In the Spring of 2023 as part of Leeds Year of Culture, The Performance Ensemble (TPE), delivered their biggest project to date. ‘1001 Stories, A Takeover of Leeds Playhouse by Older People’, was a mass participation project, a revolutionary two-week takeover.
TPE is a collective of older performers and theatre-makers, and the first older people’s arts organisation to become an Arts Council England NPO.
1001 Stories gave older people the opportunity to perform, exhibit and express their desires and concerns and share stories from throughout their lives. As the name suggests, 1001 Stories, from people over 60, were collected and are stored in a digital archive entitled ‘Radical Acts of Being Human’.
The project was a collaboration between The Performance Ensemble, Leeds Playhouse, Leeds 2023, Leeds Museums and Galleries, and Leeds Older People’s Forum. It ran from the 24th of April to 7th of May 2023 and is something we are very proud to have achieved.
A huge range of activities took place throughout the two weeks led by 84 community organisations including symposia, workshops, bread-baking, dancing, roller-skating, circus skills, choirs, storying telling and much much more, plus a range of local, national and international performances created with the experience of age. View the whole schedule of events here
The international events included over 35 visitors from China and Hong Kong who presented a number of performances including ‘Cormorants’, a world premiere solo performance by award-winning Hong Kong cultural leader Augustine Mok Chiu Yu; original songs from the Elders Choir from the Centre of Community Cultural Development, plus work from Chinese artist Cai Shugun who had created a project with older people from Guangzhou.
Another group who visited were Arts Option from Hong Kong who brought the piece ‘Embrace the Tastes of Life’, a story-telling performance. Through the success of the project a strong relationship was developed with Arts Options. The group watched The Performance Ensemble’s show Sinfonia, the centrepiece of the festival, and were inspired. They invited TPE’s Artistic Director, Alan Lyddiard, and Choreographer, Tamara McLorg, to create a new piece of theatre, ‘Whispers of Life’, with their members at the first Hong Kong Creative Ageing Arts Festival.
Held at the end of September at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Center (JCCAC), the Festival was part of the professional performing arts training programme organised by Art Options, with the support of Link Together Initiatives. This programme offers professional drama and performing arts training to individuals aged 55 and above, encouraging them to continuously pursue their dreams and create opportunities to develop a creative second career later in life.
Through the Creative Aging Arts Festival, we wanted to enable the Hong Kong public to witness the remarkable talents of older artists and professional performers, providing them with opportunities to shine and showcase their abilities to a broader audience. Arts Options gathered over 100 creative aging artists and performers together, ranging in age from 58 to 86, from various art forms to showcase their work. Over12 days, almost 4,000 people enjoyed over 30 performances and events.
TPE’s collaborative production, ‘Whispers of Life’, was performed as a part of the festival. The performance blended narrative, movement, and dance to explore the stories of older people and search for those seemingly insignificant moments of life that become meaningful. The cast of performers had beautiful stories to tell. Working with them was an incredibly moving experience and the language barrier which never seemed to be a problem! There was a shared knowledge and understanding between the Cantonese performers and the visitors from Leeds, with each person bringing their own unique perspective to the piece. There were moments of love, joy, sadness and reflection of the realities of ageing.
The Festival highlighted three main art forms: performing arts, exhibitions and live music as well as interactive workshops.
Performing arts
As well as Whispers of Life, led by the UK’s Performance Ensemble, there were four other performance pieces. The festival kicked off with the opening performance, ‘King Li: The Final Escape’, a Cantonese drama directed by Ms. Brenda Chan. This piece drew inspiration from Shakespeare’s King Lear, but was set in the context of a care home.
Three performers from Singapore presented Sing Sing Sing Ladies, a vibrant piece of musical theatre portraying the lives of Singaporean women and directed by Singaporean director Garrick Wong.
Then Yat Po Singers led their older a cappella performers in singing classic songs, while Unlock Dance guided older performers in leveraging the games they played when they were young, using movement and rhythm to present them in the show.
Exhibitions
There were two exhibitions: a visual arts exhibition, Forever Blissful Days with Arts, featured 11 visual artists and with work spanning various media, including painting, calligraphy, street art, tailoring, fashion design, and traditional weaving by Hakka artisans. This exhibition was curated by Evelyna Liang. And a special photography exhibition, Timeless Flow, curated by Alvin Leung, showcased a collection from 15 older photographers.
Live music and more
At the podium of JCCAC, there were live music performances by the 1011 Band and Kilomega, as well as two monologue shows where performers cooked and served tea live, creating an immersive artistic experience. Additionally, there were workshops on stop motion animation, movie making and dance.
The collaboration continued…
Following the festival, the collaboration between TPE and Arts Option was further developed with a collaboration for the British Council Hong. Kong initiative The Sparks Festival . The companies created Bench Encounters Inspired by “The Friendship Bench” devised by psychiatrist Dixon Chibanda in Zimbabwe. Bench Encounters is a multimedia project of pre-recorded films and a live performance. The piece aimed to capture the moments of life that although may appear small and insignificant hold great amounts of meaning. The core idea is that by listening to the real-life stories of older people and how they have overcome their struggles, younger people can learn the skills to cope in similar situations.
The pre-recorded films document a series of conversations between Chinese and British people on a bench in different locations in Leeds and Hong Kong. The live performance, took place at the AIRSIDE on 20 October 2024, displaying conversations between seven older/younger pairs.
Here’s to more collaborations between the UK and Hong Kong!
Rebecca Po is Director of Arts Option Limited, Hong Kong and Alan Lyddiard, founder and artistic director of the Performance Ensemble UK.
The Leeds/Hong Kong Project was funded by Arts Option, LInkInitiative, British Council and The Baring Foundation. The Performance Ensemble is a National Portfolio Organisation funded by Arts Council England and Leeds City Council.
