London’s spectacular free outdoor Greenwich + Docklands International Festival is back for 2024.
It opens on August 23 with the thunderous, pyro-packed opening show ‘Silence!’ from international company Les Commando Percu then swiftly proceeds to its big showstopper, ‘Thaw’ (Aug 24 and 25), an eight-hour performance on a single huge block of melting ice by the company Legs on Wall to offer a visual parable about our heating world.
Although GDIF leans towards the visual these days, there’s still some substantial theatre on the bill: following last year’s rave-reviewed ‘The Architect’, Matthew Xia and Actors Touring Comapnt return with ‘Bodies of Water’ (Aug 27-31), a theatrical response to Warsan Shire’s poem ‘HOME’ performed on the shore of the Thames. And renowned international companies Gecko and Good Chance will join forces for ‘From Here On’ (Sep 6 and 8), a new work about children’s right to safe passage that marks the eighty-fifth anniversary of the Kindertransport.
There’s multitude of other events besides: the Greenwich Fair family day will not return until next year, but in its place ‘Parkworks’ (Aug 25 and 26) is two days of free family fun in Stratford Park, Newham. One familiar thing that is returning is the beloved Dancing City programme of dance in, er, The City, on Sep 7.