Rage is something many disabled artists and individuals within our community feel. There is a sense of exhaustion and hopelessness that we often encounter in conversations. There is unspoken rage at the hidden hierarchy in wider disabled communities, often exacerbated by systems that reinforce how valuable or invaluable disabled people are by invoking a scoring scale to decide ‘who needs what, most’.
Our DDFI40 live performances will bring you a quiet riot through theatre, drag disco, cabaret, live art and expressive interactions that you will not want to miss.
9th March
Pimp My Wheelchair Launch Event
11am-12pm Sefton Park Palm House
Commissioned to create new work for DaDaFest International 40, responding to the theme of ‘Rage’, artists Faith Bebbington and Dr Janet Price launch ‘Pimp my Wheelchair’. Faith and Janet are ‘pimping up’ our prosthetics, dressing up crutches, wheelchairs, hearing aids (and more) with sculptures inspired by plants that use defence mechanisms to express rage against attack. From the thorn that pricks, to plants with leaves that close against touch, the new sculptures celebrate their challenge to ableism in the world.
We invite you to join us for this special launch event to be the first to experience their work through a thought provoking catwalkesque procession, and get an insight to the story behind Pimp my Wheelchair hearing from the artists.
Access: BSL interpretation will be available. Accessible parking will be available on the paved road leading directly to the palm house. If you are a wheelchair user, please book a seated ticked and indicate this when you book. Please highlight any other access requirements when you book.
Cost: FREE
Booking info: You can visit the installation of the sculptures during Palm House opening hours, but you must reserve a ticket for the 11am launch event via eventbrite.
7.30pm: Unity Theatre
‘Not all people without dwarfism are under the impression that people with dwarfism are there for entertainment as pets, toys, fetishes, dream sequences, musical numbers…just most.’
Midgitte Bardot, the alias of solo artist Tamm Reynolds and their collaborator, Nicol Parkinson, present a work-in-progress sharing of their new show where they explore ‘who is really dwarfing who.
‘Performance has been written into dwarf bones against their will. They’re a local celebrity with little power wherever they go, from the mines, courts, cabarets, and big screen to performing arts institutions.’
Join Bardot as she questions: Why is it violence she seeks? What happens when a dwarf has power? Are the non-dwarfs on their knees? What does a land look like when it’s designed and ruled by Midgittes?
Supported by Arts Council England and the Southbank Centre, Marlborough Arts, Battersea Arts Centre, and almost definitely et al.
Access: BSL interpretation and Audio Description will be available for this event.
Age Guidance: 16+ Adult Themes, strong language, some nudity
Cost: Tickets are on a ‘pay what you can’ basis up to £20.
Not F**kin' Sorry – Cabaret
7.30pm: Unity Theatre
The Not Your Circus Dog collective return after their sold-out runs in 2019 and 2022 for more shameless sexy punk crip cabaret. With luscious lip syncs, sweaty dances and verbatim stories, have your preconceptions rattled as we take you to the edge.
‘Not F**kin’ Sorry’ is punk rock, queer, crip-art, subversive ‘freakshow’ cabaret.
It’s confrontational, loud, sexy and angry, exploring the discrimination experienced by learning-disabled and neurodivergent people.
‘Not F**kin' Sorry’ reframes the representation of learning-disabled people.
The performers reclaim their identities and their agency as sexualised, gendered, deviant, angry and powerful individuals through their onstage ensemble.
Welcome to our space. You are a guest, and we are not f**king sorry.
Access: BSL interpretation and Audio Description will be available for this event.
Age Guidance: 16+ Adult themes, strong language, some nudity
Cost: Tickets are on a ‘pay what you can’ basis, up to £20.
11am – 5pm: Bluecoat Performance Space
Live Activations: 1.30-2.30pm on 22nd; 12-1pm & 3.30-4.30pm on 23rd
In ‘Rage Reactor', artist zack mennell invites audiences to enter a strange world where memories of the artist's childhood react with the infrastructure and visual culture of the civil nuclear industry. The work is accessible as an installation, which will be activated and transformed by three performances across the weekend. Explorations of personal childhood trauma are poetically entangled with the damage inflicted upon communities and ecologies by nuclear power. With humour and intense physical action, mennell considers lineage and generational cycles of trauma and asks broad questions such as: What does this leave us with? Where does this leave us? Where can we go from here?
Access: BSL interpretation and Audio Description will be provided at this event.
Age Guidance: 16+ Contains nudity and adult themes
Booking info:Booking via eventbrite for these live activations is essential.
Follow this link to get your tickets.
Please book a ticket for one of the following times:
- Sat 22nd Mar: 12.00 - 1.00pm
- Sun 23rd Mar: 12.00pm-1.00pm
- Sun 23rd Mar: 3:30pm- 4:30pm
NB: To allow time for our artists and team to attend the ‘Crips Against Cuts’ National Day of Action protest on Saturday 22nd March, we are moving the time of the first Rage Reactor activation on Saturday to 12.00pm – 1.00pm
11am – 4pm: Bluecoat Garden
Join this interactive performance with artist Dora Colquhoun in the Garden at the Bluecoat. The fictional NBFS (The National Bureau For Sitting) will assess members of the public to see whether they can take a seat in a very comfortable Chesterfield chair.‘Would you Like a Seat?’ looks at archaic systems that enables some to thrive and some to survive andasks the question ‘Why do we allow some people access and not others?
Access: BSL interpretation will be provided, and performances will include some Audio Description.
Booking info: No booking required, just pop in during performance times. Please note, queuing for this interactive piece may be required at busy periods.
NB. To allow time for our artists and team to attend the ‘Crips Against Cuts’ National Day of Action protest on Saturday 22nd March, the performances of Would You Like A Seat on Saturday 22nd March will pause between 1.45pm and 3.00pm.
We apologise for any inconvenience
Pop-Up Poetry with Amina Atiq
12 – 3pm: Bluecoat Garden / Courtyard
Join local poet Amina Atiq for performances of her work, developed especially for DaDaFest International 40 reflecting on the theme of ‘Rage’, along with some of her existing poems.
Access: This performance will be BSL interpreted.
Booking info: No booking required, just pop in during performance times.
7.30pm (doors): District, Baltic
Show starts 8pm sharp. Ends 1am (or whenever you stop dancing)
DaDa is excited to collaborate with Liverpool's original Drag Dinner Cabaret and Club Night Collective ‘Eat Me and Preach’, who will be inviting disabled, Deaf and Neurodivergent artists to be part of a raucous evening of ‘Not Safe For Work’ performance and protest that gives ‘more than a nod’ to the long-standing intersections of queer and crip identities, offers a safe space for shared grief, rage and healing and offers joy and community in dark times.
Access: there will be BSL interpretation and Audio Description.
Age Guidance: 18+ Adult themes, strong language throughout and nudity highly likely
Cost: £15. Concessions and unwaged / companion tickets available.
Booking Info: Skiddle link coming soon available here and @eatmeclub
Please send any low income ticket requests, cater tickets and access requests to eatmelpool@gmail.com