Ringside - T0331755914Take a front row seat, join the family and meet the many potential brides at Mem Morrison’s long overdue wedding reception. Part written, part devised, the performance draws on a lifetime of remembered Turkish Cypriot family weddings, an intimate attempt to belong to a culture, to a family and to someone. | |
| 28 May 10 to 30 May 10 | Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield :: V972 listing details L0190923159 |
Ringside - T0323911453Mem Morrison requests the pleasure of your company. Take a front row seat, join the family and meet the many potential brides at his long overdue wedding reception. From behind the big hair and a seven-tier wedding cake a flicker of hope peers; an intimate attempt to belong to a culture, to a family and to someone. Mem Morrison’s new production Ringside draws on a lifetime of remembered Turkish Cypriot family weddings, testing traditional values by breaking the silence and changing history forever. Will it be Mem’s turn next?Producer Mem Morrison Company. Producer Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Producer Fierce!. Producer Town Hall Birmingham. Director Mem Morrison. Sound Andy Pink. | |
| 14 Jan 10 to 15 Jan 10 | Town Hall, Birmingham :: V803084951 listing details L469187821 |
Leftovers - T01235578142The full English breakfast is given a Citizenship Test as Mem Morrison returns to his roots to explore the cultural connotations of the traditional greasy spoon café. LEFTOVERS is a development of Mem's earlier performance FUEL which was created for Home , London, December 2004. For FUEL, Mem invited members of his extended family to help him create a one-off performance in a domestic kitchen involving traditional Turkish Cypriot cooking and hospitality. FUEL was an intimate encounter with Mem and his family. LEFTOVERS will further this investigation, taking Mem's culinary and cultural concerns to a wider context and looking at the implications within contemporary British society. The English café or greasy spoon played a significant role in my childhood. My parents ran a café in Forest Hill, South London. Dad was responsible for orders, making tea and serving, mum would cook in the kitchen at the back. Our family of six lived in the two-bedroom maisonette above the café. As you can imagine, we were cramped upstairs so I made the café my playground, except during lunchtimes when downstairs was out of bounds. The business and home merged into one . Mum would cook our meals both in the kitchen upstairs and the kitchen downstairs. Full English spliced effortlessly into traditional Turkish Cypriot and the café was an extension of our home. For me, as a child, food came to represent the focal point of conflict and segregation. My Muslim background met with daily challenges: Lunchtimes, Monday to Friday, a feast of Shepherds Pie, Fish and Chips, Spam Fritters, Apple Crumble and Custard; but at home this food was to be smelt and not eaten. Eating English food at school meant I could fit in . As a child I didn't have the skills to embrace my cultural heritage because I was putting my energies into fighting against it. I wanted to be accepted by those around me but wasn't willing to accept myself. Sunderland Cafe was home until the age of eight when my parents sold up and bought a Doner Kebab shop. It was a fond farewell to the full English breakfast and a full embrace of our Turkish Cypriot heritage. For LEFTOVERS, Mem heads out onto the High Street to un-cover an English café culture that has been assimilated and imperceptibly changed by generations of Turkish Cypriot families. LEFTOVERS will explore culture and cultural difference and how this is expressed through food. It is a gentle exploration of how cultures meet and mingle, eat, socialise and influence each other. Mem Morrison is a performance artist who has been making his own, highly personal, work since 1995. He is interested in exploring performance as a healing process and as a way of finding a voice. With a strong emphasis on design and colour, the work often draws upon personal history and environment to evoke the complexities of acknowledging and accepting cultural difference. LEFTOVERS is commissioned by Chelsea Theatre and Nottingham NOW! Festival. | |
| 25 Apr 08 | Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Outer London :: V01396607277 listing details L0166944543 |
| 4 Apr 08 | Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff :: V1984858935 listing details L139563104 |
| 27 Mar 08 | Burton Taylor Studio, Oxford :: V799 listing details L01115352005 |
| 20 Mar 08 | New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich :: V81 listing details L489674040 |
| 18 Mar 08 | Lakeside Theatre, Colchester :: V36 listing details L693777250 |
| 10 Mar 08 to 11 Mar 08 | Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry :: V156 listing details L2090799845 |
| 20 Feb 08 | Gulbenkian Arts Centre, Canterbury :: V673 listing details L890141004 |
| 6 Mar 07 to 9 Mar 07 | Chelsea Theatre, Inner London :: V179 listing details L1435582784 |
| 17 Oct 06 to 20 Oct 06 | Chelsea Theatre, Inner London :: V179 listing details L0428451180 |
