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Kent graduate takes centre stage at Barbican

A former University of Kent student is performing her own stage show at London’s Barbican Centre in June. 

Kristin Fredricksson, who studied for an MA in Practice as Research Drama at the University between 2008 and 2009, will be performing Everything Must Go. The show is touring nationally and internationally this year, culminating in the two-week run at The Pit, Barbican Centre, between 16 and 26 June. 

Kristin’s appearance at the Barbican is part of BITE, one of the UK’s leading theatre festivals. The show is also at the Theatre Royal Margate on 3 June. 

Everything Must Go has already achieved wide critical acclaim, winning the Total Theatre Award for devised performance in 2009, and the Arches Brick Award at the Edinburgh Festival in the same year. 

Within the show, Kristin pays tribute to her late father, the artist Karl Fredricksson, using cinefilm, clowning, dance, puppetry and hurdling, as she shares intimate details of his life with the audience. One critic described the piece as a ‘moving meditation on love, loss, memory and play’; another wrote that the show was a ‘heartfelt exploration of an extraordinary life’. 

Professor Paul Allain, the University’s Director for Drama and Theatre Studies within the School of Arts, said: ‘Kristin is a highly imaginative performer and creator, and has achieved great success with this performance since she graduated. She is an excellent ambassador for Kent's innovative drama department, which continually produces students who are leading the way. 

‘Her extraordinary performance about her father was developed as part of her Master’s degree at Kent while he was still alive. 

‘The piece was a lively homage to his eccentricities, and ended with father and daughter dancing. Since his death last year, the piece has inevitably evolved, but remains just as moving and intimate.’ 

Kristin, who lives in Canterbury, has worked as a performer in France, Portugal and Japan, as well as in the UK. She is also the founder and artistic director of Beady Eye, a company which brings together artists and performers from around the world to work on contemporary theatre projects. 

Her work has been performed in France at Espace Périphérique (La Villette), le Lavoir Moderne Parisien and la Nef - Manufacture d’Utopies.
 

Contact: N.J.Ellwood@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 12:08pm 6 May 2010