The festival, which runs across two off-West End theatres from the 3rd September, has confirmed details of its programme – including three brand new shows for UK Week.
This Latin American theatre festival marks its 10th anniversary in 2017 and will showcase a wide variety of work in which artists, audiences and participants of all backgrounds are welcome to be involved with.
One week of the festival is UK Week, during which it celebrates the talent of Latin American artists living in the UK. It will feature a repertory season of brand new full length works by some of the UK’s most exciting Latin American artists, concluding with a super Saturday featuring new performances by CASA associate artists such as Victor Esses’s Where to Belong.
Coinciding with this, will be an eight week festival, created in partnership with Out Of The Wings, offering free play readings by Latin America’s most exciting contemporary voices, showing every Saturday across Arcola and Southwark Playhouse.
The festival will also include an all day and night opening party on Sunday 3rd September, celebrating the UK’s Latin American connection at Lost Rivers Elephant, and the Arcola’s CASA late night mid-festival party on Saturday 30th September.
Other elements of the programme includes:
Autoreverse by Florencia Cordeu (Wed 11th Oct, 8pm; Fri 13th Oct, 9.30pm; Sat 14th Oct, 8pm) Malena returns from Chile with a box of old cassette tapes. Back in the 70s, when her family were political exiles, these tapes were their only way to communicate with relatives back home. Now, alone in London on her 40th birthday, Malena dares to listen to the tapes again in this moving piece about the fragility of memory. Will Malena find the key to her future in the voices from her past?
Stardust by Miguel Hernando Torres Umba & Blackboard Theatre (Wed 11th Oct, 9.30pm Thurs 12th Oct, 8pm; Sat 14th Oct, 9.30pm) Colombian artist Miguel Hernando Torres Umba and Blackboard Theatre invite audiences on a journey into Latin America’s heart of darkness in this brand new visually stunning physical theatre performance that looks at the human cost of the chain of events that turns the sacred coca leaf into a line of cocaine. Combining powerful visual imagery and incredible physicality, Stardust questions his and the western world’s responsibility in a trade that kills thousands back home in Latin America.
CASA Latin American Play Reading Festival (9th Sept, 16th Sept and 23rd Sept, 1pm at Arcola) (30th Sept, 7th Oct, 14th Oct, 21st Oct and 28th Oct, 1.30pm at Southwark Playhouse) For 2017, CASA have partnered with Out Of The Wings to present stage readings of eight Englishlanguage translations of incredible Latin American plays from across the entire continent. Every Saturday throughout the festival, audiences will be invited to discover some of Latin America’s most exciting voices and all the play readings are free to attend.
The CASA Festival will take place from the 3rd September until the 28th October at the Southwark Playhouse and Arcola Theatre. For more information visit: http://casafestival.org.uk/