This week sees the return to Cardiff of this biennial festival, one of Europe’s largest in the field of inclusive and disability arts. Here, then, is a guide to what you’ll be able to check out during the five-day run of Hijinx’s Unity Festival…
Hijinx, a Cardiff-based theatre company, create outstanding performances with learning-disabled and/or autistic artists on stage and on screen. The first Unity Festival was in 2008 with a view to providing an opportunity for disabled, learning-disabled and/or autistic artists to perform on a high-profile platform. It’s proved a successful venture, taking place every other year and occupying a unique position in the Welsh cultural calendar; there are similar inclusive arts festivals elsewhere in Europe, indeed Unity is one of the most esteemed of them.
For 2024, the festival is running from Wed 3-Sun 7 July in Cardiff Bay, including some special free events outdoors in and around the Wales Millennium Centre on the weekend – with performances for people attending the Cardiff Food & Drink Festival from Fri 5 to Sun 7. There’ll also be an extra production taking place across town, in Chapter Arts Centre, from Thurs 4-Sat 6. Details of that and more can be found in our highlights roundup below!
Undressed
An hour-long dance show from tanzbar_bremen of Germany. Movement, breathing, music and silence are all tangible factors in this performance – about, they say, “being human in a pure, undisguised way.”
Wales Millennium Centre, Thurs 4 July. Info: here
Requiem
Created by Karol Cysewski, this 70-minute, three-actor dance-theatre performance takes as its basis the large, and stark, discrepancy in health risks between people with learning disabilities and people without. In the case of COVID, to use the standout example of our age, the risks were 3.1 and 3.5 times greater for men and women respectively.
Chapter Arts Centre, Thurs 4-Sat 6 July. Info: here
Choo Choo!
Given the curious subtitle (Or… Have You Ever Thought About ████ ███ ████? (Cos I Have)), this is a tragicomic two-hander production from Stammermouth on the topic of intrusive thoughts, in equal measures very funny and profoundly moving.
Wales Millennium Centre, Fri 5 July. Info: here
C’est BEAU!
A production by Compagnie DK-BEL from France, whose speciality is dance shows with disabled and non-disabled performers on the same stage. For this show, their inspiration is none other than iconic French poet Charles Baudelaire, and his “notion of beauty as linked to the bizarre, to strangeness, to chaos, to pain and the fragility of beings”.
Wales Millennium Centre, Sat 6 July. Info: here
Untied
The latest drag/cabaret show from House Of Deviant, who’ve appeared a few times in this venue’s Cabaret space already and stand proud as – at the time of writing – Wales’ only learning disabled drag collective.
Wales Millennium Centre, Sat 6 July. Info: here
Street Theatre / Walkabout Performances
Shows to catch here – all free entry, remember – include aerial extravaganza The Air Between Us [pictured, top] with New Zealand pair Chloe Loftus and Rodney Bell; clown/steampunk parade Steamplant Movement by Shedan Theater and Danza Mobile; Fresta Poética, a performance honing in on the body’s small-to-imperceptible movements, by Dança Sem Fronteiras of Brazil; Hem De Parlar (We Have To Talk), about inter-family conflicts and with a cinematic feel; and The Chambermaids, an audience participation show in which you can help several chambermaids with their work.
In and around the Wales Millennium Centre, Sat 6 + Sun 7 July. Info: here
Advertorial
Hijinx Unity Festival, various venues in Cardiff, Wed 3-Sun 7 July.
Tickets: priced per event; some performances FREE. Info: here
words NOEL GARDNER