Flytower

What's On

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• Cut-Outs on Concrete:

  The British Stage in Miniature

  The Toy Theatre first appeared in the early 1800s, miniaturising the great productions of the day into intricately detailed cardboard cut-out versions. These theatres became an essential pastime for Victorian children and the tiny productions are now a valuable resource, teaching us much about the staging and acting of the period, as well as enchanting us as these lost performances are brought back to life. Robert Lewis Stevenson famously referred to the sheets of characters sold as ‘Penny Plain and Twopence Coloured’. Modern reproductions still remain many an actor and director’s first experience of working in the theatre.

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• The Corsican Brothers

  or, The Fatal Duel

  Young Blood

  Minature performances projected live on the Flytower Fri 13 & Sat 14 August at 10pm.

  The Toy Theatre first appeared in the early 1800s, miniaturising the great productions of the day into intricately detailed cardboard cut-out versions. Young Blood lovingly recreates these mini-masterpieces in his outsize Corinthian Theatre and his hand-coloured, cut-out figures and scenery burst into life with accompanying music adding a contemporary twist. In The Corsican Brothers, Dion Boucicault’s tragic story of ill-fated twin brothers and a deadly duel in the Forest of Fontainebleau.

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• The Battle of Waterloo

  The Countess Phedora's Curse

  Young Blood

  Minature performances projected live on the Flytower Fri 13 & Sat 14 August at 10pm.

  The Toy Theatre first appeared in the early 1800s, miniaturising the great productions of the day into intricately detailed cardboard cut-out versions. Young Blood lovingly recreates these mini-masterpieces in his outsize Corinthian Theatre and his hand-coloured, cut-out figures and scenery burst into life with accompanying music adding a contemporary twist. In The Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon’s defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington takes its rightful place overlooking the bridge that bears the name of that famous battle.

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• Blackbeard the Pirate

  The Jolly Buccaneers

  Young Blood

  Minature performances projected live on the Flytower Fri 27 & 28 August at 10pm.

  The Toy Theatre first appeared in the early 1800s, miniaturising the great productions of the day into intricately detailed cardboard cut-out versions. Young Blood lovingly recreates these mini-masterpieces in his outsize Corinthian Theatre and his hand-coloured, cut-out figures and scenery burst into life with accompanying music adding a contemporary twist. In Blackbeard the Pirate, experience swashbucklinghigh-sea adventures with the infamous Blackbeard - the Captain Jack Sparrow of his day!

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• BFI Film: Architecture on the South Bank

  Projected on the Flytower on Fri 2 Jul, 11pm (40 mins)

  As part of the LFA Late, this programme of short films shows the evolution of the South Bank over 50 years from the opening of Waterloo Station, via the Festival of Britain, to the cultural building sites in the 1960s and a night with cineastes at the National Film Theatre.

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• BFI Film: King Coal

  Projected on the Flytower Fri 10.30pm (45 mins)

  With Carbón Club playing in Square2, there are more coalmining treats in these 10 short films and extracts which chart a century of British coal mining, from the fleeting appearance of a young black miner in 1901 to the miners’ wives during the 1984 strike and, almost 50 years before Billy Elliot, an unorthodox performance of Coppélia by tutu-wearing miners from the West Riding Colliery.

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• BFI Film: The Big Smoke

  Projected on the Flytower Fri 16 July at 10.30pm (45 mins)

  From the bustle of the Victorian commute to the celebrations of the end of WW2, this programme of silent films is brought to life with a new jazz score performed by James Pearson with Ronnie Scott's All Stars. Also featuring an alarming vision of London's future in The Fugitive Futurist (1924) and ethereal 1930s footage of the London Underground. (45 mins)

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• BFI Film – Britain at Bay: Peace & War, 1937-40

  Projected on the Flytower Fri 23 July at 10.30pm (45 mins)

  Taking up themes from Rattigan’s After the Dance, these short films capture Britain’s transformation in the late 1930s – from rural idyll to total war. English Harvest (1938) shows the countryside unchanged in centuries. But Spare Time (1939) feels somewhat bleaker as Britons attempt to enjoy their hobbies – from pigeon racing to amateur dramatics – despite the storm clouds on the horizon. (45 mins)

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• BFI Film: Auden and Britten at the GPO

  Projected on the Flytower Fri 30 July at 10.30pm (50 mins)

  In the 1930s the GPO Film Unit was home to some of Britain’s most audacious creative talents. Among them were WH Auden and Benjamin Britten, the two central characters in The Habit of Art, who brought a radical approach to the development of sound in British film, most famously in Night Mail (1936). Also a chance to see their collaborations Coal Face (1935), God’s Chillun (1938) and Lotte Reiniger’s delightful animation, The Tocher (1938), scored by Britten in a particularly playful mood.

Flytower: Fri 2 July – 28 Aug

The British Stage in Miniature: 13 - 28 August

In league with the intriguingly monikered Young Blood, Watch This Space presents a series of live performances of The British Stage in Miniature, blown up to a huge scale and projected onto the flytower. Young Blood lovingly recreates these mini-masterpieces in his outsize Corinthian Theatre and his hand-coloured, cut-out figures and scenery burst into life with accompanying music adding a contemporary twist.

BFI Films: 2 - 30 July

The BFI looks after the world’s largest and most significant collection of film and TV. As the Archive celebrates its 75th anniversary this summer, we are delighted to present films from the collection projected on the flytower each Friday in July. For details of the extensive programme of films from the Archive at BFI Southbank in July and August visit www.bfi.org.uk