Forced Entertainment "Signal to Noise"

Forced Entertainment is an ensemble of artists founded in 1984. Touring and presenting their ground-breaking provocative performances across the UK, mainland Europe, North America, Japan, Australia and further afield, the group have sustained a unique collaborative practise for more than forty years.
Led by the artist and writer Tim Etchells, the Forced Entertainment company includes designer and performer Richard Lowdon alongside performers Robin Arthur, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O’Connor. Over the years this core ensemble has been augmented by contributions from many guest artists and performers.
Forced Entertainment’s work explores and often explodes the conventions of genre, narrative and theatre itself drawing influence not just from drama but from dance, performance art, music culture and popular forms such as cabaret and stand-up. The group operate at different scales, shifting from intimate two-performer works focused on text, to spectacular productions with large numbers of people onstage.
Exciting, challenging, entertaining and questioning, Forced Entertainment has been a key player in the development of a truly contemporary theatre language, and is recognised as a world leader in the field of contemporary performance practice - contributing enormously to the growth and development of British theatre, the debate about the form itself, as well as influencing several generations of younger artists who have been inspired by the work. In 2016 the group were awarded the International Ibsen Award, which honours an individual, institution or organisation that has brought new artistic dimensions to the world of theatre, joining distinguished previous winners Peter Brook, Heiner Goebbels, Jon Fosse, Ariane Mnouchkine and Peter Handke as recipients of this prestigious prize.

Tim Etchells is an artist and a writer based in the UK whose work shifts between visual art, fiction and creating original performance. He has worked in a wide variety of contexts, notably as the leader of the world-renowned Sheffield-based performance group Forced Entertainment. Exhibiting and presenting work in significant institutions all over the world, Tim has collaborated with Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods, Marino Formenti, Taus Mahakacheva, Vlatka Horvat, Ant Hampton, Aisha Orazbayeva, Tony Buck (The Necks) and Elmgreen & Dragset. His collection of short fiction "Endland" was published by And Other Stories, in 2019 and his book on Forced Entertainment ("Certain Fragments") is widely praised for its insights on collective performance making. Monographs on his work with Forced Entertainment and on his body of work in neon installation were published in 2023 by Spector Books in Germany. He is represented by Ebensperger (Berlin and Vienna).