Babylon Beyond Borders

Babylon Beyond Borders is a simultaneous live stream and live broadcast experiment between 4 theatres in 4 different cities.

Babylon Beyond Borders was a collaborative cross-border theatre making project between 4 theatres in 4 countries, each deeply rooted in their own communities, to explore their relationship to migration, land, exile and language.  The result was a live stream and live broadcast performance which took place simultaneously in Johannesburg, London, São Paulo and New York. 

The participating theatres and lead artists from each location were Ruthie Osterman at the Bush Theatre in London, a world-famous home for new plays and an internationally renowned champion of playwrights; Sarah Elizabeth Charles at the Harlem Stage in New York, an award-winning performing arts centre that features diverse local, national, and global artists in music, film, opera, theatre, dance and literature, Pedro Granato at Pequeno Ato in São Paulo, an independent theatre focusing on creating new dramaturgy and contemporary aesthetics and Mwenya Kabwe working with the final year students at the Market Theatre Laboratory in Johannesburg, a unique performance training facility in South Africa committed to providing training opportunities to talented youth who would not otherwise be able to pursue their passion for the arts. 

Babylon Beyond Borders was devised from each of the four creative centres with the artists in each location, as well as collaboratively over Skype, to craft a live performance for each local audience which included simultaneous live streamed projection from the other cities.  The production accommodated the different time zones and languages to create a holistic event using movement, text, archival material of iconic towers in each city, and music. On selected nights the production was also live broadcast for an online audience. 

The event will be built from the four creative centres with the artists in each location, to create a live performance for each local audience which will include simultaneous live streamed projection from the other cities.  They will work with the different time zones to create a holistic event using text, movement, archival material, live stream and music and it will also be live broadcast on the internet for an online audience. This ambitious simultaneous performance event celebrated the possibilities of experimental cross-border theatre making using technology and live performance.