SPIEL - ICA

Jewish Community Centre for London and the ICA present:
SPIEL
Sunday 26th June, 7pm

ICA, The Mall, London SW1

Featuring:
TRACY-ANN OBERMAN
LISA APPIGNANESI
HOWARD JACOBSON
ANDREW RENTON

Hosted by JONATHAN FREEDLAND

Plus the first live preview of PATRICK MARBER’S play Hoop Lane, a preview of ZOHAR’s forthcoming album ‘Do You Have Any Faith?’, and DJ Lemez Lovas

Sunday 26th June marks the second in the series of lounge shows, Spiel, with performance and banter. At Spiel, four guests will chew the fat over contemporary cultural events with Jewish content, surrounded by sneak live previews of new albums, plays, performance and books by visiting authors, bands, actors and contemporary dancers.

JONATHAN FREEDLAND will invite his guests – actress TRACY-ANN OBERMAN, critic LISA APPIGNANESI, writer HOWARD JACOBSON, and curator ANDREW RENTON – to comment on and chat about current arts events. Topics of discussion will include the UK’s first solo show of the works of Frida Kahlo at Tate Modern, Jonathan Safron Foer’s new book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, published by Penguin in June, and new film, Paradise Grove, on limited release from 20th May. Chat will be interspersed with live performances, including the premiere of Patrick Marber’s Hoop Lane, directed by Mark Rosenblatt; previews of Zohar’s forthcoming album ‘Do You Have Any Faith?’, bringing together beats, modern club culture and the hareem, led by Erran Baron Cohen; and dj Lemez Lovas (Costa Urbana / Resonance FM) in the bar afterwards.

The event is one of a series of opening events for the new Jewish Community Centre for London – the brainchild of Dame Vivien Duffield DBE. The Jewish Community Centre’s mission is to create a Jewish community for anyone who associates with or is interested in being Jewish – to whatever extent.  With Spiel, the JCC is creating a new kind of cultural event that which puts Jewish culture on the map in a new, exciting and sometimes surprising way, with people who are all Jewish (or Jew-ish) but whom you might not have expected to see on the same stage at the same time.

“Spiel is exactly what the JCC is all about,” says Andrew Franklin, Managing Director of Profile Books and Chairman of the Jewish Community Centre’s Board of Trustees. “It’s about creating a place where people of all ages can come together, enjoy and talk about things that are Jew-ish. It’s about them finding things that surprise them and things that they know they’ll already enjoy. We are very proud to be producing this series of events and look forward to seeing them grow and attract more and more people of different types.”

About the Jewish Community Centre for London

The idea of a Jewish Community Centre for London was launched by Dame Vivien Duffield DBE in 2003, since when a lot of work has been going on to put the project on the map. The JCC will strive to attract all sorts of Jews, as well as their non-Jewish friends and family members. When built, it will be a vibrant and welcoming place for anyone who associates with being Jewish. Before the building is opened, an increasing range of programmes and activities will be developed under the project – of which Spiel is the first series of cultural events.

Host, guests, performers, and representatives of the Jewish Community Centre for London will be available for interviews from the week of 20th June 2005.