As part of [ art : weapon ], the MolinoGroup will be supporting two local theatre companies in developing work inspired by the themes of the residency. Creating work which explores the relationship between art and conflict, Squiffy Cabaret and New Model Theatre will produce brand new pieces as a double-bill – presented to audiences for the first time.

Squiffy Cabaret is an Exeter based theatre company founded by Anya Williams and Magda Cassidy that creates new and contemporary music-based theatre. Squiffy Cabaret won the 2014/15 Bike Shed Theatre Graduate Company Residency, and will debut their first full production at the Bike Shed Theatre, Exeter in January 2015.

New Model Theatre is a theatre company based in Plymouth, who look beyond form to create modern theatre for a modern audience.  Their work responds to the world around it whilst keeping a very human element at its heart; they have a strong fringe aesthetic and are dedicated to making brilliant theatre with a DIY ethos. New Model Theatre are supported by Barbican Theatre Plymouth.

About [ art : weapon ]
“A painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war” — Pablo Picasso

From Picasso’s Guernica to the poems of Wilfred Owen, Homer’s epics to the photography of Robert Capa, artists have always exposed, and responded to armed conflict.

Taking an innovative and varied approach to the commemoration of conflicts with a broad programme of commissions, the MolinoGroup’s Residency asks questions about how we come to terms with conflicts as humans and artists now, and how we respond: is art ever more than a panacea? Can it be a weapon? These questions ring out in November of the WW1 centenary year.

Details - http://www.bikeshedtheatre.co.uk/whats-on/art-weapon-double-bill-squiffy...