The Barbican is having a rather fabulous 25th birthday this week starting tonight. In one breath-taking fortnight, the sprawling arts venue is going to host more than 100 events covering family activites, film, music, dance, theatre and all the stuff the Barbican has been pushing on us in London for the last quarter-century. Being slightly overwhelmed by all the things we could mention in this two week celebration of all things Barbican, we're going to mention the dance piece that is one of the 25th landmark events, because it opens tonight and looks exactly like the kind of thing we would go to the Barbican to see.
Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre are presenting their new work The Bull in the Barbican theatre. This piece of dance theatre is based on the great Irish epic The Cattle-Raid of Cooley (An Táin Bó Cuailnge) which is the tale of war fought over a prize bull. This ancient Irish saga is re-told in inimitable Fabulous Beast style and is presented in the context of today's seedy underbelly of society. It's the seedy underbelly we hope to never have to encounter except in a theatre: the world presented is populated by "runts, imbeciles, egomaniacs, masochistic deviants and impotent catamites" - just the sort of thing for a major London arts venue to celebrate its birthday.
We're terribly excited about the huge pile of soil that seems to be involved. And the bare chested men rolling about in it. And the warning / promise of "nudity and explicit material and language."
The Bull by Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, at the Barbican from tonight until 3 March. For more information and to book tickets, go to the Barbican website here. For more information about the Barbican's 25th birthday celebrations and the landmark event series, go to the website here.
