SEE PHYSICAL FEST BROCHURE 2023 HERE

Physical Fest is Tmesis Theatre’s international physical theatre festival. A celebration of the rich variety of local, national and international contemporary physical work, the only festival of its kind in the UK.

Welcome to Physical Fest 2023. Wea re very happy to bring the festival back to Liverpool with some wonderful performances, workshops, training company and female bursaries. We are especially happy to be opening our new show, SealSkin at the Liverpool Everyman this year, launching our festival.

A big thank you to our funders, The Arts Council of England, Liverpool City Council & Culture Liverpool, our board, partners, festival team and volunteers who all make this happen

We look forward to seeing you there!

Elinor Randle Artistic Director- Tmesis Theatre & Physical Fest

WORKSHOP PROGRAMME ONSALE HERE!

In a village far away, by the wild landscape of the sea, every full moon the Selkies appear. As they peel away their seal skin, they dance freely in the moonlight, as humans. One such night a fisherman discovers their secret and, stealing away a Selkie’s skin, our story begins.

A battle of longing and belonging, Sealskin is a powerful story of betrayal, power, otherness and loss. Combining Tmesis’ trademark playful and highly skilled physicality, this new show is presented as part of Physical Fest 2023 and features live music from acoustic duo Me and Deboe.

‘Entertaining and disturbing food for thought’ 

The Stage ★★★★ (for Beyond Belief)

BOOK TICKETS HERE

A playful physical theatre performance for all audiences to enjoy! An unusual family of royalty is visiting Liverpool for their summer holiday! Performed by a cast of 10 and accompanied by a vibrant funky soundtrack. Passers-by definitely won’t miss them.

Tmesis Training Company is a training intensive run by Tmesis Theatre, this year’s piece is created and directed by Associate Artist, Eleni Edipidi.

Sat 1st July

2pm- Stanley Park- Anfield- next to playground, Walton Ln, Anfield, Liverpool L4 2SL

6pm- Suitcases, next to LIPA- Hope Street

Sunday 2^nd July

1.30 and 3.30pm- Green Space- Lodge Lane/ Corner of Grierson St

One of the best-reviewed and most in-demand debut shows of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, from the award-winning Julia Masli. An absurd homage to migration, in which a hungry Eastern European clown voyages to America for a hot dog. Choosh, by the way, means ‘bullshit’ – of all kinds. Julia Masli is an Estonian-born, London-based clown. She trained at the Ecole Philippe Gaulier, and now is a visiting teacher there.

Guardian’s Top Comedy Shows not to miss 2022

“Maestro of the art form” ★★★★ Guardian

‘Masli is a top clown and we shall see more of her’

★★★★★ Three Weeks

BOOK TICKETS HERE

“Properly bonkers… very funny.” ★★★★ The Scotsman

In Bloom- Aline Costa (Female Bursary award 2023)

A mesmerising dance performance that challenges your perception and leaves you with a sense of wonder. Drawing inspiration from Butoh techniques, the piece features slow, deliberate movements and powerful imagery that evoke mystery and intrigue, an unforgettable journey into the unknown. Aline is a Swiss performer and choreographer based in Liverpool.

Look After Your Knees- Natalie Bellingham

A show about the pain and beauty of love, what it is to both connect and unravel.

It’s a celebration of being human in all its banality, sprinkled with joy and ridiculousness. Performed by a clown delving into the space inside us left behind by loss. Natalie is theatre maker, performer and physical comedian.

‘Be Kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone’ Baz Lurhman, 1999.

Wet Dream with Jesus- Alice Way (Female Bursary award 2023)

Louisiana, home of Mardi Gras, southern hospitality, and raging purity culture. This is an autobiographical one-woman comedy investigating the wonders and pitfalls of growing up in the Bible Belt of America. The show explores Alice’s conservative, Christian led education in public high school while navigating teenage social politics and pending sexual identity. Alice, LIPA graduate, is the artistic director of Dragonfly Performance which explores social issues through thought provoking comedic theatre.

 Jam and Chemicals – Dora Colquhoun

A show about Home. Carl Sangan described Earth as a fragile dot ‘A mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.’ Earth is our collective home. But what is home? Is it a place? A feeling? People? Dora is on a quest to find out.

She is a Neurodivergent theatre maker with a passion for storytelling using humour and absurdity, she is working with international theatre and clown Jamie Wood and composer Luke Thomas.

BOOK TICKETS HERE

“I found pain in the light, and beauty in darkness.”

Duda Paiva draws on his childhood, during which he suffered an illness that blistered his body and left him temporarily blind, he transforms this experience into a metaphor about disability, rejection and resolution.

Duda Paiva Company creates physical and visual performances with his puppet dance partners, carved from flexible foam, he builds unique, elusive, magical, sometimes painful worlds, always touched by a sense of humour.

‘Blind is a theatre experience that openly hands interpretation to its audience. It’s as delightful as it is heartbreaking and too beautiful to define.’  ★★★★ Sydney Morning Herald

BOOK TICKETS HERE

‘Duda Paiva dances with his demons..and adds an extra dimension to puppetry…powerful choreography’

Theaterkrant ★★★★

How do we creative, stay creative, get inspired? What are our processes to make work?

A chance to hear from companies and artists, Jamie Wood, Tmesis, Rowena Gander, Ugly Bucket and Colectivo Jat about their processes of creating new original work, and then join in a creative conversation on what it means to be an artist and make work in 2023!

Very limited places- £5 BOOK HERE

Dr. Brown returns to the UK with a new show 11 years after winning the Edinburgh Comedy Award Most Outstanding Show and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2012. This is silent comedy at it’s most silly, surreal, and absurd from an internationally renowned clown.

‘Part mime artist, part lord of misrule‘ The Guardian

‘About as bonkers an hour of comedy as ever you would find – part Mr Bean, part Buster Keaton, all odd.’ Sunday Times

‘Thrillingly unpredictable and gloriously funny.’Time Out

‘Terrifying and titillating… alarming and alluring… fantastic.’ The Guardian

BOOK TICKETS HERE

FOLLOWED BY- FESTIVAL CLOSING PARTY! FRI 7TH JULY 8.30- LATE- SUBSTATION- INVISIBLE WIND FACTORY!

Unity Theatre, 1 Hope Place, Liverpool, L1 9BG

THE INVISIBLE WIND FACTORY-  3 Regent Road, L3 7DS

Liverpool Everyman,

5-11 Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BH

24 Hope St- L1 9BX