That’s a wrap on GDIF 2020!

28 August – 12 September

Reimagined to facilitate social distancing and to ensure the safety of staff, performers and audiences, the festival saw over 150 performances and welcomed over 20,000 people over the last three weeks.

Closing the festival on Saturday was 846 Live; a co-production with Theatre Royal Stratford East and the Royal Docks Team in response to the murder of George Floyd. Conceived by playwright Roy Williams, the première of this outdoor production was directed by Matthew Xia. We’re thrilled to announce that the production has received an Offie nomination for best production in the IDEA category: Innovative/Devised/Experiential/Atypical theatre.

The festival also offered an opportunity for the community to come together and reflect on the impact of the pandemic. From Luke Jerram’s In Memoriam, an installation of flags made from bed sheets, created in memory of those lost in the Covid-19 pandemic, to Bernardine Evaristo’s The Weavers of Woolwich, which brought a people’s history of Woolwich right up to the present day and then presented it on a giant illuminated book, the Festival combined moments of reflection and celebration.

In the spirit of reinvention, many artists and companies reimagined and adapted their productions to accommodate social distancing; from Upswing’s ingeniously designed Catch Me at Dancing City in Canary Wharf, an intergenerational circus and contemporary dance duet exploring isolation with the use of a Perspex screen, to Mimbre’s To Untouch which replaced the company’s traditional close contact acrobatics with movement which evoked the emotional and physical sensation of touch.

View the brochure online here.

Image: Stephen Wright