Page 22 - 366091 LP246228 NE Volume Magazine (170mm x 245mm 52pp) September 2022

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STAGE
MOTHER'S RUIN
AT NORTHERN STAGE, NEWCASTLE
MIDDLESBROUGH ART WEEKENDER
AT VARIOUS VENUES, MIDDLESBROUGH
Make sure you get yourself down to the fifth edition of the Middlesbrough Art Weekender - known affectionately to all its fans as MAW - as it’s going to be bigger and better than ever. This year’s festival invites over 75 artists and makers to explore the theme of power POWER through a series of exhibitions, workshops, talks, seminars, performances and interactive projects. power POWER draws together artists’ work that explores soft power and hard POWER, where artists intervene and disrupt the way power is seen or unseen. Since 2017, MAW has showcased hundreds of artists across the town and invited visitors to get involved. This year, the team have gotten together with Orange Pip and Pride for a full town takeover. From shopping centres to former banks, the programme will take visitors on a journey of amazing art by artists both local and international. It includes an art exhibition in an ex-bank, a virtual reality experience, a van with a sound system in it, paintings about life in Eston and an A.I. Technology that can tell if you’re happy or sad. And with over 75 national and international artists presenting work at this year’s Middlesbrough Art Weekender, there’s a path for everyone. Liam Slevin is the co-director of the festival alongside Anna Byrne. He noted: “We moved to Middlesbrough in 2016 and we were just blown away by the heritage of the place, the buildings, and, of course, the people. We got lots of encouragement to set up the festival, and it’s gone from strength to strength. MAW has been called the gem of the North East. It’s one of the biggest yearly arts festivals in the region, and that’s definitely something to shout about.” Kypros Kyprianou, MAW’s curator, said about power, POWER: “When people talk about power, it's often in relation to the POWERFUL versus the powerless; this often leads to a sense of
In collaboration with the Calico Cats Cabaret comes a top- class one-woman cabaret production as Jenni Winter goes solo with a show of her own creation, bringing Mother’s Ruin to Northern Stage on Friday 16th September. Winter will provide her audience with a night of live music, high heels of the fanciest quality, and a few added fairy lights for that extra something special as she shares her exploration of modern-day motherhood. Jenni will be donning her fur coat, grabbing herself a bottle of gin and sidling up to the nearest piano as she tells tales about her journey of going from having a mum to being one too. In this evening of telling all, audiences will see how Winter went through her life blissfully blaming her own mother for any faults she may have uncovered through her own life before realising that maybe being a mother wasn’t quite as easy as it looked growing up. She also reveals how she spent her childhood longing for ‘normal parents’ but then gave birth to her own children who have grown to have those exact same desires themselves. She raises the questions of whether it is ever possible to break those age-old parenting cycles, whether we can end the guilt that comes with being a mum, and whether we can finally lose all of those traditions of blaming and shaming. She asks if parents in society can finally have that moment where they can stop to take a breath, reset the clock and just allow themselves to be. If you have ever experienced that feeling of wonder about your own relationship with your mum, or your relationship with your children, or if you’re just looking for someone who will give you that permission you desire to say: “Look, I’m doing my best”, then Mother’s Ruin will do exactly that. Be sure to join Jenni as she shares her heart-warming, funny, witty, and gin-soaked exploration of life whilst also providing you with a few tips on how you can fail miserably at meeting the expectations of everybody. This is a production that will have you thinking – whether you’re a parent yourself or not. GEORGINA SHINE
Visit: northernstage.co.uk
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