Enquiry

In the eighties, seeing international theatre in Britain was a thrilling but infrequent experience for London audiences. By 1999 the landscape had radically changed with international work high on the agenda of many companies and venues. In the context of consistent experimentation, Lift set a challenge to itself and the international theatre field: What new directions existed for the theatre in Britain and internationally? How could a new format for festivals be explored? Did theatre matter?

From 2001, Lift embarked on a new venture: the unframing of one format, the biennial festival and the creation of another, the Lift Enquiry, a five year commitment offering year-round staging of an exuberant and public exploration of theatre in these times worldwide. Five years on, a rich process is underway.

Each presentation within the Enquiry has been framed with a specific question, such as: What is the relationship between tradition and modernity? How do you make theatre in war? How do we imagine a cultural commons today? What is the relationship between culture and ecology? When the play ends, what begins? How does an individual's nationality affect their sense of the tragic?

The answers to these questions are accumulating, providing a more detailed understanding of the role of theatre today. Involving artists and audiences, the Lift Enquiry has been activated by the growing circles of conversations, evidence-gathering and research undertaken through three pathways: Performance, Learning and Evidence.