Voices from the South - a new online showcase of international work

Magnetic North is a partner on Voices from the South, an international online showcase which will premiere 15 new performance works from Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The showcase features specially-commissioned work from a range of genres, including theatre, dance, music and multi-disciplinary performance. It has been co-curated and delivered by:

MITsp – São Paulo International Theatre Festival (Brazil)

Pickle Factory (India)

La Teatrería and Teatrix (Mexico)

Baxter Theatre Centre (South Africa)

in partnership with Magnetic North and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.

The work presented explores a wide range of themes, including identity, community, tradition and history, sustainability and nature, immigration, relationships, femininity and womanhood, and much more. Each work exists within a unique context in the midst of complex histories and contemporary circumstances, yet similarities and shared concerns emerge throughout the programme.

Although conceived initially as digital projects, much of the work will also have a future life as live performances. In a unique low carbon process, all the contributing artists met regularly online to talk about their work and share their progress with each other as the individual projects were developed over the last 16 months.

Voices from the South was inspired by conversations between the partner organisations in 2021 that explored the idea of a purely online showcase at the Fringe. The project aims to break down some of the significant barriers faced by artists from the Global South regions – such as geographical, financial, language and access barriers – when it comes to participating in the Edinburgh Fringe and accessing international networks.

Magnetic North has brought to the project its long-standing experience of partnership-building, international artist development and producing new work, as well as its more recent experience of creating digital work.  

You can read about the 15 projects and the artists who made them on the showcase's website here.