Performances. Image from The Dutch Courtesan, www.dutchcourtesan.co.uk

Performances and films

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A wide variety of performances and films are being shown as part of the 2013 Festival of Ideas. As part of the celebration of the life of Barnes Wallis, inventor of the "bouncing bomb", City Screen will be showing The Dam Busters, while fans of Jacobean theatre will enjoy The Dutch Courtesan. The LUMA Film Festival will also comprise part of the Festival of Ideas, showcasing the best independent film York has to offer.

Past events

Dam Busters - 16 June, 1pm

True story of how the British attacked German dams in WW2 by using an ingenious technique to drop bombs where they would be most effective.

Art out of crisis - A play from the Theresienstadt ghetto - 16 June, 3pm

In times of crisis, why do some societies respond with art? The UK premiere of The Smoke of Home, a play written in the World War II Jewish Ghetto at Theresienstadt, forms the centerpiece of an afternoon of engagement with this question.

Anne Boleyn - 20-22 June, 7pm

Created by and premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe, Anne Boleyn, written by Howard Brenton, explores the life of the English court at a time of ambition, battle, power and lust.

The Dutch Courtesan - 20-22 June, 7.30pm

One of the greatest Jacobean comedies, John Marston's masterpiece weaves together tales of sexual obsession, clever con-tricks, and radical freethinking into a striking plot which leads two of its characters to the foot of the gallows.

LUMA Film Festival - 22-23 June

LUMA Film Festival at the University of York’s Department of Theatre, Film and Television: a weekend of free events to celebrate and champion the work of the department’s students, and to open up the fascinating world of filmmaking to the public.

50th Anniversary Student Film Competition - June 23, 5pm

The 50th Anniversary offers a unique opportunity to develop new methods of engaging with schools and colleges across the country. With this in mind the Widening Participation team wishes to launch a film competition that not only highlights the 2013 celebrations but promotes the annual Festival of Ideas in a manner that will encourage greater engagement from the school and college community.

Tales of South and North: Understanding the Battle of Jutland and its preludes - June 25, 1.45pm

In 1916 two of the greatest naval forces in history faced each other in the North Sea. Sixty ‘Dreadnoughts’, huge armoured ships with guns firing half-ton shells, were expected to fight a battle of annihilation. This was an uncharted conflict, the first time whole battlefleets had clashed for hundred years, and new untested tactics had been invented for them.

Owenvarragh - June 27, 7.30pm

‘A circus of sound, words, and images’: live recitation, recordings and images from poet and novelist Ciaran Carson’s elegy to Belfast, The Star Factory, devised by Martin Dowling and Una Monaghan, from John Cage’s 1979 Roaratorio, an Irish circus on Finnegan’s Wake, with live music performed by traditional musicians from Belfast.

Clocking in: Life in the Chocolate City - June 25-29, 7pm

Enjoy a hot chocolate whilst we take you inside York's chocolate factories to explore what it was like to work in York's biggest industry. From the production line to the boardroom, using new interviews this documentary play celebrates the hidden stories of York's chocolate past and present.

Shakespeare's Henry VI trilogy - June 26-29

Following the death of Henry V, celebrated for having united England and subjugated France, divisions appear at the highest levels – first between those around the infant Henry VI, later between the two great factions in English politics: the houses of Lancaster and York. Only the young Lord Talbot, locked in combat with the bewitching and enigmatic Joan of Arc, seems capable of redeeming a divided and dishonoured kingdom.