Popular Plymouth Based Theatre Company Return to Exeter

Beyond Face
Authored by Beyond Face
Posted Thursday, May 23, 2019 - 9:25am

Following the success of Mixed Grill, Beyond Face return to Exeter making their Exeter Phoenix performance debut with 2000 Stories. This is a show about stories; the ones that have stayed with us, the ones we have forgotten and the ones we may have been forced to hear.

The show encompasses the current complex debate around authentication and ownership of other people’s stories. While 2000 stories don’t individually feature in the show, we are taken through multiple stories of the personal, fictional and political. One woman shouldering what she perceives to be her responsibility. But how do everyone else’s stories affect her ability to find her own? The books she surrounds herself with on stage are only the beginning.

“I’m bringing everything I ever knew- everything good, strong, kind and powerful. I bring it all with me into every situation.” Maya Angelou during an interview with Oprah Winfrey, December 2000.

Our understandings of how stories are told have evolved over time and we look to other people’s stories to help shape our own. The interest in stories is modernised with the popularity of audiobooks, podcasts and other audio mediums breaking into the vast cultural offering available to us digitally every day.

Audiences can expect the trademark Beyond Face stamp on the show: surprising, intriguing theatrical work that challenges perspectives and how we see the world. With a through-line of political change, parallels to current affairs and a captivating performance, there’s plenty for audiences to get their teeth into.

Alix Harris, Artistic Director of Beyond Face says “We have gone on a really significant journey over the last four years of understanding and being responsive to the people that we work with. Our very existence as a company is challenging the theatre ecology within Devon, and who is represented on our stages and within cultural organisations. 2,000 Stories embodies our values and ethos as a company. We create conversations and provoke challenging questions through our work and themes that are relevant to everyone but are via the lens of people of colour. We are excited as a company to be recognise for the quality of our work rather than a box ticking exercise.”

Beyond Face have been making ground-breaking work in Plymouth for over a decade from the grassroots of the City's cultural scene. Specifically focussing on artists of colour* based in the South West, 2000 Stories is supported by Arts Council England and is part of the Mayflower 400 Culture Programme with Plymouth Culture- it has been developed and premiered at the Theatre Royal Plymouth. It’s the first project to come to fruition from the funding, one of eleven in total each inspired by the legacy of the Mayflower in Plymouth.

*As a Company Beyond Face aim to raise the profile and visibility of people of colour working in the arts, with a South West focus. They have chosen to use this terminology as they feel it best encompasses the wide range of artists they work with.


 

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