For the last 35 years January has seen the launch of the annual London International Mime Festival, this year running from 11-29 January with 15 productions.

Not content with being part of the UK's arts establishment, it continues to lead the way in presenting visual theatre artists from across the globe. For many it is a cultural highlight, fizzing with inspiration and always delivered with a bold, creative heart. At this time of austerity, it's of little surprise to see London's longest running performance festival pave the way for new and established talent. Run Riot caught up with festival Directors Helen Lannaghan and Joseph Seelig to glean a view of their world and to hear their recommendations for this years line-up of international artists. Beware of extreme mime!

RR: First up - congratulations with your success in becoming one of the Arts Council England’s National Portfolio organisations. Well deserved we say!  Have you seen an increased interest in Mime in recent years?
Joseph & Helen: Thank you. We’re really energised and excited to be one of ACE’s National Portfolio Organisations.

We’ve been around for a long time now and the fact that we’re regarded as an important part of the new cultural landscape by ACE, we take as a great vote of confidence in what the Festival stands for.
 
We’ve certainly seen an increased interest in the work the festival presents, which as you know is mime in the very broadest sense! With a great little team we’ve worked very hard, we’ve been lucky and we’ve always attracted good audience numbers and media interest for the different forms of visual theatre that we promote – contemporary circus, puppetry, movement, mask and object theatre - and more. You only have to look at what else is being programmed regularly in important London theatres, for example Slava, James Thierrée, Victoria Chaplin to name just a few companies, and to see the incredible success of War Horse with it’s superb, large-scale puppetry to see that visual theatre is in great demand. We’re still pushing more experimental boundaries but we know the interest is there.

RR: What are you looking for when scouting new talent?
Joseph & Helen: First and foremost we’re looking for non-text based work, work which is entirely visual. But more than that we’re looking to find shows which are exploring boundaries, like those between circus and theatre, or between movement and visual art or technology. We look to bring work that has not been seen in the UK or certainly not in London before, work at the cutting edge which will appeal to adventurous, risk-taking audiences [yes, that's you, dear reader!]. We know there’s also a big audience for family-friendly work too and we don’t overlook this, but we don’t really cater for children as such. And of course in the end it’s our taste.

RR: For the newcomer to the festival which show(s) would you recommend?
Joseph & Helen: For anyone wanting to try out the festival for the first time I’d recommend L’Immédiat at the Barbican. It’s terrific circus-theatre with a twist. And Gandini Juggling at the Linbury Theatre is wonderful – large scale juggling, beautiful, intelligent, immensely skilled and full of surprises. At the Southbank, there’s Claudio Stellato, an extraordinary ‘illusionist’, a magician who does tricks with his own body. And for an hour of real fist in the mouth tension - two really unusual, female French aerialists called Toron Blues. For something with more straightforward appeal or for a family audience it has to be Baccala Clowns from Switzerland. Like adult puppetry? You have to see Blind Summit’s Edinburgh Fringe success, 'The Table’.

RR: With the 'silent' film The Artist making such a positive impact are you tempted to introduce an aspect of film to the program in future years?
Joseph & Helen: We’ve regularly featured silent film in earlier editions of the festival, most notably Les Enfants du Paradis which we see is on general release at the moment in a new print. But there have been many others. We’re primarily a festival of live performance but may well go back to including movies where appropriate in future years.

RR: We wonder if the ICA can hold on to its title with any integrity now that it is seemingly visual-arts lead and no longer all-arts encompassing as the name 'Institute of Contemporary Arts' once suggested. With them being a partner since 1980, are you sad they they are not involved this year?
Joseph & Helen: We are indeed sorry not to be at the ICA this year. It has been a LIMF venue since 1980, it came on board just four years after the festival started, and we’ve loved being there. It was the place in which to programme the festival’s most progressive or simply offbeat work. Well, the ICA has different priorities now, and it’s good that it has a more defined vision and objective, but such a pity that a really great theatre space bang in the centre of London has been lost, at least for the foreseeable future. We’re really pleased to be collaborating with Soho Theatre this year, a tremendously busy and exciting place, and also with Jacksons Lane – a venue which is dedicated to developing new circus. The ICA has a long history and its own spirit and that can’t be replaced, but our new partners provide brilliant energy, enthusiasm and support and we look forward to successful long term relationships.

RR: If you could produce 'anything' - be it minimal and intimate or vast and spectacular, we have to ask - artistically, what would your 'dream' production be for LIMF?
Joseph & Helen: ‘Dream production’ for LIMF? Hmmn, We’ve co-produced various great shows directed by artists like Aurelien Bory of Compagnie 111, Martin Zimmermann and Dmitri de Perrot, Mathurin Bolze, and this year we’re supporting amongst others, Geneva Foster Gluck’s Sugar Beast Circus. We’ve only ever been the solo producer of one show, many years ago, at the Almeida. It was The Vinegar Works, a show devised and directed by Phelim McDermott and Julia Bardsley with a company of now rather well known actors plus a lot of spooky children. We didn’t know it then but I think we were producing the forerunner of Shock Headed Peter! Ok, our dream production would involve sophisticated acrobatics, magic, large-scale puppetry, melodrama, super-cool video projection (e.g. the sort used by Hiroaki Umeda) and possibly a flamenco dancer. I think that’s quite enough dreaming, no?

London International Mime Festival
11-29 January 2012
at various venues: Barbican, Southbank, Jacksons Lane, Soho Theatre, Royal Opera house, Roundhouse
www.mimefest.co.uk