Natasha Tripney: My top international theatre to catch around the UK this year

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The cast of Nature Theater of Oklahoma's No President, which will appear at London's Southbank Centre in July. Photo: Heinrich Brinkmöller-Becker

The opportunity for UK audiences to engage with the work of some of the most exciting theatre artists around can sometimes feel frustratingly limited. Fortunately, some venues and programmers are doing their best to change this.

As ever, January is one of the best times to catch international work in London. In addition to MimeLondon, the new incarnation of the London International Mime Festival, which will be presenting work including Plexus Polaire’s puppet version of Moby Dick and Frau Trapp’s exercise in micro-theatre, Five Lines, there will also be the opportunity to see one of the biggest names and most exciting artists in European theatre right now, Polish director Łukasz Twarkowski.

He’s made his name with large-scale, semi-immersive work inspired by rave culture thanks to shows such as Respublika. Now, UK audiences have a chance to see one of his smaller-scale, but no less ambitious pieces, The Employees, based on Danish author Olga Ravn’s epic dystopian novel, at the Southbank Centre. Set in the near future, on a spaceship carrying people and humanoid robots, the show allows audience members to move around the space. This is one not to miss.

In February, Belarus Free Theatre – which marks its 20th anniversary this year – returns to the Barbican Centre with KS6: Small Forward, a show exploring how Belarusian basketball player Katsiaryna Snytsina became a political dissident. It opened to acclaim at La MaMa Theatre in New York last year, and as with all of BFT’s work, it provides a necessary reminder that the company’s home country is no closer to freedom than it was when it was founded – and is, if anything, more repressive.

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Plexus Polaire’s Moby Dick and Fru Trapp’s Five Lines, which will both be at the Barbican in January as part of MimeLondon. Moby Dick photo: Christophe Raynaudde Lage

The Employees directed by Łukasz Twarkowski, which will be at the Southbank Centre in January. Photo: Natalia Kabanow

Figures in Extinction [3.0], the third and final piece of an ambitious collaboration between Nederlands Dans Theater and Complicité, sees choreographer Crystal Pite and director Simon McBurney join forces once more to explore the role art can play as humanity faces a climate catastrophe. It makes its world premiere at Manchester’s Aviva Studios in February.

In April, Battersea Arts Centre continues its commitment to bringing some of the most intriguing artists working in Europe to the UK by presenting Burnt Toast by Norwegian collective Susie Wang. It is the final part in a trilogy exploring the tropes of body horror through a female lens. Expect a fusion of cinematic references and squelchy, fleshy effects coupled with some genuinely unsettling imagery.

The Southbank Centre is also increasingly establishing itself as the place to catch exciting international artists. In May, it presents Haribo Kimchi, the latest work by South Korean theatremaker Jaha Koo, set in a late-night snack bar, then in July it plays host to Nature Theater of Oklahoma, arguably one of the most interesting theatre companies in America, as it makes its extremely belated London debut with No President. This isn’t the first time the company has performed in the UK – several chapters of its ambitious Life and Times project were performed at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival in 2013 – but the fact it has taken this long for its work to be staged in London is baffling. Fortunately, the Southbank Centre is rectifying this.

MimeLondon runs from January 11-February 1; The Employees is at the Southbank Centre from January 16-19; Figures in Extinction [3.0] is at Aviva Studios, Manchester, from February 19-22; KS6: Small Forward is at the Barbican Centre from February 5-8; Burnt Toast is at Battersea Arts Centre from April 22-23; Haribo Kimchi is at the Southbank Centre from May 13-14; No President is at the Southbank Centre from July 9-11.