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THEATER DEGASTEN & CONTACT YOUNG COMPANY

SICK! FESTIVAL CATALYST COMMISSION

In Autumn 2019 Contact Young Company worked with multidisciplinary performance-makers Theater DEGASTEN.

Co-produced by SICK! Festival, this show addressed the main question proposed by this year’s festival: What is the value of a life?

Contact Young Company’s young artists explored the commodification of happiness. How have everyday milestones in life been affected by materialism in today’s society? How much pressure are we placing on young people to conform to society’s norms, and to associate happiness with material goods and success? How does this relate to race, disability and mental health? And how does the younger generation feel about wanting to have children? Can they afford to? Do they even want to? This intimate performance zooms in on loneliness, happiness and bonding.

Theater DEGASTEN are an Amsterdam based youth theatre group, creating raw, physical montage theatre with youngsters aged between 12-25 years. The shows are based on the experience of the young actors and expose topical issues. DEGASTEN explore the voices of young people in theatre. They are not afraid of confrontation. Diversity runs into the company’s veins, influencing the style of the work, the composition of the staff team, the youngsters they work with and the audience. The stories they present and the way they work are diverse because DEGASTEN believe that everyone has the right to connect with art and culture, as a participant or as an audience member.

DEGASTEN guide talented youngsters to find their way into art schools, follow-up courses and the (semi) professional field of work. On a yearly basis, approximately 27% of the students move on to other fields of theatre and arts.

Contact Young Company (CYC) is Contact’s renowned, Manchester Theatre Award-winning young ensemble. CYC is made up of young performers, actors, dancers, musicians, stand-up comedians, poets and MCs. Each year, the company creates brand new professional standard shows in collaboration with major national and international artists, such as Forced Entertainment, Lies Pauwels, Stacey Makishi and Slung Low. Shows are premiered in Manchester, and often then tour nationally to leading venues and festivals.

PRESENTED AT Z-ARTS AS PART OF SICK! FESTIVAL 2019 ON 02/10/2019-04/10/2019