Preview: Welcome to the Jungle at ARC Stockton

 

Stockton-based theatre maker Umar Butt to preview new show at ARC Stockton Arts Centre

 

Welcome to the Jungle

ARC Stockton

Tuesday 20 - Wednesday 21 September 2022

A brand new show from a Stockton-based writer, director, actor and theatre maker will preview at ARC Stockton this September. Umar Butt, an Associate Artist at ARC, is creating Welcome to the Jungle, an epic, intensely personal tale of how two strangers came to meet each other in the middle of the night, on an empty bridge.

Exploring issues around identity, migration, belonging, family and community, Welcome to the Jungle seeks to help neighbours understand each other better – their experiences, their points of view, their hopes and their values. Umar hopes that the story will help us all find connection with each other, and celebrate our differences.

Umar Butt

Umar says: “I am so excited to start work on Welcome to the Jungle, and to bring this story into people’s lives. We’re telling a global story about connection and family, but one that is very much grounded in Teesside. It’s about you and your neighbour as much as it is about global issues that we’re facing. But while dealing with those issues, it will be fun, and exciting, and full of warmth and heart.” 

Umar has been creating work in association with ARC since 2018. In 2019 he presented Alex & Eliza, a deeply personal intergenerational story with its roots in the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan, to sold-out audiences both on Teesside and on a UK tour. Now he has secured funding to lead a creative team of 14 people on his new show.

Welcome to the Jungle has been created with the support of ARC Stockton, The Dukes, Lancaster, Sheffield Theatres, and Arts Council England.

Tickets:

Welcome to the Jungle is at ARC Stockton on Tuesday 20 September at 7pm and Wednesday 21 September at 2pm. Both performances will be BSL interpreted.

Tickets are priced on a Pay What You Decide basis, which means you can book your seats in advance as usual, and then pay what you thought the experience was worth after the show. Book at www.arconline.co.uk or by calling ARC on 01642 525199.