Barbican May 2018 highlights The Pit stage becomes The Situation Room - a daring new forum for public discussion as Split Britches ask the audience to consider whether we are hurtling towards doomsday in Unexploded Ordnances (UXO). Barbican Young Poets join forces with dancers from Boy Blue fusing the vitality and energy of spoken word with movement, as they share personal experiences of our nation in A Change is Gonna Come. Oscar® Winning Scores includes a rare opportunity to hear composers Justin Hurwitz and Gary Yershon talk about their Academy Award winning score for Damian Chazelle's La La Land. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra returns to the Barbican for a residency featuring three concerts with Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel as well as Tuning into Change, a cross-cultural exchange involving young musicians from Los Angeles and Great Britain. Acclaimed composer Max Richter and artist Yulia Mahr curate a weekend of numerous events, both ticketed and free, including concerts and film screenings, will take place across the Barbican Hall, foyers, cinemas, and the neighbouring venues of LSO St Luke’s, Milton Court Concert Hall and St Giles’ Cripplegate. Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins looks at the continuing fascination of artists with those on the margins of society through the work of 20 exceptional image-makers, including Bruce Davidson, Paz Errázuriz, Casa Susanna, Larry Clark, Mary Ellen Mark, Boris Mikhailov, Daido Moriyama and Dayanita Singh. Make! A Season of Contemporary Craft continues in the Barbican Shop with a panel discussion on bike building, polystyrene workshops with Silo Studio, and weaving demonstrations and workshops with Christabel Balfour. THEATRE AND DANCE Julie Cunningham & Company – Sarah Kane’s Crave Thu 10–Sun 13 May 2018, The Pit Press night: Fri 11 May 2018, 7.45pm Julie Cunningham has established a reputation as an extraordinary contemporary dancer – arresting, poised, sophisticated and precise – during a long career in which she has performed with Merce Cunningham Company and Michael Clark Company. Since making her move into choreography, with the double bill To Be Me seen at the Barbican, she has been developing work that responds directly to poems and text. Now from Cunningham comes an enigmatic new piece combining dance and spoken word based on Sarah Kane’s powerful play, Crave. In Crave, the iconic playwright investigates dark and potent themes including rape, incest, addiction and instability. Featuring four actors and four dancers, Cunningham’s version connects meticulous and stark movement to the poetic style of Kane’s writing. With a focus on the inner world of the characters, akin to a stream of consciousness, the harrowing subject matter is given space to speak for itself through physicality. The Royal Ballet – Elizabeth Wed 16–Sat 19 May 2018, Barbican Theatre Press night: Wed 16 May 2018, 7.45pm Former Principal of The Royal Ballet Zenaida Yanowsky reprises her award-winning role as Queen Elizabeth I in this dynamic exploration of her life and loves, in a unique chamber work which seamlessly blends dance, music, text and song. A theatrical exploration of the enigmatic Tudor monarch, Elizabeth utilises letters, diary entries, poetry and plays written by Elizabeth I and her contemporaries, including some of her most famed suitors. Inspired as much by her private passions and hallmark physicality as by her political triumphs, director/ choreographer Will Tuckett and playwright Alasdair Middleton explore this seminal figure through innovative and atmospheric storytelling, married with expressive and dynamic movement. Yanowsky is joined by an ensemble including Yury Yanowsky, Raphael Wallfisch, Julien Van Mellaerts, Sonya Cullingford and Katie Deacon. Split Britches – Unexploded Ordnances (UXO) Tue 15–Sat 19 May 2018, The Pit Press night: Tue 15 May 2018, 7.45pm Part of The Art of Change In Unexploded Ordnances (UXO), Split Britches ask the audience to consider whether we are hurtling towards doomsday. Taking inspiration from the 1964 film Dr Strangelove and its iconic War Room, The Pit stage becomes The Situation Room - a daring new forum for public discussion. Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver take on the roles of the bombastic general and the gentle and ineffectual President, as they invite members of the audience to join them in debating the current global political situation and how to look forward in a rapidly changing world. As the performers play with the rhythms of urgency and lethargy, whilst investigating current affairs, individual dreams and hidden wishes are re-appropriated as a cumulative solution to what may feel like an uncertain political landscape. Created and developed over two years through a series of residencies with elders and artists that began at the Barbican in 2016 and continued in the US, Unexploded Ordnances (UXO) is a hopeful, whimsical, human exploration of ageing, anxiety and the end of the world. Unexploded Ordnances (UXO) is part of our 2018 Season, The Art of Change, which explores how artists respond to, reflect and can potentially effect change in the social and political landscape. Find out more here. Unexploded Ordnances (UXO) is part of Sky Arts Art 50. Barbican Young Poets – A Change is Gonna Come Fri 25–Sat 26 May 2018, The Pit Press night: Fri 25 May 2018, 7.15pm Part of The Art of Change In the spirit of experimentation, past and present Barbican Young Poets join forces with dancers from Boy Blue in the intimate setting of The Pit. Under the artistic and creative direction of Jacob Sam-La Rose, a poet and performer of international repute, and Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante, co-founder of hip- hop dance company Boy Blue, A Change is Gonna Come tunes into the musicality and rhythm of language. Poets and dancers interact, fusing the vitality and energy of spoken word with movement, as they share personal experiences of the nation in which they live. Exploiting a range of genres, styles and themes, Barbican Young Poets have evolved to become drivers for change, their voices helping to define the poetry scene in London and across the UK, whilst Barbican Artistic Associate Boy Blue develop some of the country’s most sought-after hip-hop artists. A Change is Gonna Come is part of our 2018 Season, The Art of Change, which explores how artists respond to, reflect and can potentially effect change in the social and political landscape. Find out more here. CINEMA Returning the Colonial Gaze Wed 2–Wed 30 May 2018, Cinema 3 Part of The Art of Change Focusing on Francophone African and French cinema, the Barbican presents works by bold filmmakers who, in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, reversed the “colonial gaze” to interrogate the former occupying nation from the perspective of their own countries. The five-part season features films by directors from Mauritania, Senegal, Morocco, and Niger, using their art to reclaim the right to represent their cultures and histories, which had been undermined by years of colonial rule - helping to shape the national identities of their countries in the process. Also included are works by French directors who challenged and critiqued colonial narratives. Featured in the programme are: Med Hondo’s Soleil O; a double bill of works by René Vautier including Afrique 50 and To Be 20 in the Aurès; anthropologist Barbara Knorrp introducing two films where visitors from Senegal and Niger discover France and its inhabitants: Paulin Soumanou Vieyra’s Afrique sur Seine and Jean Rouch’s Little by Little; a double bill of works by Moroccan director’s Moumen Smihi: Si Moh, The Unlucky Man and The East Wind. Closing the series is a double bill of Senegalese and Nigerien films focusing on alienated young protagonists in thrall of Western pop culture: Moustapha Alassane’s An Adventurer’s Homecoming, and Djibril Diop Mambety’s Touki Bouki. Part of the Barbican’s The Art of Change season. London Nights On Film Underground (PG) + live musical accompaniment by Neil Brand Sun 13 May 2018, 4pm, Cinema 1 UK 1928 Dir Anthony Asquith 84 min As part of the Barbican’s Culture Mile programming, the presentation of Anthony Asquith’s 1928 silent gem Underground with live musical accompaniment from Neil Brand forms the opening event of the Barbican’s London Nights On Film Season. A portrait of 1920s working-class London with its pubs, shops, lodging houses and, of course, the Underground itself this is an extraordinary tale of jealousy, murder and a fatally flawed love triangle, which culminates in a thrilling chase on the London tube lines. Taking place between May and October, the London Nights on Film complements the Museum of London’s London Nights photography and includes Julien Temple’s Absolute Beginners (June), Mitra Tabrizian’s Gholam (September) set in London about an enigmatic Iranian cab driver in September, and Jules Dassin’s 1950s masterpiece Night and the City (October) which was shot on location in London. Oscar® Winning Scores Double Bill: La La Land and Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench The Barbican’s regular Oscar® Winning Scores this month features a double- bill screening plus a rare opportunity to hear composers Justin Hurwitz and Gary Yershon talk about their Academy Award winning score for Damian Chazelle's La La Land, followed by Hurwitz introducing Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, his first collaboration with Damian Chazelle. Oscar® Winning Scores Double Bill La La Land (12A) + ScreenTalk with Justin Hurwitz and Gary Yershon Sat 26 May 2018, 3.30pm, Cinema 2 USA/ Hong Kong 2017 Dir Damien Chazelle 128 min Damien Chazelle’s glorious musical masterpiece follows aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone) and jazz pianist Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) as they embark on a whirlwind romance. Ambitious and conflicted, cracks in their relationship begin to emerge, but can their love hold them together? Justin Hurwitz, Academy Award winning composer of this dazzling delight, joins us for a ScreenTalk with Gary Yershon after the film.