AN award-winning celebration of the arts which explores issues surrounding people’s health and experience of the world is returning to Sussex this month.
The annual Sick! Festival will feature groundbreaking theatre, dance, film and public art from around the world.
These will run alongside a series of debates, talks and other events presented at the newly refurbished Attenborough Centre for Contemporary Art at the University of Sussex and in Jubilee Square, Brighton.
Those behind the festival say it explores the most turbulent experiences of living in the world today and the challenges people face mentally and physically.
Embracing the multitude of identities, histories and social conditions that shape people, the festival asks how people are coping in the world they live in.
Highlights for 2017 include the UK premiere of There is a Light: BRIGHTLIGHT by the Contact Young Company.
The performance is inspired by the findings of a study developed by young people about their cancer care experiences.
Before I Die is a participatory public art project led by Candy Chang which invites people to contemplate death, reflect on life, and share their personal aspirations in public.
The project has now been created in more than 70 countries, including Iraq, China, Brazil, Kazakhstan, and South Africa.
Staff Stories features NHS employees working on the frontline of public healthcare who will be sharing their experiences and reflecting on the many challenges, stresses and ethical dilemmas they face on a daily basis.
Festival chief executive and artistic director Helen Medland said: “Sick! Festival exists to provide a common space in which differing perspectives and voices can come together in shared exploration, discovery and understanding.
“The work we present examines difficult issues – sexuality, identity, mental suffering, ageing – the stuff of being human.
“All too often, this stuff is hidden away from public view.
“The festival exists to change that.”
The festival runs from March 20 to 25. Visit sickfestival.com.
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