In 2004, a team of artists from Emergency Exit Arts (EEA) visited Sri Lanka to learn more about the cultural traditions of celebratory and community arts and carnival in the region. They were invited to a 'Full Moon' festival in a village. This annual event reflects the lives of the people in the village through story - this one told a traditional Buddhist tale of birth, life and death - presented in an enclosed environment. The impression they took was of a community-based carnival or celebration that was vivid and colourful, but also intimate, personal and deeply moving.
The company spent the next year developing a new show, Arena: The Perfect Circle, a new kind of outdoor celebratory performance which had its first outing in April on a piece of empty land near The Dome in Greenwich. Arena uses many elements of carnival - dance, theatre, costumes, music and pyrotechnics - but it is presented in an 50m diameter enclosed space rather than in a procession. As a result the audience becomes more involved - even part of the performance. The show also features a mainstay of EEAs touring work, giant mechanical sculptures made by accomplished EEA engineers, and a troupe of stiltwalking meerkats who roam the crowd.
EEA's guiding principle of outreach and involvement in all areas of its work is reflected in the use of site decoration made by local community groups in Greenwich and the companys commitment to ever more spectacular theatrical events is demonstrated by the use of ambitious pyrotechnics, lighting and sound effects which contribute to the carnival atmosphere. The hope is that the show is carnival with a message about regeneration and hope, about life, death, and turtles...
e: info@eea.org.uk; t: 020 8853 4809
w: http://www.enterthearena.co.uk