Aerial Theatre: As The World Tipped

‘As the World Tipped’ is a stunning outdoor spectacle combining dramatic film visuals with aerial performance over a huge stage, which literally tips up from horizontal to vertical while the performers are suspended above the audience in the night sky.

Supported with an award of £100,000 from the Arts Council's Grants for the arts scheme, ‘As The World Tipped’ has been created by Liverpool-based Wired Aerial Theatre, working with Nigel Jamieson, who has written and directed the show. It is produced by Manchester-based XTRAX, who are currently planning future touring for the show, with a headlining performance at the Sydney festival planned among other international destinations in 2012.

Wired Aerial are acclaimed for their innovative and spectacular aerial performances, with Nigel Jamieson being a leading creator of large-scale outdoor events and ceremonies. Jamieson’s staging achievements including the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and the large-scale opening ceremony of Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture in 2008, as well as the accompanying piece ‘Liverpool - The Musical’.

This ambitious and extraordinary piece of aerial theatre tells a powerful tale of ecological crisis with humour and emotion to confront the issues of climate change. Set in the Secretariat of the Copenhagen Climate Change conference, the piece begins with harassed staff having failed to notice as the world around them, literally and metaphorically, sliding toward disaster.

Nigel Jamieson explained that “A big passion in [his] life in recent times has been to use theatre to explore one of those issues that confront all of us, and all of the species and creatures that we share this planet with. That issue is climate change, one of the most important challenges the world faces, and through performance ‘As The World Tipped’ confronts it head-on, powerfully and dramatically.”

Wired Aerial Theatre co-founders Wendy Hesketh-Ogilvie and Jamie Ogilvie have gathered together a specialist cast of aerial performers and climbers to deliver this adrenaline-packed show. The music is composed by Patrick Dineen and the onstage film footage has been created by the BAFTA award winning Diarmid Scrimshaw and Editor Chris Newcombe. The show includes footage from the film ‘HOME’ by Yann Arthus Bertrand, the French photographer / filmmaker whose book ‘The Earth from The Sky’ has been a best seller for the last 10 years. ‘As the World Tipped’ is the winner of the £30,000 Tipping Point / Without Walls co-commission.

The show will feature in Liverpool's ‘On the Waterfront’ festival; Stockton International Riverside Festival; Platform 4 festival in Manchester, and Mintfest in Kendal.

For further details visit the As The World Tipped website.