FuelFest will see four artists share new works in progress in a two-week takeover of The Pit. Racheal Ofori presents Beauty is the Beast, a brand-new satire exploring the cost of beauty. Will Adamsdale’s AI, AI, Oh… (or how I wrote a hit sitcom with ChatGPT but we’re not talking now) is a sharp and witty look at how AI is becoming ever more present in everyday life. Award-winning poet Jay Bernard’s new live show Joint examines the controversy that surrounds the law of Joint Enterprise, in particular regarding racial discrimination. And finally, Melanie Wilson presents Oracle Song, a performance with a score developed in collaboration with AI that takes an intricate look at humans’ relationship with the natural world.
1. Tell us more about what Fuel does and why.
Fuel produces new art works, which seek to explore the big questions of our times – in a whole range of forms. We commission and produce work with artists who are curious about the world and have real skill and insight in how they tell stories and create experiences which shed light on how we relate to each other and to the world around us. We believe everyone has the right to participate in a cultural life and that art and creativity helps us navigate how we think and feel. We strive to enable artists to undertake this kind of exploration and make work that feels impossible without the right support. This approach is paramount within FuelFest: we’re committed to developing exciting and fresh work at a time when costs are rising and funding is falling, and when politically motivated culture wars threaten to stifle creative risk-taking. This is a timely moment to put a focus on letting artists be artists.
2. How do you reflect upon 20 years of Fuel and everything you’ve achieved in that time?
It’s important to take a moment to reflect on everything we’ve done and to think in fresh ways about the future! In some ways, producing new work now feels harder than 20 years ago, but we’re producers so we’re determined to keep making things happen. We’ve achieved an enormous amount – producing genre-defining and genre-defying work, developing the careers of numerous artists, supporting freelancers during the pandemic, influencing change throughout the sector, and rethinking how to put audiences at the centre of our approach to touring. It’s impossible to celebrate this, though, without recognising the exceptional artists, freelancers, partners and funders we’ve worked with during the last two decades – we certainly couldn’t have done this alone.
Fuel’s commitment to the four artists in FuelFest spans years. Will Adamsdale created Jackson’s Way, one of the very first Fuel shows, Melanie Wilson has been a collaborator across our 20-year history, Beauty is the Beast is Racheal Ofori’s fourth show with Fuel, and Jay Bernard was a vital collaborator on our 2023 production, BLUE NOW. We aim to see the bigger picture of artists’ journeys and development, and it’s essential at a time like this to create space for experimentation and curiosity at all stages of artists’ careers.
3. How does FuelFest fit into your wider programming? What are you excited about when it comes to this festival? What can audiences expect?
FuelFest celebrates 20 years of producing fresh work for adventurous people by inspiring artists. Our 20th birthday programme is a celebration of everything we have achieved as well as a statement of intent for the future, and FuelFest is the essence of this – we’re creating space for artists to share their work with audiences at a crucial stages in its development, when opportunities to do this are becoming fewer and fewer.
The four artists headlining FuelFest are exceptional, possessing a combination of extraordinary insight into the world, and phenomenal skill to turn this insight into art and invite audiences in. Their work asks big questions, by turns challenging, funny, surprising and beautiful. Each piece explores complex themes with humanity and curiosity. The compelling subject matters they’ve chosen are matched by the formal innovation of each artist; during FuelFest we’re bringing to the stage poetry, music, comedy, and movement, expanding the boundaries of form. There is such rich appeal within each of the four FuelFest shows, and the common threads between them are both surprising and vital.
4. Tell us a bit about how audiences fit into FuelFest.
Audiences are essential to our work, and this is especially true during work in progress performances. You bring your selves, your experiences, your perspectives to complete the work. We want to invite audiences on this adventure with us – there’s a unique opportunity at FuelFest to share your understanding of the work with us and therefore to be directly involved in the journey of each piece.
We’re really pleased that all performances in FuelFest are Pay What You Can – it’s important to us to make this work affordable. We’re also offering 10% of tickets in FuelFest completely free to people who would be otherwise unable to access them due to cost, as part of our Take Your Seat programme. Everyone has the right to access culture and ensuring that more people can see this work increases its potential to create social change. When artists come together with audiences in temporary communities, new connections and conversations happen and the beginning of this change is sparked.
5. What’s next in store for Fuel?
Lots! There are many other brilliant works in development, including with Rachel Bagshaw, Oona Doherty, Inua Ellams, Michael Henry, Natalie Ibu, Lucian Msamati, Suspect Culture and Joelle Taylor. We’ll be developing all four of the works in FuelFest into finished pieces. They’re all at different stages of their lives so will land at different times – often the life of a project is years from initial idea to premiere.
We’re also constantly looking at new ways of working in an ever-evolving world. We seek to be curious, kind and sustainable in our approach, and this feels more important now than ever.
FuelFest is a celebration of our work over the last 20 years, and it’s also a call for hope, wonder, and humanity – within the work we’re platforming, and in the ripples it will create. It’s a thrill and a joy as producers to be able to bring new work into existence, often against the odds – come and celebrate with us!
FuelFest, 10th – 22nd March, The Pit