| Hunt & Darton presents: Radio Local Live and socially distanced, Radio Local hosts a two-day special in Mitcham to celebrate the joys and necessity of local radio and community ‘A pop-up establishment of disarming eccentricity’ Lyn Gardner for the Guardian Gino’s Restaurant, Mitcham, CR4 2PA 21st & 22nd August 10am – 4pm Twitter @HuntDarton | Insta @huntanddarton | #RadioLocal2020 | www.radiolocal.co.uk | www.huntanddarton.com/ |
Innovative performance duo Hunt & Darton have been delivering their upbeat show, Radio Local, digitally over the summer: now, they will be hosting a one-of-a-kind live event in Mitcham, a specially socially distanced two-day performance of their hyper-local radio show in an independent Italian restaurant. Broadcast live from Gino’s Restaurant on Riverside Radio, the show will run for six hours a day on the 21st and 22nd August with special guest stars and interviewees including international drag sensation Le Gateau Chocolat, performer, writer and Mitcham resident Vijay Patel, The Mayor of Merton – Councillor Janice Howard and showcasing a plethora of Mitcham residents. Complete with neighbourhood anecdotes and interviews with local heroes, the showwillcelebrate everything about what it means to be local and will be built with, by and for residents of Mitcham.
Stringent budgets and an ever-increasing centralisation of the media have led to a devastating demise in support for local radio, with tens of local shows closing their networks earlier this year. Hunt & Darton will gather stories from Mitcham to create their shows, strap aerials to their heads and talk to residents live from Gino’s restaurant with tales highlighting activity local to their guests and what their area means to them. Covid-19 has meant that the show has only been able to be accessed digitally up until now, a pocket of positivity for disappointed theatregoers unable to attend live performance; now residents of Mitcham will once again be able to see the live show as well as hear it on their local radio station.
Full schedules will be unveiled at http://www.radiolocal.co.uk/
Drawing on their signature deadpan, playful and inclusive approach, Hunt & Darton will turn regular radio features into a series of absurd games: news bulletins? Local residents divulge anything from DIY successes to family births. Restaurant reviews? Giving Hunt & Darton plenty of time to compile a long list of must-eats before the return of business as usual. Agony aunt? Strangers share their problems in a kind, supportive environment.
Jenny Hunt and Holly Darton said “We feel privileged to have found a way to carry on making work in this adverse time. Radio is a superpower. We are ridiculously excited to still be able make this show with you all and show off some wonderful local communities, commission some great artists and share our collective experiences in this bizarre time. We feel more than ever the need to keep communities connected and to offer some light relief to people with limited travel and as people begin to embrace their neighbourhoods again as lockdown eases. We cannot wait to collaborate with you- let’s make some art, let’s make radio!”
Hunt & Darton is a 10-year old collaborative practice between artists Jenny Hunt and Holly Darton, who both studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins. Hunt & Darton make work that embraces the ordinary as extraordinary; they replicate, borrow, reframe and reclaim social space, facilitating ambitious public Art that responsibly establishes itself as part of its new home. Committed to creating live work that playfully interrogates definitions of ‘local’, they blur distinctions between conceptual and community space and take ‘public engagement for starters and not as side dish.’ Hunt & Darton are the creators of the Three Weeks Editor award-winning Hunt & Darton Café, a pop-up interactive performance/installation and fully-functioning café. For a Circulate commission they created The Punch, The Sandwich, The Cake, an outdoor show for families. In 2014/15 they also toured a full-length theatre show titled Boredom to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and venues across the UK. They have since developed and toured Radio Local to town squares, parks and more remote locations across the UK. Hunt & Darton are associate artists at Cambridge Junction.
Company information
Conceived and created by Jenny Hunt and Holly Darton
Listings information
21st & 22nd Aug Gino’s Restaurant, Mitcham
6-8 Upper Green East, Mitcham, Surrey CR4 2PA
10am – 4pm
Further locations with details to be confirmed:
Detailed show listings can be found at http://www.radiolocal.co.uk/
Commissioned by Merton Council and supported by Arts Council England