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It feels like only yesterday that the London Festival of Theatre 2020 was announced… and immediately got cancelled due to the pandemic. Where most London venues have essentially spent the time since they reopened catching up on the work that got scotched by lockdown, the ephemeral, international nature of LIFT – London’s biggest, boldest festival of theatre – means that the 2020 festival simply didn’t happen and will never happen, as the festival has moved on with an all-new 2022 bill. So *sniff* we never got to see Ruth Wilson in a 100-scene, 24-hour-long play. But onwards and upwards – the ’22 edition is a jolly exciting one.
The highlight is still probably the previously-announced Lithuanian durational climate change opera ‘Sun & Sea’, which will run on an artificial beach in Deptford June 23 to July 10. But there are some major additions to the line-up, notably ZU-UK’s ‘Radio Ghost’, a fascinating-sounding interactive ghost hunt through a series of already pretty cursed London shopping malls, notably Brent Cross, the Mall Wood Green and the Exchange Ilford (Jul 2-3) and ‘The Making of Pinocchio’ (Battersea Arts Centre, Jun 29-Jul 2) in which artist and lovers Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill explore his trans identity via an attempt to make a new version of ‘Pinocchio’. There will also be some major work from Nairobi artists The Nest Collective who will be throwing a massive all-day party in a ‘hidden palace’ in Deptford. Entitled ‘The Feminine and the Foreign’, the show - which will in fact run on Jul 2 at new venue the Shipwright - will feature DJs, films, art and more evocative of Black sounds from the diaspora, with a particular focus on feminist, queer and migrant rights.
Plus: a load more exciting but slightly stuff we don’t really have room for here! But trust us, it looks good.
LIFT 2022 runs at multiple venues throughout London, Jun 23 to Jul 10. For the full line-up, go here.