROM Robin Arthur, Cathy Naden / LIGHTING DESIGN Jim Harrison / DESIGN Richard Lowdon / PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Jim Harrison / SOUND TECHNICIANS Greg Akenhurst, Doug Currie / PROJECT ASSISTANT Anna Krauss / MUSIC ELECTRONICS & SOUND EDITING John Avery Loops Tim Etchells ‘Grave’ / FROM Telemann Fantasia Number 1 in B-Flat Major Aisha Orazbayeva / PRODUCTION Forced Entertainment / CO-PRODUCED BY PACT Zollverein Essen, HAU Hebbel Am Ufer Berlin, Künsterlhaus Moustonturm Frankfurt, Tanzquartier Wien Vienna, ACCA Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, University of Sussex, the Spalding Gray Consortium – On the Boards Seattle, PS122 NYC, Walker Art Center Minneapolis, Warhol Museum Pittsburgh.
