A Future Fantastic

Festival, Theatre Deli Sheffield 4–20 July 2019

A Future Fantastic is a festival of protest, performance and utopia-building, inviting audiences to imagine their own fantastic futures and how we may get there. Taking inspiration from Ruskin’s political writings: namely around environmentalism, economics and the utopian projects he inspired, the programme will include performances, installations, workshops and discussion events: aiming to blur the boundaries between disciplines and approaches to these themes.

If we could create a better world, what would it look like? How do we go about making it? At A Future Fantastic we invite audiences to imagine, and start making a world which looks closer to paradise than apocalypse.

This festival takes inspiration from the utopian ambitions of John Ruskin, a revolutionary of the Victorian age, who dared to imagine how we might create a society, not built on profit and careless consumption but on meaningful work, an appreciation of the natural world and art, and most importantly, happiness.

Today, climate change and conflict loom large, and 200 years on from his birth, Ruskin’s ideas are more important than ever. Bringing artists, activists and academics together, A Future Fantastic explores what utopia might look like now, and how we might get there. Join us for performances, conversations and workshops that invite you to cast off your fears for the future and build a better one.

Programme

For the detailed programme and tickets, please see the Theatre Deli website: theatredeli.co.uk/blogs/future-fantastic.

The cafe/bar and the People’s Palace of Possibility installation will be open half an hour before each event. A Future Fantastic Festival is presented by The Bare Project in collaboration with Ruskin in Sheffield, Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, Theatre Deli and The Guild of St  George.