12 June - 15 July

Balassi InstituteBarbican

Croydon Council Flanders House

Goethe-Institut LondonLondon 2012 Festival

Romanian Cultural Institute

Atelier OneBreckman & Company

CBS OutdoorDivine Chocolate

Grange HotelsHarbottle & LewisThe Hospital Club

Index on Censorshipmuf architecture/art

Peyton and ByrneTime Out LondonSaatchi & Saatchi

Vintage ClassicsVodafone: World of Di! erence

City Bridge TrustContemporary Myths

Coutts Charitable TrustThe Derek Hill Foundation

The Funding NetworkThe Keir Foundation

The Leche TrustThe Gar" eld Weston Foundation

The Noël Coward FoundationThe Rayne Foundation

The Sackler TrustVital Regeneration

WWF-UKVisiting Arts

Kate & Paul BrundageMyriam Blundell

Lily & Julian HarrissLydia Lee

Gerard Lemos & Paul CraneTheresa Sackler

Jay Verjee

LIFT Board:Bernard Donoghue (Chair)

Pat BrownJo Burns

Manisha FerdinandCraig Hassall

Phillip KeirGeorge Kessler CBE

Karen NapierJohn Newton

David Philip

LIFT 2012 would not have been possible without

LIFT 2012 was a festival of partnerships as well as productions. LIFT worked with hundreds of artists, venues, funders and programmers to deliver a diverse, collaborative and cross-disciplinary festival. Partnerships also increased e$ ciencies, shared resources and broadened audience reach.

Gatz Noël Coward Theatre (Westminster)Elevator Repair Service

The Rest Is Silence Riverside Studios (Hammersmith)dreamthinkspeak

Minsk 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker Young Vic (Southwark)Belarus Free Theatre

You Once Said Yes Roundhouse (Camden)Look Left Look Right

White Rabbit, Red Rabbit Gate Theatre (Kensington & Chelsea)Nassim Soleimanpour

66 Minutes in Damascus Shoreditch Town Hall (Hackney)Lucien Bourjeily

The Coming Storm Battersea Arts Centre (Wandsworth)Forced Entertainment

There We Will Be Buried Institute of Contemporary Arts (Westminster)Yair Oelbaum

Un" nished Dream Fair" eld Halls/Q Park, Surrey Street (Croydon)Hamid Pourazari

Motor Show Greenwich Peninsula (Greenwich)Requardt & Rosenberg

The Dark Side of Love RoundhouseRenato Rocha

Romeo & Juliet in Baghdad Riverside StudiosIraqi Theatre Company

Ganesh Versus the Third Reich Stratford Circus (Newham)Back to Back Theatre

Before Your Very Eyes Unicorn Theatre (Southwark)Gob Squad/CAMPO

100% London Hackney Empire (Hackney)Rimini Protokoll

Macbeth: Leila and Ben - Riverside StudiosA Bloody HistoryArtistes/Producteurs/Associés

Where The Heart Is The Women’s Library (Tower Hamlets)Magic Me

20/20 Platform Theatre (Camden)Gianina Carbunariu

One Extraordinary Day London Landmarks STREB: Extreme Action (City of London, Westminster, Lambeth, Southwark)

Rio Artists Occupation Battersea Arts Centre

Talks:Changing the Face of Freedom (Free Word Centre); The Great Gatsby at London Literature Festival (Southbank Centre); Crossing Borders (Platform Theatre); Burning Down the House, Not Waving But Drowning (both ICA)

LIFT are:Artistic Director, Mark BallExecutive Director, Beki BatesonHead of Development, Hannah Cli! ordParticipation Producer, Erica CampayneAssociate Producer, Nick SweetingGeneral Manager, Kate WardDevelopment & Marketing Co-ordinator, Jonathan MayAssistant Producer, Jon DavisMarketing Consultant, Kevin IsaacsProduction Manager, Simon MacCollSTREB Production Team: Sally Cowling, Tom Bailey, Lucy Ryan, Katie MountainFestival PR, Kean LanyonAnd all our placements & volunteers

LIFT | Institute of Contemporary Arts | The Mall | London SW1Y 5AHliftfestival.com | twitter.com/LIFTfestival | info@liftfestival.com

Registered Charity No. 286169

At the centre of LIFT are the people who imagine, create and support the festival. We rely on the contributions of our friends and funders to do our work and all donations are very gratefully received.

You can donate online at justgiving.com/LIFT2012, give through your mobile by texting LIFT 81 £your donation to 70070 or send a cheque to our o$ ces at the address below.Thank you to everyone who made our festival happen.

A Celebration

MotorshowPhoto: Warren King

“A LOT OF WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD I KNOW THROUGH THEATRE, AND THROUGH THE STORIES THAT ARE TOLD IN THEATRE, AT A FESTIVAL LIKE LIFT”Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

With London as its stage LIFT has presented the stories of the world to every corner and community of the capital for over 30 years, pioneering new forms of theatre and setting a benchmark for internationalism in the arts. LIFT relaunched its biennial festival in 2010, and this year built on its success to present LIFT 2012, the largest and most ambitious festival in our history.

LIFT 2012 was a ! ve week festival of vital, daring, witty and dizzying theatre that took place right across London: from the heart of the West End, to a car park in Croydon, to the spokes of the London Eye.

Artists from across the globe came together to present work telling the stories of the world today. With 20 international productions from 15 countries LIFT 2012 revealed the mix of cultures within our city, stimulating the minds of London’s culturally curious.

Impact and Pro! leAttracting over 43,000 attendees and selling 25,319 tickets, LIFT cut through the noise of 2012 to become one of the capital’s stand out events of the summer.

LIFT 2012 received exceptional audience feedback and achieved national and international media coverage including front pages for STREB: One Extraordinary Day in The Guardian, The Times and the Financial Times.

Working with Saatchi and Saatchi LIFT is developing its digital capacity and is focusing its branding and communications to reach younger audiences; the early results of our evaluation suggest that 63% of our audience are under 45 years old.

Investment in New WorkSupporting international and UK-based artists to create original and compelling new work that speaks to London’s audiences and communities has enabled LIFT 2012 to present a distinctive, edgy and topical festival. Incorporating a focus on the world’s most fragile geopolitical region – the Middle East – LIFT supported 8 new commissions including:

• 66 Minutes in Damascus: a terrifying journey into the dark heart of the Syrian regime by director and writer Lucien Bourjeily.

• Motor Show: created by David Rosenberg and Frauke Requardt, an outdoor dance theatre spectacular where cars and dancers raced around a deserted wasteland on the Greenwich Peninsula.

• Macbeth: Leila and Ben – A Bloody History: a powerful exploration of the Arab dictator told through the prism of one of Shakespeare’s greatest villains, created by Tunisia’s leading theatre company.

• The Coming Storm: by Britain’s legendary experimental theatre ensemble Forced Entertainment.• The Rest is Silence: a beautifully conceived investigation of Hamlet created by one of the UK’s

leading immersive theatre companies, dreamthinkspeak.

Olympic AmbitionLIFT 2012 presented six productions in partnership with London 2012 Festival and four as part of the World Shakespeare Festival. Contributing to the success of LIFT 2012 were landmark productions that, through their sheer ambition and bravado, had the ability to attract thousands of attendees and generate pages of editorial, reviews and on-line commentary - at a time when the eyes of the world fell on London.

GatzElevator Repair Service’s eight-hour theatrical marathon was LIFT’s ! rst ever presentation in the West End and became the ‘must see’ theatre event of the summer, grossing more than any other West End play in the season in its ! nal two weeks. Receiving critical acclaim Gatz attracted 9,500 people to 23 performances and has helped re-establish LIFT’s pro! le amongst audiences and the media.

Surprises-STREB: One Extraordinary DayCommissioned by the Mayor of London and London 2012 Festival and staged by LIFT, One Extraordinary Day saw seven spectacular dance actions on iconic London landmarks - from Millennium Bridge to the London Eye - created by the legendary New York choreographer Elizabeth Streb. One Extraordinary Day enthralled and dazzled thousands and captured the excitement of London 2012.

The Festival in Numbers:34 days20 productions8 new commissions10 di" erent languages 12 premieres277 volunteers75% sales capacity43,000+ audience members352 participants612 performances14 London boroughs 15,308 youtube viewsPerformers aged 3 - 82 years1,083,162 performed words of Gatz169 international artists24 venues7,050 Twitter followers1,724 hotel rooms50% carbon reduction on ground transport226 press mentions

Certainly the capital is unlikely to ever see anything like Streb again.The Guardian, on One Extraordinary Day

It’s a festival one can only see growing and taking over the city

of London.Younger Theatre

One of the most eagerly anticipated theatre events of the year.The Independent, on The Rest Is Silence (4*)

WHAT THE PRESS HAD TO SAY...

Engagement and ReachLIFT 2012 presented a hugely diverse range of international theatre across London, including the ground-breaking production of Ganesh Versus the Third Reich by Australian disability theatre company Back to Back Theatre. It also enabled Londoners across the capital, including individuals from areas with historically low arts provision, to work alongside inspirational international artists to create new work. Placing the stories and experiences of Londoners at the heart of productions, LIFT’s participatory projects included:

• Unfi nished Dream: LIFT commissioned the Iranian director Hamid Pourazari to work for three months in Croydon, engaging 220 local people in workshops - including refugees, school children, the unemployed, people with a range of disabilities and the retired - to create an ethereal performance aross three # oors of car park in the centre of town.

• 100% London: under the direction of Germany’s Rimini Protokoll, 100 Londoners - recruited over three months to exactly re# ect the demography of the capital - took to the stage of the Hackney Empire to create a living, breathing portrait of London.

• The Dark Side of Love: directed by Brazilian director Renato Rocha with Keziah Serreau and co-produced with the Roundhouse and the RSC, 16 young performers from London and Rio de Janeiro worked for nine months with a professional team, creating an exceptional piece of theatre about young love, inspired by Shakespeare.

We also reached a whole new audience through our invigorated digital strategy. Twitter alone achieved a reach of 154,000 people, our Facebook followers increased by 100% over the festival, and our new website attracted 31,838 unique visits - driven by regularly updated show information and production images, artistic updates, links to articles, reviews and audience comment.

LIFT 2012 provided an international platform for creative discussion and inquiry. Exploring climate change, international collaboration and how artists are responding to the economic crisis, LIFT presented a number of talks and seminars provoking debate and interaction amongst artists and audiences that addressed some of the most urgent issues of our times.

As a festival set against the backdrop of one of the world’s most diverse cities, LIFT 2012 engaged with people from all communities and of all ages and backgrounds, encouraging them to share in our work. Every EHRC recognised ethnicity was represented in our 2012 festival audience; 25% of attendees were under 20; 18% had an income below the national average and 53% attended the festival for the ! rst time.

Future PlansLIFT will present Hofesh Shechter Company’s Political Mother: Derry~Londonderry Uncut as part of the City of Culture 2013. Drawing upon the city’s rich musical culture, the show will feature a 30-strong live band, including emerging musicians from Derry~Londonderry performing alongside 16 dancers of the Hofesh Shechter Company at the Ebrington Parade Ground.

Our London-wide festival will return in 2014 and building upon the achievements of LIFT 2012 will continue to see LIFT at the heart of independent, challenging and inspiring international theatre.

Achieving levels of feeling most West End shows don’t get

close to.The Sunday Times, on Gatz (4*)

This is theatre with true passion and purpose: wild, intense and

thrillingly urgent and alive.The Times, on Minsk 2011 (4*)

There is a lot to thank LIFT for. The Observer

IT WAS AN EXTRAORDINARY, ORIGINAL EXPERIENCE… IT TOOK ME BACK TO A RELATIONSHIP WITH THEATRE I HAVEN’T HAD IN MANY, MANY YEARS. LIFT IS A

FANTASTIC FESTIVAL, IT ALWAYS IS. IT’S JUST SO RICH, SUCH A TONIC AND SO HUMBLING TO SEE WORK COMING FROM OTHER COUNTRIES.

Juliet Stevenson CBE, performer in White Rabbit, Red Rabbit

LIFT SEEMS TO HAVE A TALENT FOR PICKING GENUINELY INNOVATIVE AND EXCITING THEATRE FROM AROUND THE WORLD -

THE PROGRAMME IS ALWAYS QUITE INCREDIBLE. Audience Member

IT HAS BEEN A JOY FOR ALL OF US AT LONDON 2012 FESTIVAL TO WORK WITH LIFT ON AN AMAZING SERIES OF CO-COMMISSIONS.

THANK YOU FOR BEING SUCH BRAVE PARTNERS AND KEEPING YOUR EYE ON THE PRIORITY TO LOVE AND SUPPORT YOUR ARTISTS.Ruth Mackenzie OBE, Director

Macbeth: Leila & Ben - A Bloody History

Photo: Tim Mitchell

Before Your Very Eyes

Photo: Phile Deprez

The Rest Is Silence

Photo: Jim Stephenson

Romeo & Juliet in Baghdad

Photo: Ellie Kurttz

Gatz

Photo: Mark Barton

Minsk 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker

Photo: Nikolai Khalezin

The Dark Side of Love

Photo: Tim Mitchell

One Extraordinary Day

Photo: Tim Mitchell

The Times Front Cover, Mon 5 July 2012 The Guardian Front Cover, Mon 5 July 2012

LIFT 2012 BROUGHT TOGETHER HUNDREDS OF INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS AND THOUSANDS OF AUDIENCE MEMBERS TO SHARE AND DELIGHT IN STUNNING THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE. THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL HAS BEEN A FANTASTIC SUCCESS AND HAS SEEN LIFT RE-ESTABLISH ITSELF AS A VITAL PART OF LONDON’S ARTISTIC LIFE.Mark Ball, Artistic Director

IT’S GREAT TO BE IN THE MIDST OF A MAJOR EUROPEAN FESTIVAL, IN A CONTEXT WITH SO MANY OTHER ARTISTS

Tim Etchells, Director, Forced Entertainment