Spill festival: cutting-edge, crackpot theatre

Hundreds of porcelain objects – some recognisable, some abstract – hang, stand and form sculptures on the stage of Grace Ellen Barkey and Needcompany's The Porcelain Project, a fantastical world united through its own poetic logic Photograph: Miel Verhasselt/PR

Dance, theatre, live and visual arts combine as performers move through, wear and dance with the objects and each other in the delicate and appealing landscape of The Porcelain Project Photograph: Miel Verhasselt/PR

That Night Follows Day by Tim Etchells and Victoria is a piece for adults performed by 16 children. Cataloguing the many ways a child’s life and understanding of the world is shaped by the attitudes and interpretations of their carers, it playfully and provocatively works with the fact that adults will be watching and listening to each performance Photograph: Phile Deprez/PR

Rajni Shah's Dinner With America is the second in a trilogy of works exploring the complexities of cultural identity in the 21st century. The piece explores the notion that today we all carry a small piece of America inside us, whether a tiny concept, a visual reference or belief system Photograph: Manuel Vason/PR

Dinner with America explores themes of consumerism, rights, ownership, voices, hopes, harvest and division Photograph: Manuel Vason/PR

For the first time in 17 years, London audiences will be able to experience Jan Fabre’s theatre work at Spill. His new piece, Orgy of Tolerance, explores the boundaries of what is considered normal through a series of absurd sketches that interrogate a society that has become excessively tolerant Photograph: Frederik Heyman/PR

First performed in 2006 to great success, Pacitti Company's A Forest is being recreated for the 2009 Spill festival. Exploring myth, money and magic, A Forest fuses upfront live performance with cutting-edge sound composition Photograph: Pacitti Company

Romeo Castellucci’s commitment to interrogating theatre’s form and potential have led to extraordinary work, sometimes controversial and usually on a vast scale. This year, Spill presents the UK premieres of a trilogy freely inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy Photograph: Luca Del Pia/PR

Castellucci has translated Dante’s epic text into three extraordinary events: Inferno (hell) is a deeply unsettling place where humanity is at risk; Purgatorio (purgatory) tells one family’s appalling ritual through the uncertain space between the real and imaginary; Paradiso (paradise) is an installation in which the audience freely roams through a strange other world Photograph: Luca Del Pia/PR

Romeo Castellucci and Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio's trilogy comes to the Barbican as part of a world tour. This is one of few opportunities to see the trilogy in its entirety Photograph: Luca Del Pia/PR

Void Story is a rollercoaster ride through the decimated remains of contemporary culture. Forced Entertainment perform this bleak and comical modern fable as if it were a radio play. Catch Void Story and the other pieces at the Spill festival, which runs from 2-26 April in London Photograph: Hugo Glendinning/PR