Ria Hartley
Matilda and Me
Presented by Divergency, Sustained Theatre Up North + Word of Warning
In Brief
A woman makes a decision that will change her family’s history and the course of their future. Five decades later her granddaughter reflects on the con-sequences, retracing Matilda’s journey to discover how it has shaped her own.
Venue + Booking Details
Date: Thursday 25 June 2015, 7.30pm
Venue: STUN Studio at Z-arts, 335 Stretford Road, Manchester, M15 5ZA
Tickets: £5/3 | Please note there is a limited capacity.
Box Office Tel: 0161 232 6089
Access Information
Age advisory: 14+ With no interval, the show lasts approximately 1 hour. Spoken word, mainly English. For specific age and access information please email info@habarts.org or call 0161 232 6086.
More
“Matilda is my Grandma.
She migrated from Jamaica to England in 1962.
Now all of her memories have faded.
I need to remember for her, for me, for us…”
Weaving together storytelling, spoken word, dubpoetry, live art, autobiography, and reggae music, this colourful and challenging performance offers a political viewpoint surrounding the lived experience of migration, colonialism, racism, and the current perception of British cultural identity. Performed solo, the piece is presented as a biographical mythology of Ria’s lived experiences, reflecting poetically on the story of her and her Grandma, and the 2 islands they are from.
Devised through extensive training in the s.o.r.p.l.u.s.i methodology at the YEMOYA international artist residency (Jamaica) by internationally acclaimed dub poet, monodramatist and educator d’bi young anitafrika. YEMOYA is an international artist residency committed to the holistic development of people; s.o.r.p.l.u.s.i is an acronym of the eight core principles of the methodology: self-knowledge, orality, rhythm, political content + context, language, urgency, sacredness, integrity.
Who is she?
An interdisciplinary performance artist, Ria works within the mediums of devised theatre, performance, live art, video installation, photography, spoken word, site-specific + durational performance; often autobiographical, her work is concerned with memory, identity, communication and human relationships. She has been an associate lecturer at Falmouth University since 2010.
Credits
Writer + performer: Ria Hartley
Training + methodology: d’bi young anitafrika | Additional dramaturgy: Misri Dey | Additional direction: Leo Kay
Initial creation and development supported by Arts Council England + National Lottery Heritage Fund; further developed with support of the SOLO Contemporary Performance Forum + Apples and Snakes.