Roald Dahl: City of the Unexpected was a two-day city-wide event that took place in Cardiff, Wales on 17-18 September 2016.
Born on 13 September 1916, one of Wales' foremost storytellers, Roald Dahl, captured the imagination of children around the world with his outlandish tales.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth, Wales' capital city was taken over by a city-wide celebration of Roald Dahl and transformed into a place where the laws of physics and civic predictability gave way to the laws of magic, mischief and the unexpected.
We were delighted to be supporting 2014 ACCELERATE alumni and Creative Director of Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival Jacob Boehme to experience the City of the Unexpected first-hand and to take part in a special programme of activities designed by the British Council in Wales. The programme involved producers, cultural organizations and curators from around the world. As well as having had the opportunity to take part in the exciting city-wide event, which showcased the best of Welsh and UK performing arts, delegates collectively explored and learned how to create and deliver large-scale, city-wide events.
The programme included two days of performances, networking meetings and expert consultations, and culminated on the third day with an ‘open space’ workshop that gave delegates the opportunity to reflect upon what they had learned, to develop their skills, and to explore any questions they had.
Roald Dahl: City of the Unexpected was directed by Nigel Jamieson (Director of the Sydney Olympics closing ceremony and one of the world’s leading practitioners of city-wide theatre) and co-produced by National Theatre Wales and Wales Millennium Centre.