Hooligan Art Community | Britten Pears Arts

Hooligan Art Community is delighted to be returning to Snape Maltings one year after their emergency residency in summer 2022, when the team reunited after being displaced by the war in Ukraine and developed their acclaimed show Bunker Cabaret.

This year the team will revisit themes from their 2019 show Hooligan, first developed at Kyiv’s Mystetskyi Arsenal. As a teenage football hooligan, Sam would fight in brutal “competitions” in forest clearings. At the same time, he was studying in the arts lyceum and dreaming of becoming an actor. He would cover his bruises with make-up and go on stage at the local opera house and present evenings of music, poetry and dance.

Hooligan explored themes of violence and vulnerability, as well as belonging, openness and collaboration, using movement and voice. Now the team will research the rest of the story. What happened to Sam’s hooligan friends, his firm and to hooligan culture in Ukraine? How did Sam’s community transform in the years since the outbreak of war? What choices did the hooligans face when confronted with the real fight for their country?

To tell this story Hooligan Art Community will create a hooligan band to open the topics through collective music-making.

The Open Session will begin on the Henry Moore Lawn at 2pm. This is a promenade piece and will require the audience to walk between the Henry Moore Lawn (outside of the Snape Maltings Concert Hall) and the Tipi (by the reeds). This is a non-seated performance.

Snape Residencies provide time and space for creators at all stages of their careers; a supportive environment to create, be curious, and try out new ideas. Open Sessions offer a unique chance to go behind the scenes and experience work-in-progress created during the Residency.

We are so grateful to our supporters, without whom none of our work would be possible. Visit Support Us to find out how you can help.

Supporters contributing towards Residencies include:
PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund.

About Hooligan Art Community

Hooligan Art Community is an independent theatre company established in Kyiv in 2019. The group makes performances, installations and films in non-traditional spaces that explore the dynamic relationship between actor and audience. They have worked entirely outside of the state theatre system, creating work that advocates for freedom of expression and equality. They devise brave, unconventional theatre and music-theatre performances with a commitment to artist development as a means of creation. They work internationally, connecting with found spaces to create encounters between artists, audiences and communities.

Since the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine most of Hooligan Art Community’s artists have been displaced across Europe. Fortunately, they have been supported by UK organisations Mahogany Opera and imPOSSIBLE to find funding and platforms for their work in the UK, including the 2023 tour of “Bunker Cabaret”, a show first developed in the bomb-shelters of Kyiv.

Performances include “Hooligan” (Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, 2019) “Radiation” (Kosmos Tabir, Kyiv, 2021), “Hooligan: Bizhenka” (WUK Theater, Halle, 2022) and “Bunker Cabaret” (European tour, 2022-3), Films include “Hooligan: In the field” (Radar Ost Festival, Berlin 2020) and “24.Reconstruction” (Voices of Ukraine, UK 2022).

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