Forced Entertainment


Forced Entertainment is an experimental theatre company based in Sheffield, England, founded by Tim Etchells in 1984.
WWW forcedentertainment.com

Details and history

Forced Entertainment originally focused on making and touring theatre performances before expanding to long durational performance, live art, video and digital media. Their work has been presented throughout the UK and Europe as well as Australia, Japan, Canada and the US. They develop projects using a collaborative process – devising work as a group through improvisation, experimentation and debate. Their core members are Tim Etchells, Richard Lowdon and performers Robin Arthur, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O'Connor, who have all been with the company from the start.
A book was published about them in 2004, "Not Even a Game Anymore": The Theatre of Forced Entertainment. In 2012 BBC Radio 4 aired a programme following their creative process developing, writing and rehearsing The Coming Storm.

Projects

Jessica in the Room of Lights, 1984, theatre performancesThe Set-up, 1985, theatre performancesNighthawks, 1985, theatre performances to the Sea that Made the Promise, 1986, theatre performancesThe Day that Serenity Returned to the Ground, 1986, theatre performances200% and Bloody Thirsty, 1987, theatre performancesSome Confusions in the Law about Love, 1989, theatre performancesMarina & Lee, 1991, theatre performancesCardboard Sign Photographs, 1992, photographyEmanuelle Enchanted, 1992, theatre performances12 am: Awake & Looking Down, 1993, long durational performancesClub of No Regrets, 1993, theatre performancesLooking Forwards, 1993, photographyRed Room, 1993, gallery/installationA Decade of Forced Entertainment, 1994, theatre performancesDreams' Winter, 1994, site-specific worksSpeak Bitterness, 1994, long durational performancesGround Plans for Paradise, 1994, gallery/installationHidden J, 1994, theatre performancesHotel Photographs, 1994, photographyNights in this City, 1995, site-specific worksShowtime, 1996, theatre performancesQuizoola!, 1996, long durational performancesPleasure, 1997, theatre performancesFrozen Palaces, 1997, CD-ROM/interactiveDirty Work, 1998, theatre performancesFilthy Words & Phrases, 1998, film/videoParadise, 1998, CD-ROM/interactiveNightwalks, 1998, CD-ROM/interactiveDisco Relax, 1999, theatre performancesWho Can Sing a Song to Unfrighten Me?, 1999, long durational performancesSpin, 1999, CD-ROM/interactiveAnd on the Thousandth Night..., 2000, long durational performancesHotel Binary, 2000, gallery/installationScar Stories, 2000, site-specific worksRules of the Game, 2000, gallery/installation, text/photographsFirst Night, 2001, theatre performancesInstructions for Forgetting, 2001, theatre performancesThe Travels, 2002, theatre performancesThe Voices, 2003, theatre performancesImaginary Evidence, 2003, CD-ROM/interactiveMarathon Lexicon, 2003, long durational performancesYears 0 – 20, 2004, photographyBloody Mess, 2004, theatre performancesExquisite Pain, 2005, theatre performancesThe World in Pictures, 2006, theatre performancesSpectacular, 2008, theatre performancesSight is the sense that dying people tend to lose first, 2008, theatre performancesVoid Story, 2009, theatre performancesThe Thrill of It All, 2010, theatre performancesTomorrow's Parties, 2011, theatre performancesAlthough We Fell Short, 2011, theatre performancesThe Coming Storm, 2012, theatre performancesThe Last Adventures, 2013, theatre performancesComplete Works: Table Top Shakespeare, 2015, performances of all 36 playsReal Magic, 2016, theatre performanceOut of Order, 2018, theatre performanceTo Move in Time, 2019, theatre performanceEnd Meeting For All, 2020, on-line digital film seriesHow The Time Goes, 2021, on-line digital film seriesUnder Bright Light, 2022, theatre performanceIf All Else Fails, 2023, theatre performanceSignal to Noise, 2024, theatre performance

Awards

Reception

Joyce McMillan, writing in The Scotsman, called Forced Entertainment "legendary". David Tushingham, writing in the Financial Times, called them "The best group of stage actors in Britain". Robert Avila, writing in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, considered them "internationally successful and storied". Lyn Gardner, writing in The Guardian, has said that "Beyond these shores, however, the company is regarded as one of the greatest British theatrical exports of the past 20 years.... It is this ability to smash through the pretenses of theatre that has kept the company ahead of the game." They have been described in The Guardian as having "produced some of the most exciting and challenging theatre of the past few decades". Marie-Hélène Falcon, director of Montreal's Festival de Théatre des Amériques, said of Speak Bitterness that "I had never seen anything like it before, a piece that was so political, provocative and poetic because it was a group of artists speaking about their lives – and therefore our lives – in the most direct way," "To this day, Speak Bitterness is one of the very few experiences that have radically changed my understanding and vision of theatre". The British Library claims that the group "continue to tour widely and to great acclaim throughout the world".
The British Library holds a large collection of video and audio material documenting their performances and talks.

Publications

Numerous books and journals on theatre have included chapters and essays about Forced Entertainment."Not Even a Game Anymore": The Theatre of Forced Entertainment. By Judith Helmer and Florian Malzacher. Berlin: Alexander Verlag Berlin, 2004..
  • Certain Fragments: Contemporary Performance and Forced Entertainment. Routledge, 1999. By Tim Etchels. – hardback edition. – paperback edition. Essays and other material. With a foreword by Peggy Phelan. Illustrated with photographs by Hugo Glendinning. Includes performance texts from to the Sea that Made the Promise. Emanuelle Enchanted, Club of No Regrets and Speak Bitterness.
  • Things That Go through Your Mind When Falling: The Work of Forced Entertainment. Leipzig: Spector, 2023.. Edited by Adrian Heathfield. Photography by Hugo Glendinning. Performance texts by Tim Etchells and Forced Entertainment. With contributions from Robin Arthur, Sara Jane Bailes, Augusto Corrieri, Etchells, Matthew Goulish, Adrian Heathfield, Joy Kristin Kalu, Joe Kelleher, Richard Lowdon, Claire MacDonald, Claire Marshall, Rabih Mroué, Cathy Naden, Terry O'Connor, Giulia Palladini, Flora Pitrolo, Séverine Ruset, and Theron Schmidt.