Tag Archives: The Black Smock Band

Protest Song Exchange

When?

11:30am-1pm, Sunday 6th February 2022

What?

This is an exciting opportunity for musicians and others with an interest in current and historical protest to get together and share songs, music and knowledge. Hosted by Daedalus Theatre Company and The Black Smock Band as part of the Mobile Incitement project, and also connected with the storytelling project East, the session offers an open, creative space for cultural exchange and collaboration, and to develop new skills and ways of working.

This is paid professional development opportunity, not a public event. Places are limited. That said, do get in touch if you’re interested in taking part.

Congrats to all for an amazing festival!

We had a great time performing Mobile Incitement at the Freedom and Independence Theatre Festival, with some amazing audience feedback. We feel deep gratitude to the many people who made it happen but especially Kazi Ruksana Begum, Tower Hamlets Arts Development Officer, who is an absolute force of nature, making amazing things like this festival happen on tiny budgets, while calmly dealing with the Herculean task of coordinating lot of artists and companies, both professional and amateur. Big thanks also to Mushahed Ahmed, Jules Deering, Ali Campbell and everyone else.

Welcome to Guest Artist Saida Tani

We’re very excited to be joined by Saida Tani for our performances at Freedom and Independence Theatre Festival. Normally, at each place we visit with the project, we work with local people to create a bespoke version of the piece that reflects the radical history of the area. But here, well, we’re back in East London, our home territory. We’re the locals. So why not work with a locally much-loved star?

Make sure you get to see this! You can get your tickets here:

Hope to see you there!

Mobile Incitement on Channel S

Our artistic director, Paul, was on Channel S last night to talk about bringing Mobile Incitement to Freedom and Independence Theatre Festival, along with representatives from some of the other companies involved. You can watch it on Facebook here:

You can book your tickets for Mobile Incitement here:

We hope to see you there, for a unique combination of gig, theatre and celebration!

Mobile Incitement returns to East London

After having its tour cancelled due to the pandemic, Gerrard Winstanley’s True & Righteous Mobile Incitement Unit is back! And not just that – it’s returning to Daedalus’s home turf: London’s East End.

The show, made in collaboration with The Black Smock Band and Rua Arts, with funding from Arts Council England, been invited to open the Freedom and Independence Theatre Festival with a bespoke version of the show, featuring guest artist Saida Tani. Who is amazing. It’s all quite an honour, frankly. It’s next Friday and Saturday at the Brady Centre in Whitechapel.

You can find out about the festival and download the brochure here – there are lots of great shows and other events. Do have a look.

You can also jump straight to buying a ticket for Mobile Incitement (as we call it for short) here on Eventbrite.

We hope to see you there!

(Im)Mobile Incitement

We should be on tour now with Gerrard Winstanley’s True and Righteous Mobile Incitement Unit. Today we would have been at Slung Low’s venue The Holbeck. Slung Low’s work during the pandemic has been a source of inspiration nationwide, and it’s hard to think of a better place for a piece of theatre that’s all about reclaiming the collective, progressive side of England’s chequered past. Hopefully we can be there in 2021.

Health and the preservation of life obviously come first so we’re happy to postpone. But one of the ironies of the situation is that the original version of Mobile Incitement, made well before the first case of Covid-19 was detected, was an outdoor show and naturally quite socially-distant. Not only our subject matter but our format are truly of our time! Still, we need to be confidently past the worst of the pandemic before we can tour. John Ball, during the Peasants’ Revolt, famously declared that “Now is the time”. But right now, no, it isn’t.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

We’re looking forward to a great event in Tower Hamlets. We were asked to provide some live musical support for A’ Team Arts 40th Anniversary – Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. And it’s all happening tomorrow afternoon!

A’ Team Arts runs a range of Youth Arts programmes across Tower Hamlets, and we worked with them last year on the Silk River project. This year, as with Silk River, we’re getting our long-term collaborators The Black Smock Band involved. And, also as before, the project involves various sites across the borough.

This time, however, the focus is on estates, a nod to the early days of ‘A’ Team Arts. There’s dance, parkour, puppetry, physical theatre (created by a practitioner from Frantic Assembly) and music, and it’s held together by two themes; one is the described by the title Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, and the other is the environmental crisis we face.

Come down and join us. We’ll be starting from Shandy Park at 2pm. There’s more info here: http://www.towerhamletsarts.org.uk/?cid=70475.

Photos: Mobile Incitement at Latitude

Andy and Payam took some great photos of our performance at Latitude.  Here’s a selection. You can see more here.

Project details are all here.

Thanks, Latitude!

In the van, left to right: Sarah Jeanpierre, Payam Torabi and Rhiannon Kelly. In front of the van, left to right: Andy Bannister, Martin MacFadyen, Matt Beattie, Dan Cox and Paul Burgess.

Well, that was amazing. Huge thanks to Latitude Festival  for giving us, along with our project partners Rua Arts and The Black Smock Band, the chance to bring Gerrard Winstanley’s True and Righteous Mobile Incitement Unit (aka ) to the festival. Thanks also to Ovalhouse, who commissioned it in the first place, and to Queen Mary University of London who supported the development of our participation programme. Last but not least, thanks to all the lovely people who joined us in the Faraway Forest and shared their experiences and knowledge. Ye noble Diggers all, stand up now!

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#MobileIncitement

A raucous folk gig, a community-centred political gathering and a bold reclamation of England’s radical history… It’s…

GERRARD WINSTANLEY’S
TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS
MOBILE INCITEMENT UNIT

Made with Rua Arts and The Black Smock Band, Mobile Incitement (as we call it for short – #mobileincitement on social media) was commissioned by Ovalhouse and shown at Brixton City Festival. Its participation programme was then developed at Queen Mary uni, prior to a show at Poplar Union. It’s then at Latitude Festival before touring late 2018 into 2019. Get in touch to book us or find out more or, if you’ve seen it, give us your feedback: www.daedalustheatre.co.uk