Be Festival 2017 - Get Your Karma Here

Feeling adventurous? We’re delighted to be supporting Birmingham’s BE Festival once again this year. It runs from July 4^th-8^th, 2017. Why should you go? BE Fest laughs in the face of conventional theatre and it's a unique and wonderful place to be.

This year, the lovely team at BE have given us some Karma - BE festival’s  currency - to give away. We’ll be picking some Staying Cool guests at random during the festival to receive the Karma. This means that they’ll be able to enjoy a treat at BE Fest such as a free drink at the bar.

If you have never attended BE Fest then you really should give it a try. We think that the interval dinners sum up the BE approach beautifully: each night after the first two shows, everyone’s invited to dine together on the Birmingham’s Rep’s main stage. This includes the audience and the performers. Isn't food is the perfect way to break down boundaries and connect with those who are normally ‘over there’ on the stage?

BE Fest 2017 has attracted performers from countries all over Europe including Spain, Italy, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, France and (last but not least) the UK.

Here’s what jumped out at us from an exciting programme:

Tuesday July 4^th Indomador by Animal Religion (Spain) Online preview      
A comical take on how we build our identities featuring handstands, chicken masks, acrobatics and an array of characters.

Wednesday July 5^th My Country Is What The Sea Doesn’t Want (Portugal)
This is the story of young Portuguese immigrants to the UK who were driven to move abroad after the 2008 financial crisis. My Country Is What The Sea Doesn’t Want is based on interviews and the personal story of writer-director Richard Correia. 

Thursday July 6^th Légende (France/Portugal)
Romain Teule’s performance lecture probes the different possibilities to be found in words. Légende was originally performed in Portuguese; but Tuele’s existential questions will now be posed in English. This is a thoughtful show prompting the audience to re-evaluate the things we take for granted.

Friday July 7^th What Does Stuff Do? (UK)
A recent graduate of Circomedia in Bristol, Robin Dale uses juggling, physical comedy, ping pong, and motivational speech to guide you through his mind and body of research. He achives all this wearing swimming trunks.

Saturday July 8^th British Enough? (UK)
Enter the British Enough Testing Zones, an immersive theatrical site-specific experience set in a future where British Citizenship is the ultimate prize. Enter a world where Britishness is manufactured and cultural identity must be won through ingenuity, endurance and psychological testing.

 You can see the full programme for Be Festival here.The venue is the Birmingham Rep, a pleasant walk away from our serviced apartments in the centre of Birmingham. If you are staying with us and attending BE Festival, please do let us know so that we can, hopefully, send some Karma currency your way!