V&A Performance Festival 2016

The V&A’s third annual Performance Festival will celebrate live performance in all its forms over nine days. From talks to pop up performances, a diverse programme of over 30 events will take place across the museum, bringing together talented theatre companies and practitioners to transform the Museum galleries and unusual spaces into arenas for performance.

In celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the V&A has commissioned a site-specific promenade performance Malvolio’s Misorder set in the Britain 1500-1760 Galleries. Inspired by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the performance will respond to Museum objects including the Great Bed of Ware and the 17th Century interior from the ‘Old Palace’ at Bromley-by-Bow and will bring them to life with stories, music and revelry.

Other highlights will include a three day performance Hand in Glove, choreographed by Lea Anderson and a special study day Les Mis to Matilda: A Celebration of Musical Theatre which will mark some of the best-loved stage musicals of all time, from classics of the West End such as Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera, to new musical phenomena Wicked and Matilda the Musical.