Death Festival at Southbank Centre
When
27 January 2012 -
30 January 2012
-
Where
Southbank Centre
Cost
Ticket prices vary
Some events are free
Age Restrictions
n/a
Looking the Grim Reaper square in the face for four days of talks, performances and special events, the Death Festival at Southbank Centre sheds light on a shadowy topic that is often discussed only in euphemisms, yet unites us all.
The last taboo?
Kicking the bucket, passing on, crossing over, meeting your maker - however you couch it, death is an inevitable fact of life and a central part of our common humanity. The Death Festival at Southbank Centre seeks to explore death and the way we commemorate the dead through a variety of free and ticketed events, approaching the subject in both a respectful and irreverent manner through installations, talks, debates, performances and live music.
Special events
Highlights of the Death Festival at Southbank Centre include the Music To Die For concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra. The concert features works by a variety of composers preoccupied by death, beginning with Saint-Saens's Danse macabre, which represents skeletons dancing in a graveyard to the tunes from Death's fiddle. There's also Requiems from Faure, Verdi and Mozart, as well as Barber's famous Adagio for Strings, commonly regarded as the saddest classical work ever written.
Coffins as art
Also taking place as part of the four day Death Festival at Southbank Centre is Boxed, an exhibition of ornate and innovative coffins from Ghana and the UK. Coffins on show include one shaped as a giant cocoa bean and one in the form of a bright yellow skip. For those wanting to discover more about how to mark their own demise with everything from a funeral pyre to an eco-friendly burial, there's also practical advice from the Natural Death Centre and Dead Good Guides.
Coffin Exhibition at Southbank Centre
Talks and debates
Meanwhile, talks and debates taking place during Death: A Festival for the Living include a panel discussion chaired by Jon Snow on the emotive and controversial topic of assisted dying. There's also events which cover the political lives of dead bodies from Jesus to Gaddafi, the art of obituary writing and global death rituals such as Tibetan sky burials. Paul Gambaccini will also be presenting the nation's most popular funeral music, from Angels to My Way, in Desert Island Death Discs.
Live performances
Death can be a difficult concept to accept and understand at any age, and many of us still remember our first encounter with mortality. Goodbye Mr Muffin uses puppetry, animation and music to tell the uplifting story of a much-loved guinea pig, and gently introduces the idea of dying to children aged six and over. Other plays and performances taking place during the festival include a powerful fusion of shadow puppetry and gamelan music suitable for both adults and children, which commemorates the now extinct Javanese Tiger.
Death: Southbank Centre's Festival for the Living, takes place from Friday 27th January - Monday 30th January 2012.
Performance times and ticket prices vary. For more information on the Death Festival at Southbank Centre and to buy tickets, call the Southbank Centre box office on 1844 875 0073 or click on the link below.
Southbank Centre Official Site
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Reverb Festival at Roundhouse
Cate Blanchett at Barbican
Sundance London
Globe to Globe Shakespeare Plays
Regents Park Open Air Theatre
Queens Jubilee London
London 2012 Festival
Flamenco Festival London
Circus Festival London
Other Events at Southbank Centre
11 June 2012
Jul 15, 7pm
Jul 15, 2.45pm, tours every 15 minutes
Sep 8, 8pm
28 September 2012 - 30 September 2012
Jun 2-4, 6-8, 7.30pm, mats Jun 6, 8, 2pm
03 July 2012 - 12 July 2012
07 April 2012 - 08 July 2012
01 June 2012 - 09 September 2012
From Feb 22, Tue & Thu 6.15pm, ends Feb 20 2014