Why I am and why I am not
Part 1: The Balcony
Quarantine
Information
Time: 6:30pm
Tickets: Free – Booking Required
Running Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes (approx.)
Age Recommendation: All ages are welcome
This event takes place in person outside Battersea Arts Centre’s front entrance on Lavender Hill
The Balcony is part one of Why I am and why I am not, a weekend-long intervention inspired by Bertrand Russell’s famously controversial speech ‘Why I Am Not A Christian,’ given in Battersea Town Hall in 1927.
In The Balcony, 12 people from all walks of life: a child, a professional speechmaker, a new arrival to the area and, perhaps, somebody famous, will make an address to the public. Speaking from the balcony of our building, formerly Battersea Town Hall, they’ll begin their address with either the phrase ‘Why I Am’ or ‘Why I am not’.
Tackling subjects from the personal to the universal, from the seemingly flippant to the certainly urgent, The Balcony presents a diverse set of voices and personalities, brought together in a celebrated proclamation of people and place.
Why I am and why I am not is a meditation on our outer and inner lives, who we are behind closed doors and the version of ourselves we present to the wider world.
The Balcony is best experienced in combination with The Rooms, an interactive exhibition taking place Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 March at BAC.
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PART OF A PUBLIC ADDRESS
A Public Address sees award-winning theatre collective Quarantine take over the former Town Hall – now Battersea Arts Centre – to ask: who gets heard in a place like this today?
Part of Wandsworth’s year as the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture.
Biographies
Quarantine is an award-winning ensemble of artists and producers making cross-disciplinary work that explores what it means to live right now. Founded in Manchester in 1998, they create and tour projects around the world that are both intimate and immediate in their relationships with people, and global in their reference and scope.
Quarantine is known internationally for intellectually rigorous, socially progressive and inventive art that questions who gets seen, whose stories are told and who stands in for whom. Questions about representation lie at the heart of their work.
Credits
A Public Address is a BAC and Quarantine co-production, supported by Arts Council England.
Part of Welcome to Wandsworth, London Borough of Culture. London Borough of Culture is a Mayor of London initiative.
Why I am and why I am not:
Concept & Creation Richard Gregory and Renny O’Shea
Producer Kevin Jamieson
Access
PRE EVENT INFORMATION
The Balcony speeches take place in person outside the front entrance of Battersea Arts Centre on Lavender Hill. This is on the ground floor with step-free access.
Once you book a ticket, you will receive an email before the event detailing important information about your visit.
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
This event will be BSL Interpreted. Interpreted by Katie Fenwick.
If you require the use of BSL interpretation, you can let us know in the checkout when booking tickets, or you can e-mail boxoffice@bac.org.uk after booking your tickets.
This event will be Relaxed. We invite you to make yourself comfortable and move around if you need to. If you need to leave the event at any point, you will be allowed to return when you feel ready.