THE Midlands’ festival for fresh and contemporary theatre
In Good Company‘s Departure Lounge Festival returns from 15 -17 July with events across Derby Theatre: On-Stage, Online, Outside, and all Socially Distanced!
A diverse line-up of artists and events has now been announced, which includes stage productions, 1-1 experiential performances, audio walks, new scratch pieces and the ever-popular panel discussion, with even more still to be announced!
Take a look and swipe to view below…
Festival Trailer
The Line Up
In 2020, we experienced how our industry stayed resilient and welcomed change. This year, Departure Lounge 2021 will be offering a hybrid of programmes and exploring new ways to welcome you back to the festival.
Start booking tickets using the links below…
On Every Day
Thousand Papers
By ShumGhostJohn
Upper Foyer
Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 12pm – 8pm
Derived from the concept of community sculpture building, movement practices and East Asian traditions. ShumGhostJohn invites you to be part of this durational performance and installation.
Mouthful of Salt and Soil Audio Walk
By Jo Tyabji
Create Your Own Stage
Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 12pm – 8pm
Come for a walk with me. Around your place, somewhere you love. And I’ll be in mine. We’ll look at the land, and we’ll find a way to be in it, the both of us. An audio experience to be done on a walk – or while imagining you’re on a walk, it’s your choice.
Political Party Disco
By Luca Rutherford
Outdoor Stage
Thursday, Friday, Saturday: Various Times
Fed up with politics? Don’t want to talk about it? Dance it out instead. Treat yourself to an unashamed dance. Rage, laugh, cry, get your groove on and shake it all off.
Thursday 15 July
36 Questions That Lead to Love
By Lynn Lu
Digital Stage
50-minute slots between 9am-12pm and 3-6pm
36 Questions that Lead to Love refers to a 20-year long study by the psychologist Arthur Aron and his team, that explores whether intimacy between two strangers can be accelerated by having them ask each other a specific series of personal questions.
Snack and Chat Networking Lunch
Digital Stage
12pm – 1pm
This networking lunchtime will be held at Gather.Town – You get to create your own mini avatar, a video-game style character , “walk” around the online space and “bump” into other participants for a chat.
A Good Neet Aht
By Phil Green
Live Stage
12pm – 1:15pm
Join Phil as he recreates the 1968 Rugby League Cup Final, his mum and dad’s Silver Wedding party, U16 disco night at the Mecca and his favourite beer ads.
Speakeasy Spoken Word
Outdoor Stage
1pm – 2pm
Kicking us off to open Departure Lounge outside is a spoken word event, curated by IGC own Assistant Producer, Aife O’Connor.
States of Independence
By Unanima Theatre
Live Stage
8:30pm – 9:30pm
Join Unanima’s company of storytellers as they take you through the tensions and messiness of being labelled as having intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Friday 16 July
Cloudscapes
By Gobbledegook Theatre
Outdoor Stage
11am, 12pm, 4pm & 5pm
Cloupscapes is an intimate installation combining clouds and script, set in an outdoor auditorium — a cloud-gazing area. Audiences are encouraged to look up and contemplate the mutability of clouds, as well as the mutability of humanity, guided by the soothing voice of performer and creator Lorna Rees.
Crown
By Phases Collective and Uproot
Digital Stage
Available to watch from 12pm – 8pm
A Friday night in, spent braiding hair and discussing dates leaves Fola, Tash and Sandra debating the origins of Shakespeare’s ‘uneasy lies the head that wears the crown’, as they discover that this verse is very present in one of their lives.
Don’t Leave Me This Way
By Zoo Indigo
Live Stage
1pm – 2pm
This contemporary performance spoken in English with German and Hungarian is a concert that never quite happens, grieving the loss of identity, home and the Eurovision Song Contest, in a playful and provocative exploration of cultural belonging.
The Power of Independence Panel Discussion
Digital Stage
3:30pm – 5pm
Join us on Zoom for this important discussion chaired by Lyn Gardner, in response to how many freelancers have come into view and are stepping up to be heard in a way they’ve not before, we wanted to provide some focus on the needs and successes in the independent sector.
Saturday 17 July
Cyclical
By Michael Pinchbeck
Digital Stage
12pm-2pm (15mins slots) and 4pm-6pm (15 mins slots)
Cyclical sees Michael cycle on an exercise bike in his home for 4 hours, the time it would take to get from where he lives outside Nottingham to Derby and back again, join him for 15 minutes slots and accompany him on his journey whilst sharing stories of bikes, bike rides and the cyclical nature of working from home.
REPRESENT! Disabled Artists
Live Stage
2pm – 3:30pm
A work-in-development showcase featuring performances from disabled artists from theatre-makers to dancers. The idea of this platform is to support the artist’s new ideas and get some feedback from audiences via a digital form- Come and support, be open-minded and constructive!
Retrained
By In Bed With My Brother
Live Stage
8pm- 9pm
For one night only, In Bed with my Brother will present something so meaningless and completely chaotic that everyone will leave in agreement that theatre is dead. There will be prologues and narrative threads and several intervals.
Closing Party and Spoken Word
Upper Foyer
9pm – 11pm
Closing the festival, we’re gonna party it up in the Upper Foyer for some late night spoken word performances by Charlotte Lunn, Sophie Sparham and Dan Webber. Have some drinks, grab some snacks and chit chat the night away.
Image by Chris Webb: Quick Duck Theatre at Represent Showcase Departure Lounge 2019
Explore Departure Lounge
Live Stage: This is our Live Stage inside our Main Auditorium. Seating will be socially distanced and customers attending indoor performances will have to follow our health and safety guidlines.
Upper Foyer: This is situated on our second floor level (lift available) customers attending indoor performances will have to follow our health and safety guidlines.
Outdoor Stage: Located just outside our Stage Door Entrance, our outdoor stage provides a weatherproof venue.
Digital Stage: These events will be held online, a link to download or access the event online will be sent to your e-mail via an e-ticket on the day of each event, please make sure your email is up to date on your account before you book.
Ticket Prices
We’ve kept our ticket prices low, as we know artists and audiences aren’t always loaded so nothing costs more than a tenner!
Live Stage Performances: £9.50
Digital Stage Events: £5
REPRESENT Showcase and Cloudscapes: £5
Upper Foyer & Outdoor Stage: FREE
At Departure Lounge you’ll always be In Good Company!
Accessible Performances
It is really important to us when presenting work that anyone should be able to access it, whatever their circumstances. We want to welcome everyone and are working hard to make as much of the Festival as we can accessible to all.
All live performances on the Main Stage, as well as the online Panel Discussion, will be both BSL interpreted and captioned.
BSL Introduction
We know that access provision is constantly evolving and that your individual access needs might change over time, so please do get in touch if you require BSL or captions on other events or if have any additional requirements by emailing DerbyTheatreTickets@derby.ac.uk.