Birmingham’s Fierce festival returns with VR sauna and gothic hall performances
Fierce, Britain’s longest-running live art festival, has returned to Birmingham for a week of performances in theatres and unconventional venues. The programme explores physical sensation, identity and connection, with works that can feel unsettling or difficult to interpret; the article emphasises that live art’s meaning can vary between audience members.
Among the events are a virtual reality experience set in a gay sauna, a solo dance drawing on the histories of Polish ballet dancers, and a ritualistic work engaging with colonial histories. The festival also includes late-night artist dinners, a performance in a swimming pool and a six-hour performance jam at a gothic hall said to have inspired Cluedo. The review singles out Faye Driscoll’s Weathering, featuring 10 performers on a rotating platform, as the standout work and says it is receiving its UK premiere.
- Fierce returns to Birmingham for a week of live art.
- The programme spans VR, dance, ritual and unusual venues.
- Faye Driscoll’s rotating-platform work is the review’s standout.
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Fierce is a live art festival based in Birmingham, bringing artists and audiences together for performances in theatres and other venues. Live art can include dance, immersive experiences and participatory events, and its meaning may differ from one audience member to another.
The artists in the programme include Faye Driscoll, whose work Weathering involves 10 performers on a rotating platform, alongside artists exploring identity, physical sensation and colonial histories. The festival matters as a platform for experimental performance, and as a chance for audiences to encounter work that may not follow familiar theatrical forms.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “From a VR gay sauna to the gothic pile that inspired Cluedo – Fierce festival storms back”.