George Town Festival 2016

The George Town Festival 2016 coming to Penang, Malaysia 29 July - 28 August. As well as the rich international theatre, dance and music programme, there's visual arts, design, photography, comedy, talks, workshops, an ASEAN showcase, a paddyfield in the middle of town and huge beasts that walk with the wind. Check out some of the highlights:

Award-winning physical dance theatre company Gecko (UK) presents Missing (image above) through a series of extraordinary images, jaw-dropping choreography and a tantalising multilingual vocal landscape. Since its premier in 2012, Missing has garnered international acclaim as it continues to tour around the world to tell the tale of Lily as she revisits her past, urging audiences to consider their origins and how far they have strayed from who they are.
Pearl of the Eastern & Oriental is a commissioned play by Lim Yu-Beng and Tan Kheng Hua, the Singapore/Malaysia team that brought you GTF 2014’s sold out play 2 Houses. Staged on-site the present day E&O Hotel, it is the second of a trilogy of odes to Penang told through an enchanting tale of a young lady butler, Pearl. Adding to the charm of the tale are ghosts and guests of the hotel’s past and present, as their encounters with Pearl subtly urge her to ponder about shaping her future in the here and now.
All That Fall is a multi-layered composition of voices that can be experienced as a black comedy, a murder mystery, a cryptic literary riddle or a quasi-musical score. It was originally a radio play written by Samuel Beckett and first broadcast in 1957. Set in a uniquely atmospheric, theatrically-tuned listening chamber, Pan Pan Theatre’s (Ireland) creative experimentation is sure to command attention from start.

https://youtu.be/PuxtdylbwVs

Strandbeest Imagine PVC skeletons the size of trucks ambling gracefully across a beach and you might just be able to imagine a Strandbeest. Having racked up more than 3.7 million views on his TED talk, Dutch artist Theo Jansen has enthralled people from all over the world with these life-like creations and will be bringing them to Southeast Asia for the first time.Largely made of stiff plastic tubes, these Strandbeests are devoid of motors or technological aids yet are able to come to life through the force of the wind. They have travelled across the globe to countries such as Japan, France, Taiwan, Australia and Spain as well as the Art Basel in Miami Beach. In 2010, they starred in a BMW commercial that was televised in South Africa, Germany and Spain and were also featured in an episode on BBC1 in 2014.