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Past programme
Writers at Work
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74a Station Road
by Andy Brunskill
Tough Theatre Company
Frank, Pete, Amy and Aidan share a flat. Aidan rules the house with bullying and macho bravura. What starts out as a practical joke on Frank escalates into something a lot worse, taking a violent turn. Frank begins to lose his grip on reality. Aidan feels his power slipping. Things get messy.
A dark new play exploring the violence underneath how people relate in a close environment.
Trumpety Trump!: Peter & the Wolf
Welcome to Russia! When the Story Man goes in search of a new tale to tell, his journey leads him to a Russian forest and a meeting with Peter’s ancient grandfather who tells him the exciting story of the day Peter caught the big hungry wolf.
An energetic and fun adaptation told with puppets, storytelling and a brilliant musical score – you’ll be led into an enchanting storybook world…
Trunkated
Roadworks
Set in a typical London street scene where a dancer, a BMX rider and a busker engage in a humorous battle. This is a cocktail of physical prowess and explosive movement: a grotesque take on an everyday life situation and a tongue-in-cheek attempt to involve the audience in a quirky and daring performance.
- Choreography: Etta Ermini
- Cast: Sam Alty (music), Salvador Brown (BMX), Antoine Marc (dance)
The Man Who Wasn't There
www.geniussweatshop.com
When a person is alone they remember, rightly or wrongly, the things that have happened in their life from their own point of view. These things become distorted over time when they are repeated over and over and re-remembered slightly differently each time. Using circus skills and puppetry, The Man Who Wasn't There deals with the ideas of memory and loneliness.
The Bell Jar
Award-winning Theatre Ad Infinitum cracks open The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath’s tale of a tormented woman whose search for identity becomes a descent into madness. One woman uses the rich nuances of her unique voice and a distilled style of physical performance to weave together this story of pain, beauty and unceasing internal conflict. Lecoq-trained Ad Infinitum experiments with a fusion of physical theatre, classical storytelling and a completely original score, giving an unforgettable form to this poetic waltz with death.
"Theatre Ad Infinitum have moved to the front of the pack, their vivid mix of theatre clowning and storytelling gaining them critical acclaim" The Guardian
Kassia: The Love Story of a Byzantine Abbess
Monooka (Shadow Theatre Performance)
"Love is the bittershadowed pomegranate that flowers in a woman’s soul, watered by faith, nourished by poetry. It bears fruit, and weeps tears of blood red music. Where the Bosphorus runs red with its sweet, sweet juice, the stars burn in the city’s waters and its gardens sing forth fruit. And the shadow of that woman, whose name is Kassia, chanted through time, exults."
- Storyteller/director: Leon Conrad
Danger Waters
…somebody went to fetch water and when she was about to enter the house the pot broke.
Danger Waters is a new exploration of ideas, performed by Rachel Drazek and directed by Rachel Bagshaw. Driven by the uncertainties which face pregnant women across the globe, the piece highlights some of the needless risks and preventable fears many women face simply for being women; breeding women. Inspired by personal support for the charity the White Ribbon Alliance, Danger Waters hopes to bring humanity and heart to these stories of our partly forgotten mothers: those lost, unlikely and expectant.
Lineup
Florencia Guerberof
"…I want no secrets, no spiritual condition, nothing ineffable; I am neither a virgin nor a priest, to play at having an inner life. " Jean-Paul Sartre
Skinless
Skinless is a dynamic performance that intertwines dance, live singing and physical theatre to depict the dramatic yet highly human experience of living with schizophrenia.
As there is so little information - and so many misconceptions - about this mental condition, the show hopes to promote a better understanding of the main traits of schizophrenia and to raise public awareness of people’s struggle with the condition.
Drive-Thru Nativity
Burgers. French-fries. Milkshakes. Baby Jesus?
A combination of out of work actors and zealous Christians gather in the parking lot of a Mega Church to tell the greatest story ever told in the way Americans like best: fast and convenient. Are they revolutionary, or seriously misguided?
Drive-Thru Nativity asks whether there are some things worth getting out of your car for.
Soft Cuts
After the success of Soft Cuts 2008, this performance platform for professional emerging artists, set up by choreographers Maria Korsnes and Hagit Yakira, returns to the Blue Elephant. Each evening promises to have a varied programme of works ranging from contemporary dance, physical theatre, art installations, music and visuals.
God Cried Woof
"We believed in beauty; we believed in truth; we had morals and we had standards. Nothing. We have nothing! And perhaps that’s the way it should be. Perhaps all this ‘emoting’ distracts us from the truth of the matter – which is that we’re only meant to wait to die."
This new and daring piece examines our disillusion with things we’ve loved, wanted, believed in and hoped for: the sobering up from our values and faiths. Presenting audiences with a nihilistic world of disenchantment, the work is inspired by and choreographed to Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony in its entirety.
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
Lazarus Theatre Company is a new and exciting ensemble committed to producing the best in classic works for a contemporary fringe theatre audience. Their work focuses on classic and period pieces. By developing, researching and through the use of ensemble play, they hope that their work will inspire, provoke and entertain their audience.
Lazarus presents Shakespeare’s political and bloody thriller in this new production set in modern day Italy where sex, lust and passion rule a dictatorship destined for disaster. Corruption, sex and violence drive Caesar, the supreme power force, to lose sight of those closest to him who finally lead to his undoing and the ultimate betrayal.
Through the use of text, movement and music, the large ensemble recreates Italian life, fashion and glory at the centre of populist government. This modern, slick and sexual adaptation culminates Lazarus’ 2009 season: a production not to be missed.
Images of Italy
The title of the drama about Ante is written here
1,280 children were wounded during the Croatian War of Independence. Written in a playfully dramatic style and based on a true story, The title of the drama About Ante is Written Here tells of one such child.
Ante turns twelve today. Less than a year old when a missile killed his mother, can he grow up to forget the past or will his country's history scar him forever?
Ljubica: Ante lives with his father. They have this strong bond.
Neighbour: Happy together, sad together. They live together one day at a time. No one new ever enters their little world.
Jela: Till one day.
Neighbour: Till today.
The title of the drama about Ante is Written Here was the winner of the Fabrique en Croatie Award from REZ, the Croatian association for the promotion of culture and art, and its author was the youngest recipient of the Marin Drzic Award from the Croatian Ministry of Culture in 2005.
Walk on by
Places, films, music, love, sadness…
The portraits and pictures of urban areas which the artist has chosen to exhibit here are all linked to a dear memory or an event imprinted deep in her psyche.
Witnessing life go by, she captures - on camera or paper - situations that are given new dimension in her mind, and creates images of a world she would like to live in, along with her place in it.
Come and join us on a journey through the tunnel of the artist’s imagination where each exit takes you to a place you haven’t yet envisioned.
The Sound
In an army barracks somewhere in remotest Europe, five people spend all day, every day, guarding a spot. They know nothing else. But as they each become convinced that they can hear a sound coming from somewhere near the barracks, their rigid, routine-filled lives slowly begin to fall apart.
The Sound is a searching examination of existence and fear.
Imagined landscapes
Here, in his first solo exhibition, Bruno Hofferer brings together a selection of his portraits and landscapes. The landscape scenes are strange and enigmatic: trees and pathways draw the viewer into the distance, leading them - who knows where?
Hofferer’s portraits are created from photographic sources. These faces are strong and powerful: more than just ‘personalities’.
The Cave
A play in three acts, The Cave or Anima Mundi was written in 1961 and has never been previously staged. With the co-operation of the playwright's son, Sebastian Peake, The Cave has been adapted as a rehearsed reading by award-winning writer Brian Sibley, as part of the Camberwell Arts Festival, and produced by Flat Pack Productions. It will be accompanied by an introduction setting the play within the context of Mervyn Peake's ‘Gormenghast’ novels and other work and will be followed by a Q&A session.
A writer, artist, illustrator and former tutor at Camberwell College of Arts, Mervyn Peake is best known for his ‘Gormenghast’ trilogy but also wrote poetry, plays and short stories.
Part of Camberwell Arts Festival
Catharsis / Short Cut(s)
Sweet or Sour is the brainchild of performance maker and writer Tonny A. Specializing in contemporary performance as well as in experimental theatre, the company is passionately committed to delivering challenging collaborative or solo work that crosses over various art forms (from poetry to physical theatre to dance improvisation to multimedia) to revisit obscure or neglected historical eras and analyze the impact of history on individuals' reality, identity and physicality.
Catharsis
"I want the water to wash over me
Wash it all over me
So that I can begin again
Wash away all my sins…
So that I can swim,
So that I can burn
So that I can crash again"
Catharsis depicts the personal quest of a disgraced man for his rebirth through a series of choreographed rituals and visual confessions. Blending live projections and introspective movements with ambiguous written and spoken words, this performance art piece explores the themes of redemption while tackling the sensitive subject of self-esteem.
- Conceived, devised and performed by Tonny A.
- Photography by Sonalle Maroo
- Illustrations by Daishu Ma
- Sound Design by Nela Brown
Short Cut(s)
"L'enfer, c'est les autres" Jean-Paul Sartre
Short Cut(s)is a performance installation inspired by the ancient Greek and medieval theories of the Classical Elements. Referring to R. Altman’s film, Short Cuts, this experimental piece re-interprets some of D.H Lawrence’s existentialist poems through movement, spoken words and multimedia to explore the feelings of isolation, resistance and the constant fear of alienation experienced by five lost souls condemned to wander eternally in the Abyss. A cinematic episode rooted in an intense fusion of reflective soundtrack and improvised series of constrained physical imagery with surreal visual projections.
- Performed by Aysegul Asan Murphy, Patric Deony, Jay Nelson, Luke Putres & Bronwen Sharp
- Conceived and directed by Tonny A.
- Sound Design by Nela Brown
- Visual, lighting & costume design by Tonny A., Nicola Maddox & Daishu Ma
Pictures and drawings by Daishu Ma
This exhibition looks behind the scenes of Short Cut(s) & Catharsis. Inspired by the rehearsals of each piece, both pictures and drawings give a unique insight into the creative process which has generated the performances.
Daishu’s work has been linked with poetry, short stories, folk tales and performance art. Her illustrations explore the languages of story telling through constructing theatrical imagery that weaves together complex narratives, moods and human emotions. A graduate from Central St Martin’s she is currently working with projects in London and China.
Sonalle Maroo travelled alone for almost ten years through Europe, Asia and Latin America observing and participating in the kaleidoscope of cultures and sights she encountered. She has worked alongside numerous successful photographers in New York and Paris, coupled with developing several diverse photographic projects in selected cities worldwide. Since her recent return to London, Sonalle has assisted Magnum photographer, Chris Steele-Perkins, whilst creating many thought-provoking and issue-based assignments that have raised public consciousness