The Battle of the Guilds

29 July - 5 August

The Battle of the Guilds is a series of free theatrical events which will see four Coventry theatre companies create and perform their own mobile Mystery Plays around the streets of the city. Highly Sprung, Non-Descript, The Shysters and Talking Birds are the companies taking part in this echo of the mediaeval tradition, which was the source of intense competition between the various trade guilds of Coventry.

The competition element is alive and well as the company with the most popular and well received production will be awarded the Battle of the Guilds Shield by the Belgrade Theatre.

The battle has begun!

Keep checking this website for Battle performance times, and keep up to date with the companies on their own websites as they take up the challenge. Download a performance schedule.

Highly Sprung will be performing 'The Fall of Lucifer'

�How art thou fallen from heaven
O day-star, son of the morning!
How art thou cast down to the ground,
You that once ruled over the nations�

Highly Sprung Performance Co. present: The Fall of Lucifer, skilfully performed by Mr Leno�s travelling company from the back of, top of and side of a stolen hay cart. A company of skilled physical performers will be executing breathtaking feats of the body and spectacular movement coupled with poignant visual narrative.

Combining a pair of giant decaying wings and a pristine female god suspended high above the action, Highly Sprung promise The Fall of Lucifer will deliver a thoroughly visual, thought provoking and un-missable re-telling of a neglected and fundamental element to the Old Testament.

Performances will take place in the Lower Precinct on Sat 29th July and Sat 5th August from 3pm and on Mon 31st July, Wed 2nd, Thu 3rd and Fri 4th August at 4p.m. Each performance will last around 20 minutes.

Highly Sprung Performance Company was established with the aim to create original and innovative work using a style of performance that conveys a narrative through movement that speaks and a text that moves. www.highlysprungperformance.co.uk

Non-descript will be performing 'Judgement Day'

Beware people of Coventry...ever stepped on a snail? Ever walked past charity workers in the street? Do you love your neighbour!!??

Well, the time has come for your judgement...the engine roars with fire, the firm get prepped, the volume is up! Look out for a hellish colour, garish appearances and women with a licence to judge! Non-descript bring you this fateful biblical story through a travelling theatrical spectacle of caricature, serious fun, and huge quiffs. Could your soul stand the heat of Ele's microscopic judgement? Come along and find out!

Performances will take place in the Bull Yard on Sat 29 at 12pm, Tue 1 at 1pm, Thu 3 at 1pm and Sat 5 at 12pm, and in the Upper Precinct on Sat 29 at 1.30pm, Mon 31 at 1pm, Wed 2 at 1pm, Fri 4 at 1pm and Sat 5 at 1.30pm.

If you can turn a shower hose into an elephant you can turn a fountain into a stage!! Non-descript present surreal, interactive, wacky performance, no matter what the space, no matter who the audience. www.non-descript.co.uk

The Shysters will be performing 'Moses and the Two Tabs'

Noah wasn�t the only one who built an Ark to order. Moses was the man who constructed the Ark that Indiana Jones went on his first adventure to find � but this was the Ark of the Covenant.

What did Moses put in that Ark? Does it really have magical powers? Did Moses get confused � should he really have built a boat like Noah did? And was Indiana looking in the wrong place all the time � should he have set his sights on Coventry Cathedral?

Performances will take place under the Cathedral Canopy (in front of the West Screen of the New Cathedral) on Sat 29th July, Tues 1st, Wed 2nd, Thurs 3rd and Sat 5th August at 2pm.

The Shysters Theatre Company is a Coventry based ensemble of actors with learning disabilities. We devise our own plays using a wide range of physical performance techniques to draw out our experiences and perceptions and transform them into the stuff of theatre. www.theshysters.co.uk�
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Talking Birds, masters of the art of transformation, bring to the city the not-to-be-missed Old Testament favourite 'Jonah and the Whale'.

Lost at sea, and surrounded by the spurting blowholes of a colony of Great Blues, witness Jonah's lament from the belly of Sheol, and hear for yourself the strange creaking of the whale's ribs, and the song of the ocean. A surprisingly intimate and sensory performance, 'Jonah and the Whale' is accessible to all ages.

Performances will take place in University Square (between the university and the Cathedral) on Sat 29th July, Tue 1st, Wed 2nd, Thu 3rd and Sat 5th August between 12pm and 2pm.

Talking Birds specialises in theatre in unusual spaces - car-parks, monasteries, shop units, beaches. The company has been working in the UK and abroad since 1992, touring from Slovakia to Seattle, with film work screened at festivals from Edinburgh to Volgograd. www.talkingbirds.co.uk