International performance festival Transform returns to venues across Leeds next month

“The programme has evolved through dialogue,” says Amy Letman, creative director of Transform. “There is a lot of work around grief and loss and different ways of living and being. We don’t impose themes on the programme, they just emerge, but there is a shared sensibility across the work – really cutting-edge approaches but in an open-hearted way, in a way that invites others in. I like to think of our programme as very accessible and inclusive.”

This year Letman and her team have gathered together over a hundred artists from the UK and all over the world including Brazil, South Africa, Australia, the Netherlands and Iceland who will be presenting work across the eleven-day festival. It is an impressive achievement and it involves a lot of work year-round, forming collaborative partnerships and engaging in ongoing conversations.

“Transform 23 is our most ambitious festival yet bringing extraordinary performance, dance, theatre, club culture and public encounters to Leeds,” says Letman. “It has been years in the making, we’ve been scouring the world for the most daring productions to bring to the north of England, while also cooking up major new collaborations with creatives from across Leeds and the globe.”

A key project that Letman and the creative team have been involved in over the past several years is their work with young curators – inviting a group of young people to investigate the kind of cultural experiences they would like to see and giving them the opportunity to take part in creative decision making.

“They go to performances and we introduce them to artists, then they have the chance to programme or commission a show and they are supported on how to navigate all that,” says Letman. “The aim is that there will be a cycle of bringing in new voices and energies. As creative director I don’t want to be a gatekeeper, I am keen to bring others into the curatorial process.”

One of the lead commissions in this year’s festival, Secrets, grew out of Transform’s work with young curators. Based on hundreds of real-life secrets submitted by young people in Leeds and Reykjavik, it is a riotous gig theatre show from Icelandic artist Ásrún Magnúsdóttir, in collaboration with local Leeds-based performers, that gives voice to the kind of real-life concerns of teenagers that are rarely heard or spoken about. Other highlights include acclaimed Belgian theatre maker Miet Warlop’s spectacular piece One Song, part sports competition, part concert in which a group of musicians complete a gym workout while performing the same song, over and over. “It is an epic production,” says Letman. “It is quite a coup for us to get Miet Warlop here – she is an amazing, internationally renowned artist. One Song is based on her experience of losing her brother. It is about life, death and rebirth. It is symbolic and very accessible; it is one of the best shows I have ever seen.”

Brazilian collective MEXA meld club culture with operative vocals, 90s pop music and video for the UK premiere of Pumpitopera Transatlantica, a vivid reimagining of Homer’s Odyssey; on display in Leeds train station will be Public Trust from Paul Ramirez Jonas, a monumental marquee board featuring vows made by Leeds’ residents alongside those made by politicians, scientists and economists; Songs for no one from Nastaran Razawi Khorasani – who left Iran as a child refugee – explores the invisible stories of an Iranian boy and girl living under a dictatorship.

“This is a festival for curious people of all ages, who want to see something different and to be challenged in a critically engaged way,” says Letman. “I want people to feel exhilarated and surprised that they can have this experience in their own city, to feel that theatre is for them and to have an insight into stories from around the world. This is an opportunity to see intrepid artists offering brave, heartfelt perspectives on how we might live differently together in the future.”

Transform 2023, venues across Leeds, October 11-22. Full programme transformfestival.org All events are pay what you can