About Town – video installation by national and international artists

This week Birmingham Hippodrome in partnership with Ikon present a unique event showcasing video installations from local, national and international artists.    Called About Town visitors to Southside can visit various places in and around the Hippodrome including the popular National Trust Back to Backs in Inge.   Installations include a compelling piece ‘Broad Street’ by the award winning  Gillian Wearing in Gallon Car Park (opposite The Village in Hurst St)  and the very witty ‘Just Like That’ from talented local artist Dean Kelland  upstairs in the Back to Backs – specially commissioned for this event.

The installations can be viewed over the next three nights (Fri, Sat and Sun from 4pm-10pm) and are entirely FREE.  So if you’re coming for a quick drink in Southside, enjoying a meal in one of the many restaurants or coming to see Slava’s Snow Show don’t miss About Town.

For more information and to view gallery   CLICK HERE

You can also pick up a leaflet in the theatre foyer.

Play along with us…

This month we begin a series of exciting events titled RINGSIDE, focusing on the wonderful world of Wagner as we celebrate the arrival of Mariinsky Theatre’s epic production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. One of these special events is a unique chance to play along with a specially developed ‘reality game’ – find out more in a blog from the game’s creators…

Hello, Hippos!

An interactive that players will be using in the game

We – artists Shanaz Gulzar and Steve Manthorp – are Adept, a co-practice which has been making art together for a decade. We’re thrilled to be invited to be guest contributors to the Hippodrome Blog and to have the opportunity to tell you about our project One of Our Singers is Missing.

One of Our Singers is what we call a Reality Game. A Reality Game is like a treasure hunt but with a story. What can you expect? Well we’re not going to give too much away because a lot of the fun is in the way the story comes to life as you play it. The idea for the game is that one of the Hippodrome’s singers, Albert Nibbling, has been missing for 24 hours and we need to find him or the performance can’t go on.

The quest will take you into the heart of the Hippodrome and to some intriguing nearby locations you may never have visited before. As the game is played, the story will take unexpected twists and turns. There will be clues to solve, mysteries to unravel and there may even be the odd spooky moment or two….

But we’re confident that you’ve got what it takes to find Albert!

You can sign up to play HERE. You can play on your own, but it’s even more fun to play together as a family, couple or group of friends. All we ask you to do is to turn up at the Hippodrome Reception at the time you booked to play with your best detective head on.

Find out more about RINGSIDE here.

The Ring Cycle – Casting Announced…

Willard White

This November, more than 250 artists will travel from St Petersburg to Birmingham, along with 10 trucks of scenery to present a once in a lifetime event; Wagner’s Ring Cycle performed by the highly acclaimed Mariinsky Opera.

For Birmingham’s first fully-staged Ring for several decades, Conductor Valery Gergiev has assembled a stellar cast including Willard White, Ekaterina Gubanova, Andreas Schager, Vitaly Kovalyov, Mikahil Petrenko and Mlada Khudoley for the fully staged production. For more information and tickets click here. 

As well as the epic production on the main stage, we also have a programme of events for audiences who are Wagner experts right down to first-timers titled Ring Side. This range of alternative events include a real life adventure game, The Fat Lady Sings, An Opera Cabaret with Kit Hesketh Harvey, Brunch with the Brunnhildes hosted by Radio 4 presenter Matthew d’Ancona with leading Wagnerian sopranos Susan Bullock and Catherine Foster plus much more. Find out more about Ring Side here.

#BHthering

Gotterdammerung