World Premiere

Oozing Gloop (Berlin/Norwich)

Tentacular Spectacular

Thursday 13 October 2022 – Friday 14 October 2022

77A Upper Trinity Street, Digbeth
Birmingham, B9 4EG United Kingdom + Google Map

Commissioned by Fierce Festival, Battersea Arts Centre & Kampnagel with support from Take Me Somewhere. Produced by Artsadmin. Funded by Arts Council England and British Council International Collaboration Grants.
Included in our tiered discount offer.

World Premiere!

90 mins £15/13

• There is a short section using strobe lighting
• There is use of dry ice, haze and smoke grenades
• There is use of loud music
• There are no moments of complete darkness
• Contains partial nudity
• There is a section of around 10 minutes that depicts femme body mutilation and birth trauma

Glitchy flyer image with Gloop made into an android with pasted body parts from different images.

Oozing Gloop and Esben Holk

Slide into a multi-sensory, psychosexual swamp inhabited by transgressive drag frog Oozing Gloop and some of her many fae-like friends.

Is it just me, or has the world totally lost its mind? As our climate collapses into a pre-humanity, primordial sludge, come bolthole into the butt holes of the sharpest savants around and see what these gender-non-conforming, neurodivergent drag artists have to offer.

Be amazed, appalled and enthralled as together we wander through this installation of performances and cursed objects from a new anthropomorphic age… it’s frog-memes, it’s goblins, it’s fashion baby! And all underground critters are welcome.

Featuring Olympia Bukkakis, Shrek666, Bonnie Bakeneko with set design by Jenkin Van Zyl. Wow!

Access and content information to help you decide if Tentacular Spectacular is for you.

***Please note that this show will be a dry (alcohol-free) space***

Credits

Created by Oozing Gloop

Core Artist: Bonnie Bakeneko

Core Artist: Olympia Bukkakis

Core Artist: Shrek666

Guest Artist for Fierce: China

Production Manager: Joe French

Technical Stage Manager: Meg Hodgson

Set Designer: Jenkin Van Zyl

Sound Designer: Nicol Parkinson

Lighting Designer: Ali Armstrong

Lead Artist Assistant: Becky Plotnek

Lead Artist Access Assistant (Germany): Sarah Binz

Artist Liaison: Lacey McFadyen

Meme Artist: Esben Holk

Filmmakers: Alex and Liane

Produced by Artsadmin

Co-commissioned by Fierce, Battersea Arts Centre, Kampnagel and Take Me Somewhere

Supported with public funding from an Arts Council England’s Project Grant and part of the British Council’s International Collaboration Programme

*THIS SHOW IS INCLUDED IN OUR TIERED DISCOUNT OFFER*

New for this year we’re offering a tiered discount on bookings for multiple shows, giving you savings whether you’re planning to attend just a handful or all of them. The more tickets you buy, the more you save.

Buy tickets for 6 shows =10% off
Buy tickets for 9 shows = 15% off
Buy tickets for 12 shows = 20% off

Please note that this discount is only applicable to full-priced tickets, and only on certain shows.

Please see each individual event page to see whether that show is included in the offer.

Please note that our ticket purchasing is administered by Midlands Arts Centre. If you are an existing customer of Midlands Arts Centre, please use your account login details to purchase Fierce Festival tickets on this website.

Fierce Says

We love Oozing Gloop, and after there were queues out of the door to catch The Gloop Show at Fierce 2019, it seems you lot do too. Tentacular Spectacular is a late night performance installation featuring contributions from some of the boggiest trans drag artists around, with incredible inflatables by Jenkyn Van Zyl. The fact Fierce has been able to commission this work, at this scale, shows that not everything in the world is going wrong :)

Details

Thursday 13 October 2022, 10.30pm – Friday 14 October 2022, 12.00am

7SVN, 77A Upper Trinity Street

Friday 14 October 2022, 10.30pm – Saturday 15 October 2022, 12.00am

7SVN, 77A Upper Trinity Street

World Premiere

Oozing Gloop (Berlin/Norwich)

Tentacular Spectacular

Thursday 13 October 2022 – Friday 14 October 2022

77A Upper Trinity Street, Digbeth
Birmingham, B9 4EG United Kingdom + Google Map

World Premiere!

90 mins £15/13

Oozing Gloop and Esben Holk

Slide into a multi-sensory, psychosexual swamp inhabited by transgressive drag frog Oozing Gloop and some of her many fae-like friends.

Featuring Olympia Bukkakis, Shrek666, Bonnie Bakeneko with set design by Jenkin Van Zyl. Wow!

Access and content information to help you decide if Tentacular Spectacular is for you.

***Please note that this show will be a dry (alcohol-free) space***

Credits

Created by Oozing Gloop

Core Artist: Bonnie Bakeneko

Core Artist: Olympia Bukkakis

Core Artist: Shrek666

Guest Artist for Fierce: China

Production Manager: Joe French

Technical Stage Manager: Meg Hodgson

Set Designer: Jenkin Van Zyl

Sound Designer: Nicol Parkinson

Lighting Designer: Ali Armstrong

Lead Artist Assistant: Becky Plotnek

Lead Artist Access Assistant (Germany): Sarah Binz

Artist Liaison: Lacey McFadyen

Meme Artist: Esben Holk

Filmmakers: Alex and Liane

Produced by Artsadmin

Co-commissioned by Fierce, Battersea Arts Centre, Kampnagel and Take Me Somewhere

Supported with public funding from an Arts Council England’s Project Grant and part of the British Council’s International Collaboration Programme

*THIS SHOW IS INCLUDED IN OUR TIERED DISCOUNT OFFER*

Buy tickets for 6 shows =10% off
Buy tickets for 9 shows = 15% off
Buy tickets for 12 shows = 20% off

Please note that this discount is only applicable to full-priced tickets, and only on certain shows.

Please see each individual event page to see whether that show is included in the offer.

Fierce Says

We love Oozing Gloop, and after there were queues out of the door to catch The Gloop Show at Fierce 2019, it seems you lot do too. Tentacular Spectacular is a late night performance installation featuring contributions from some of the boggiest trans drag artists around, with incredible inflatables by Jenkyn Van Zyl. The fact Fierce has been able to commission this work, at this scale, shows that not everything in the world is going wrong :)

Details

Thursday 13 October 2022, 10.30pm – Friday 14 October 2022, 12.00am

7SVN, 77A Upper Trinity Street

Friday 14 October 2022, 10.30pm – Saturday 15 October 2022, 12.00am

7SVN, 77A Upper Trinity Street

UK Premiere

Lisa Vereertbrugghen (Ghent)

SOFTCORE a hardcore encounter

Wednesday 12 October 2022 – Friday 14 October 2022

Birmingham Hippodrome, Thorp Street
Birmingham, B5 4TB United Kingdom + Google Map

Presented with FABRIC. Part of our Flanders Focus, supported by Flanders House.
Included in our tiered discount offer

50 mins £13/11

- Loud noises / music (not continuously)
- One moment of flashing lights / strobe
- One moment of complete blackout
- Use of haze / smoke

Lisa sits on a stage dressed in all black with one leg slightly raised and bent at the knee and one leg beneath her on the floor.

Softcore – A Hardcore Encounter is a dance piece about hardcore techno subgenre ‘Gabber’. At 200 beats per minute this beat has been described as techno on speed: it’s the sound of the uncompromising underdog. It’s rave gone crazy. It places the body in a permanently accelerated state and can be viewed equally as part of both capitalist society and the resistance to it.

The young Belgian Lisa Vereertbrugghen has conducted an extensive examination of this form of club music over several years and explores the term hardcore with regard to the transformation, vulnerability, possibility and unpredictability that is concealed behind its stubborn convulsions and twitches. What if dancing so fast can be a way to appropriate speed not for being more productive, but for the opposite: Speed becomes a way to increase sensations and to elude control.

The audience is asked to sit on the floor, but chairs will be provided for people who prefer that. There is also room for wheelchairs.

Presented in partnership with FABRIC as part of our Flanders Focus.

Concept, choreography and performance: Lisa Vereertbrugghen
Sound: Michael Langeder
Lights: Vera Martins
Artistic advice: Madison Bycroft, Sabine Cmelniski, Nestor Garcia Diaz

Coproduction of CENTRALE FIES within the program of LIVE WORKS PERFORMANCE ACT AWARD, STUK, BUDA and BIT Teatergarasjen
With the support of CAMPO, Tanzfabrik, Workspace Brussels and SZENE Salzburg.
Funded by de Vlaamse Overheid and apap – Performing Europe 2020, co-funded by the Creative Programme of the European Union

*THIS SHOW IS INCLUDED IN OUR TIERED DISCOUNT OFFER*

Buy tickets for 6 shows =10% off
Buy tickets for 9 shows = 15% off
Buy tickets for 12 shows = 20% off

Please note that this discount is only applicable to full-priced tickets, and only on certain shows.

Please see each individual event page to see whether that show is included in the offer.

Fierce Says

If you liked 'Every Body Electric' in 2019 or 'PILGRIM' in 2017 then this is a show for you. Let's be honest, gabba doesn't have the best reputation amongst sub genres of techno. This performance explores the potential of the music and its hard reputation, to allow us to be a bit... softer. The gabba moves are also particularly impressive.

Details

UK Premiere

Lisa Vereertbrugghen (Ghent)

SOFTCORE a hardcore encounter

Wednesday 12 October 2022 – Friday 14 October 2022

Birmingham Hippodrome, Thorp Street
Birmingham, B5 4TB United Kingdom + Google Map

Presented with FABRIC. Part of our Flanders Focus, supported by Flanders House.
Included in our tiered discount offer

50 mins £13/11

- Loud noises / music (not continuously)
- One moment of flashing lights / strobe
- One moment of complete blackout
- Use of haze / smoke

The audience is asked to sit on the floor, but chairs will be provided for people who prefer that. There is also room for wheelchairs.

Presented in partnership with FABRIC as part of our Flanders Focus.

Concept, choreography and performance: Lisa Vereertbrugghen
Sound: Michael Langeder
Lights: Vera Martins
Artistic advice: Madison Bycroft, Sabine Cmelniski, Nestor Garcia Diaz

*THIS SHOW IS INCLUDED IN OUR TIERED DISCOUNT OFFER*

Buy tickets for 6 shows =10% off
Buy tickets for 9 shows = 15% off
Buy tickets for 12 shows = 20% off

Please note that this discount is only applicable to full-priced tickets, and only on certain shows.

Please see each individual event page to see whether that show is included in the offer.

Fierce Says

If you liked 'Every Body Electric' in 2019 or 'PILGRIM' in 2017 then this is a show for you. Let's be honest, gabba doesn't have the best reputation amongst sub genres of techno. This performance explores the potential of the music and its hard reputation, to allow us to be a bit... softer. The gabba moves are also particularly impressive.

Details

UK Premiere

Lisa Vereertbrugghen (Ghent)

SOFTCORE a hardcore encounter

Wednesday 12 October 2022 – Friday 14 October 2022

Birmingham Hippodrome, Thorp Street
Birmingham, B5 4TB United Kingdom + Google Map

Presented with FABRIC. Part of our Flanders Focus, supported by Flanders House.
Included in our tiered discount offer

50 mins £13/11

- Loud noises / music (not continuously)
- One moment of flashing lights / strobe
- One moment of complete blackout
- Use of haze / smoke

The audience is asked to sit on the floor, but chairs will be provided for people who prefer that. There is also room for wheelchairs.

Presented in partnership with FABRIC as part of our Flanders Focus.

Concept, choreography and performance: Lisa Vereertbrugghen
Sound: Michael Langeder
Lights: Vera Martins
Artistic advice: Madison Bycroft, Sabine Cmelniski, Nestor Garcia Diaz

*THIS SHOW IS INCLUDED IN OUR TIERED DISCOUNT OFFER*

Buy tickets for 6 shows =10% off
Buy tickets for 9 shows = 15% off
Buy tickets for 12 shows = 20% off

Please note that this discount is only applicable to full-priced tickets, and only on certain shows.

Please see each individual event page to see whether that show is included in the offer.

Fierce Says

If you liked 'Every Body Electric' in 2019 or 'PILGRIM' in 2017 then this is a show for you. Let's be honest, gabba doesn't have the best reputation amongst sub genres of techno. This performance explores the potential of the music and its hard reputation, to allow us to be a bit... softer. The gabba moves are also particularly impressive.

Details

Cherish Menzo (Amsterdam)

Jezebel

Sunday 16 October 2022, 5.30pm – 6.30pm

Midlands Arts Centre, Cannon Hill Park
Birmingham, B12 9QH United Kingdom + Google Map

Supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands. In partnership with Battersea Arts Centre.
Included in our tiered discount offer.

60 mins £13/11

- Haze (at beginning, and in the last third part of the performance)
- Strobe + loud clapping music during one scene of 5-10 minutes
- Some explicit lyrics and sexual / sensual movements

This fierce dance performance was inspired by the Video Vixens: provocative female models that appeared in hip-hop videos on MTV in the late 1990s. Although they danced scantily dressed to men’s music, they were hyper-sensual, strong and independent. The influence they exercised could be great: often, the Vixens determined the aesthetic of these videos and so the popularity of the artist.

What would such a black hip-hop honey look like today? JEZEBEL is a deconstruction of the controversial stereotype of the Vixen.

PREMIERE Nov 5th, 2019 at Frascati (Amsterdam, NL)
CONCEPT, CHOREOGRAPHY & PERFORMANCE Cherish Menzo in coproduction with Frascati Productions
LIGHTING DESIGN & TECHNICAL COORDINATION Niels Runderkamp
MUSIC Michael Nunes
VIDEO Andrea Casetti
COSTUMES Daniel Smedeman
DRAMATURGY Renée Copraij
OUTSIDE EYE Berthe Spoelstra, Christian Yav and Nicole Geertruida
VOCAL COACH Shari Kok-Sey-Tjong
CAMPAIGN IMAGE Tatchatrin Choeychom
CO-PRODUCTION Frascati Productions
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Bibi Scholten van Aschat

*THIS SHOW IS INCLUDED IN OUR TIERED DISCOUNT OFFER*

Buy tickets for 6 shows =10% off
Buy tickets for 9 shows = 15% off
Buy tickets for 12 shows = 20% off

Please note that this discount is only applicable to full-priced tickets, and only on certain shows.

Please see each individual event page to see whether that show is included in the offer.

Fierce Says

This show just won't stop touring! It's been a huge hit all over Europe and we're delighted to bring it to Birmingham for one performance only after it's three week London run at Battersea Arts Centre. Cherish is a major new talent on the European dance and performance scene.

Details

Sunday 16 October 2022

5.30pm

Midlands Arts Centre

Jade Blackstock (Catania)

new performance

Saturday 15 October 2022, 4.00pm – 7.00pm

Midlands Arts Centre, Cannon Hill Park
Birmingham, B12 9QH United Kingdom + Google Map

Free

- contains a squid

Jade Blackstock, 'Mas', SPILL Festival of Performance 2021, Photo by Guido Mencari

Part One: 4.00-4.30pm
Part Two: 6.30-7.00pm

Jade (B. 1993, Birmingham, UK) is a performance artist. Her work explores conversations between inner/outer, bodily/material worlds, and how these are informed by historical, cultural and personal memory/movements. She looks at Black ancestral traditions, myths and materiality that articulate and interrogate ongoing colonial systems, and manifest and develop within Black diasporic contexts. She seeks to highlight how the body, material and space have shared capabilities of transferring and embodying collective memory, which bears importance in our understanding of selves and each other. Themes of race, feminism, ownership, class and loss are present in her work.

For Fierce Festival 2022 Jade will create a new performance for for the Midlands Arts Centre First Floor Gallery.

Fierce Says

It's been a while since Brummy Bab Jade Blackstock performed in her home town - so we decided to do something about it! Jade studied with Nigel Rolfe (Fierce 2019) at the Royal College of Art and is an exciting new voice in performance art. Expect curious imagery using everyday materials.

Details

Saturday 15 October 2022

4.00pm

Midlands Arts Centre

World Premiere

Freddie Wulf (Bristol/Berlin)

we are all made of stars

Friday 14 October 2022 – Saturday 15 October 2022

Midlands Arts Centre, Cannon Hill Park
Birmingham, B12 9QH United Kingdom + Google Map

With a live sound score by Alicia Jane Turner.
World Premiere. Commissioned by Fierce and Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA). Supported by FABRIC. Funded by Arts Council England and Help Musicians.
Included in our tiered discount offer

50 mins £13/11

- loud and affective sound
- Nudity including close up views of the body
- Mild sexual content
- UV lighting
- Near total darkness
- Moving/flickering video images
- 18+

Close up blurred image of a pink flower with a blue background

close up image of just a pair of lips. The person has a piercing on their cupids bow and the lips are submerged slightly in water.

A journey through the body as a living landscape, an ecosystem, constantly in flux

Using a borescope camera Freddie Wulf explores the close-up textures of body, water, and plant, creating a journey through a cosmic landscape.

passing by hairs erupting, droplets on the tiny leaves of moss, lips and throat like an underwater cave

Performed in a bathtub, and inspired by philosophies of vital materialism, the show addresses themes of wellbeing, embodiment, and self perception.

Pre-Show Access Orientation

For this show we are offering a pre-show access orientation session on Saturday 15 October. This session, is for any audience members who would benefit from having time to familiarise themselves with the theatre space, see the set pieces, and get a sample of some of the sounds in the show.

The space is open for self-guided orientation; members of the team will be available to answer any questions you have, or support you in the space.

The sessions last for 30 minutes from 8pm. There is no need to book separately, just show your ticket.

Freddie Wulf is a trans masculine artist making visceral & visual performance. He is white British, dyspraxic & Mad. His work is sex positive & draws from kink methodologies.

Lead Artist: Freddie Wulf
Producer: Michael Kitchin
Composition & Live Music: Alicia Jane Turner
Lighting Designer: Joshie Harriette
Production Manager: Anna Smith
Movement Direction: Ania Varez
Outside Eye/Dramaturgy: An*dre Neely, Emma Frankland, Tammy Reynolds, Piper Piper
Prop Design: Ginger Johnson
Prop Consultant: Tom Cassani
Intimacy Consultant: Bishop Black
Access Support Worker: Celia Morris

Supported using public funding by Arts Council England and Help Musicians.

*THIS SHOW IS INCLUDED IN OUR TIERED DISCOUNT OFFER*

Buy tickets for 6 shows =10% off
Buy tickets for 9 shows = 15% off
Buy tickets for 12 shows = 20% off

Please note that this discount is only applicable to full-priced tickets, and only on certain shows. Please see each individual event page to see whether that show is included in the offer.

Fierce Says

Freddie has been developing this new show with Fierce for a few years through our Fierce Further commissioning programme. Come see what we've been cooking up. It's beautiful!!
This is a highly visual, and intriguing show performed in a bath tub. Microscopic cameras create illusions (or reveal truths?) that allow us to see the body as a landscape: not just in the universe, but part of it. Expect to cross mountains and oceans, from toes to nose.

Details

Friday 14 October 2022

8.45pm

Midlands Arts Centre, Foyle Studio

Saturday 15 October 2022

8.45pm

Midlands Arts Centre, Foyle Studio

UK Premiere

Philippe Quesne / Vivarium Studio (Paris)

Farm Fatale

Tuesday 11 October 2022, 7.45pm – 9.15pm

University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road
Coventry, CV4 7AL United Kingdom + Google Map

UK Premiere. Performed in English. Free bus from Birmingham to Warwick Arts Centre departing at 6pm.
Included in our tiered discount offer.

90 mins £18/16

- Loud music
- Use of Haze / Smoke
- Strong language
- References to suicide

A post-apocalyptic scenario in the not-so-distant future: five scarecrows, who have lost their original jobs due to climate change, come together in a commune. These disarmingly funny characters, though, are undeterred by the difficult conditions: the dying sounds of nature are meticulously recorded for posterity; demonstration signs and slogans are prepared; pop music is blown into the airwaves via pirate radio; insect deaths and pesticides are discussed.

With Farm Fatale, world-renowned French director Philippe Quesne, celebrated for his hybrid, strikingly visual performances, envisions an absurdly charming universe, inhabited by gentle dreamers and activists with a penchant for laconic commentary.

There will be a free Fierce Bus to this performance leaving Birmingham City Centre at 6pm and returning after the performance. Please RSVP to contact@wearefierce.org to reserve your place.

Credits

Concept, Set design and Direction: Philippe Quesne
Performed by: Léo Gobin, Sébastien Jacobs (part created by Stefan Merki), Nuno Lucas (part created by Damian Rebgetz), Anne Steffens (part created by Julia Riedler), Gaëtan Vourc’h.
Set design Collaborator: Nicole Marianna Wytyczak
Costume Collaborator: Nora Stocker
Masks: Brigitte Frank
Light Design: Pit Schultheiss
Sound Design: Robert Göing, Anthony Hughes
Director’s Assistant: Jonny-Bix Bongers, Dennis Metaxas
Dramaturgy: Martin Valdés-Stauber, Camille Louis

Technical and Stage Manager: François Boulet
Sound Manager: Grégory Adoir
Light Manager: Vincent Chrétien

This show premiered on March 29th, 2019 for the repertory of the Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich, Germany.

Production of the Creation: Münchner Kammerspiele – Munich and Théâtre Nanterre Amandiers, CDN.
Production of the Tour: Vivarium Studio – Charlotte Kaminski

*THIS SHOW IS INCLUDED IN OUR TIERED DISCOUNT OFFER*

Buy tickets for 6 shows =10% off
Buy tickets for 9 shows = 15% off
Buy tickets for 12 shows = 20% off

Please note that this discount is only applicable to full-priced tickets, and only on certain shows.
Please see each individual event page to see whether that show is included in the offer.

Fierce Says

Philippe is one of France's most acclaimed directors. The premise of this piece is melancholy personified: out of work scarecrows feeling sad about the mass extinction, try to capture sounds of wildlife, before they become lost forever. It's lots of absurd fun!

Details

Tuesday 11 October 2022

7.45pm

Warwick Arts Centre

Adam Nathaniel Furman (London)

Bab’s Baldacchino

Tuesday 11 October 2022 – Sunday 16 October 2022

Midlands Arts Centre, Cannon Hill Park
Birmingham, B12 9QH United Kingdom + Google Map

Free

Babs’ Baldachino is a riotously delicious celebration of the spirit of queer Birmingham, an ostentatiously proud little temple to the goddess of West Midlands camp. Please, enter, look up, put your arms out and twinkle your fingertips as you ascend for a moment into ecclesiastical heights of love, joy and acceptance…

Babs is the matronly goddess of a million genders, mother of all the queers of the West Midlands, and an ancient force connecting us all together through all oppression. This is her shrine

A queer popup pavilion by acclaimed architect and designer Adam Nathaniel Furman will tour to parts of Birmingham that might not be perceived as queer.

Artist Biography

Adam is a British artist & designer of Argentine & Japanese heritage based in London. Trained in architecture, Adam’s atelier works in spatial design and art of all scales from video and prints to large public artworks, architecturally integrated ornament, as well as products, furniture, interiors, publishing and academia. Adam’s work has been exhibited in London, Paris, New York, Milan, Melbourne, Rome, Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Vienna & Basel, amongst other places, is held in the collections of the Design Museum, the Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Abet Museum, & the Architectural Association, and has been published widely.

The atelier has completed, and ongoing projects both internationally (Europe, the US, S America, the Middle East, East Asia) and in the UK. Adam has lectured at the RIBA, Harvard GSD, UC Berkeley, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Vitra Design Museum & the Casa dell’Architettura Rome, amongst others, has taught courses at several universities as well as having been Studio Master of Productive Exuberance at Central St Martins in London, is co-director of Saturated Space at the AA (an influential research group on colour in Urbanism and Architecture), is a published author, a vocal advocate for diversity and representation in architecture, urbanism and design, and has been a judge for the Dezeen and FRAME awards, amongst others.

https://adamnathanielfurman.com/

Details

Tuesday 11 October 2022 – Sunday 16 October 2022

Midlands Arts Centre