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Company number: 3724349
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Past programme
Showcases an eclectic range of fresh and interesting contemporary work, largely by emerging artists
Anna Nguyen at Blue Elephant Theatre
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These paintings are part of Anna’s current theatre show A Dream from a Bombshell which explores the Vietnamese diaspora and the struggles between first and second generation Vietnamese.
Anna embarked upon her journey, looking back at her history and heritage, including the Vietnam war, after witnessing a devastating cycle of anger and aggression that devoured her family. These works came about to heal and unify her family.
Anna Nguyen is a British Vietnamese artist and theatre director and co-founder of Trikhon Theatre. To find out more about her show visit www.trikhontheatre.com
The exhibition can be seen before and after dates where there is a show, typically Tuesday to Saturday, but please check in advance. Appointments to see the exhibition during the day, Monday to Friday, must be made prior to visiting as we cannot guarantee access to the space on a walk in basis.
SEA ArtsFest Scratch
SEA ArtsFest is the first Southeast Asian arts festival in the UK, championing and developing the work of the artists of Southeast Asia and those inspired by Southeast Asia. SEA ArtsFest brings together artists, practitioners, makers and thinkers to increase awareness of SEA Arts and its audience base.
The SEA ArtsFest Scratch is a new platform introduced this year by the SEA ArtsFest to provide a platform for new work inspired by Southeast Asia or by emerging Southeast Asian artists. The Scratch looks to showcase new works in progress and support them to develop further.
A Night of Black History
A Night of Black History is a multi-performance night that allows talented and positive young people to embrace their amazing gifts and individualism to inspire others.
Through the eyes of a young boy, we explore and celebrate black history with a wide variety of performing acts. They will perform artistic pieces inspired by their own knowledge and perception of black history.
Come on down and celebrate Black History Month with Vice Voices UK and Blue Elephant Theatre. This is definitely a night not to be missed.
In Transit
In Transit is a voyage through the mind of Ella, who has lost all perception of where and who she is. Desperate to re-learn her past, she brings us into a world full of strange characters where she will unlock the secrets of her broken mind and confront the hardest moment of her life.
One hour. One actor. 27 characters. A highly physical one-woman show accompanied by original live music, In Transit is a tragicomical tale which captures moments of sheer beauty alongside nuggets of sweet and well-observed humour.
First Runner-up, Best International show Brighton Fringe 2013.
Reviews
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Trunkated Scratch Night @ Elefest
As part of Elefest the Blue Elephant comes to Southwark Playhouse with a scratch night of new works-in-progress. An evening of bite-sized entertainment featuring extracts of new writing, physical theatre, comedy and much more!
Elefest (2-5 October 2014) is Elephant and Castle’s Festival. It is a celebration of the best known but misunderstood parts of London. Elefest is now in its 11th year, and the area is once again on the verge of massive change. Elefest programme celebrates the past, present and future of the Elephant and Castle. It mixes home grown with national and international talent and some that are in between… Find out more
For tickets, please visit the Southwark Playhouse website through the hyperlink at the top of the page or call 020 7407 0234 for the Southwark Playhouse Box Office.
Please note: This performance of Trunkated will be taking place at Southwark Playhouse and not Blue Elephant Theatre. The space that Trunkated is playing in is on the first floor of Southwark Playhouse and, unfortunately, owing to the nature of the building, is not accessible by wheelchair users.
Lone Rangers and One for Sorrow by Unstable Table
Unstable Table is a new company who aim to bridge the gap between comedy and tragedy. They will be producing a double bill of new works-in-progress at Blue Elephant Theatre from 21st to 25th October.
Lone Rangers
One female human discovers she is not alone. So does the other.
Physical comedy Lone Rangers combines clowning, monsters and a lifetime supply of shaving equipment. How will our heroines survive the first chapter of their perilous adventure?
Director: James Ivens
Devising Cast: Janet Etuk & Lily Levin
One for Sorrow
Keith has been awake for six days. He will do just about anything to avoid sleeping. He’s been talking to his grandmother, even though she’s dead, and now he wants to talk to us. One for Sorrow is a darkly comic audience with a man confronting his lifelong nightmares.
Writer: James Ernest
Director: Lily Levin
Assistant Director: Janet Etuk
Cast: Richard Foster-King
The Lonely Room
Flavia Bertram is showing an excerpt from a mime piece she is currently devising in collaboration with Eloise Carles and composer Mike Neo. The Lonely Room tells the story of two women trapped in the in-between of life and is inspired by our inner passive dreamers.
The Lonely Room is playing at Blue Elephant Theatre from October 29th to 31st with a Q&A after each performance.
Bygone by Caligula's Alibi
Tynan and Brandy coexist within the walls of a crumbling mansion – with only tinned pineapple and the odd animal visitor to entertain them. Day by day they act out each other's bygone memories in a desperate bid to recall what is lost and revel in the hell of it all, until one day an unexpected visitor tumbles through their door…Bygone is not concerned with now. Its about what's next.
Credits
Director - Will Cowell
Writer - Jonnie Bayfield
Brandy - Stewart Agnew
Tynan - Jonnie Bayfield
Hold Music
'Hold Music' follows technical support worker Helen through a difficult afternoon. Listening to one half of her phone conversations, we hear fragments of pleas, reminders and threats, and meet the people in her life through only her interactions with them. 'Hold Music' is a monologue that Helen does not mean to give, in the place where she is least herself.
Hold Music is the first collaboration between director Grace Gibson, writer Jack Nicholls and actor Emma Lawson.
Frieda Love
Frieda Love
Frieda Love is the alter ego of actress and musician Rebecca Kenny, exploring the world through performance art, cabaret clowning and guerrilla burlesque.
Please join Frieda tonight for:
A Dancing Heart
A Singing Fondant Fancy
A Superhero of Love
twitter: @frieda_love
Choreographer, sound editor and creative coach: Nina Von Der Werth
Supported by
Stephen Hennessy: A Local Exhibition
This is an exhibition of local sights and sounds, dominated by South East London but like all art, it is for everyone and is everywhere. The supposedly ordinary aspects of life can at times feel extraordinary and need to be recorded. Artist Stephen Hennessy tries to depict this in urban scenes through the mediums of oil on canvas and ballpoint ink drawings, with an impasto, squiggly style he has developed over the years. For Stephen, there’s great art on his doorstep in the shape of interesting architecture, bustling high streets and spit and sawdust type pubs. They all lend their unique charm to the South East of London which he tries to capture.
There is a private viewing for the exhibition on 19th June at 6:00pm.
The exhibition can be seen before and after dates where there is a show, typically Tuesday to Saturday, but please check in advance. Appointments to see the exhibition during the day, Monday to Friday, must be made prior to visiting as we cannot guarantee access to the space on a walk in basis.
In the Surface of a Bubble
Inspired by animé and martial arts films, In The Surface Of A Bubble uses puppetry, half-masks, capoeira, kung-fu and live music to tell a tale of how the universe came to be. In a world where beings need only imagine something for it to come true, a love develops between the girl with the most imagination and the boy with the least. Their story turns their world into ours, where dreams are trapped inside our heads.
Reviews
Supported by
Writers at Work at Blue Elephant
As part of its commitment to supporting emerging practitioners, the Blue Elephant has run a playwriting competition to discover the exciting playwrights of tomorrow.
The winning entries are:
Saving Heath Ledger
By Suzette Coon. A winner in the longer play category, to be performed as a rehearsed reading on Tuesday 1st July at 8pm.
Directed by Glyn Williams.
Cast:
Amy Bowden - Jo
Joseph Emms - Zack
Ben Rawlings - Jamie
Gareth Murphy - Heath Ledger
Emily Wallis - Carol
Out of Oblivion
By Michael Lill. A winner in the shorter play category, to be performed as a rehearsed reading on Thursday 3rd July at 8pm.
Directed by Amy Bowden.
Cast:
Kerry Willison-Parry - Isabelle
Glyn Williams - Daniel
Water-Nix
By James Varney and Jack Nicholls. A winner in the shorter play category, to be performed as a rehearsed reading on Thursday 3rd July at 8pm.
Directed by Jacqui Marchant-Adams.
Cast:
Ade Gbinigie - 'A'
Sam Lockley - 'B'
Silver Point
By Katie Duncan. A winner in the longer play category, to be performed as a rehearsed reading on Sunday 6th July at 5pm.
Directed by Suvi Peisanen.
Cast:
Hayward Morse - Harry
Kath Perry - Maggie
Emily Wallis - Jane
Maggie Daniels - Barbara
Andrew Phipps - Stage Directions
Tickets for each show can be reserved by emailing boxoffice@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk or by calling us on 020 7701 0100. Please note that there will be a post show discussion after each reading.
Scenes from Hello Again
The joys and pains of sex are here for the asking in this adult musical fantasy inspired by Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde. Hello Again criss-crosses beds and jumps from decade to decade, intimately examining the painful secrets that drive characters into each other's arms and towards the bruising effects of reckless passion. With a score that saturates the mind, Hello Again has the luxuriance of an insistent seduction and the bite of a bitter morning after.
After the successful run of award-winning new musical The Picture House, Play Pen Productions presents a showcase of the opening scenes from Hello Again as a work in progress.
“Unexpected, charming and touching delight” The Scotsman
This amateur production is presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Limited
Running Time: 40 minutes
Reviews
The Flying Roast Goose
A story about food, survival and hope, told through the eyes of a Cantonese chef and her pet goose and set in war-torn Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation in the 1940s.
Using physical theatre, puppetry and object manipulation, this original piece delves into a dark chapter of Hong Kong’s history with playfulness and kitchen utensils.
Suitable for ages 12+
The Flying Roast Goose from Paula Siu on Vimeo.
Reviews
Supported by
Trunkated
A showcase of excerpts and short works-in-progress of new material from London’s most exciting artists across the arts.
Physical theatre, puppetry, dance, music…A Blue Elephant season in one evening!
Audience Participation
Audience Participation, but not the kind you're thinking of. When a shockingly transgressive act is made public for private reasons, a cacophony of competing voices are ignited on the internet, some less sympathetic than others. How do we navigate the deluge of opinion we're exposed to? How do we know who we are?
Tressillian Collective are a new company of Goldsmiths graduates: director Grace Gummer, writer Phil Lindsey and producer Felicity Paterson. The Collective's first outing was to Edinburgh with Phil's first play, where they received a four star review from Three Weeks. Our aim is to analyse and present the contemporary world through theatre.
Working Girl
by Sabrina Recoules Quang.
The everyday life of a successful working girl as she wakes up, goes to work, closes big deals, then goes to bed and wakes up, ready to deal again. Discover why the working girl might quit her comfort zone.
Sabrina explores the boarders between puppetry, performance and visual arts. In addition to the Little Angel Theatre, she trained with LISPA and Teatro Gioco Vita. Using a chaotic and organic collage process, she plays with geometrical shapes, music, and mixed media to create stories for waking up our “joie de vivre” ! Théâtre du 1k
Couch
Couch follows the lives of five graduates after drama school. It centres on the casting call, and the plethora of unfortunate events that can, and do, unfold when facing a casting director armed with a tripod and recording device. Woven into the drama are the personal lives of its five central characters.
Cast: Jatinder Chera and Holly Russo
Writer: Jatinder Chera
Jatinder Chera thought he had it made when he won a scholarship to drama school. He was surely going to be an overnight success, wasn't he? After eight years in the industry, Jatinder picked up a bic biro and started writing a part for himself. A role that didn't involve arranged marriages, exploding rucksacks or Indian accents, just a Brit Asian struggling with his Oyster card in the London metropolis.
One For Sorrow
A new play about the effects of child abuse.
An expressionist piece of theatre with just one character, Keith.
Keith refuses to sleep due to his disturbing nightmares.
These nightmares reveal the truths of what happened to Keith as a child.
Writer: James Ernest
Actor: Richard Foster-King
Director: Lily Levin
Shed Brain
Both experienced holders of things. Although admittedly Shed demonstrates a higher potential in this area. Tension builds. Is Brain perhaps aspiring to be Shed, the slippery little troublemaker? This sort of collaboration never works. Brain v Shed ... but it's not a competition. A projector, a tiny useless lamp, two smoking hot girls, one other object. It's been compared to porn without a TV (family friendly) and it's definitely not similar to any other show. Venus v Serena. Shed v Brain.
Shed Brain is performed by Eve Stainton and Sorcha Stott-Strzala, who are part of The Uncollective, an umbrella performance organisation of emerging contemporary choreographers, dancers and theatre makers. Shed Brain will be premiering at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2014. The Uncollective
Unspoken Words
A life plan that changes towards the unexpected. An intimate solo based on the changes we go through in our twenties, where words take the form of movement. One dancer looks to find a way to express her innermost thoughts, fusing British Sign Language with contemporary dance.
Choreography/ Performance: Monica Nicolaides
Music: Zory Burner
MonixArts is a contemporary dance company, fusing contemporary dance with martial arts. Investigating human relationships and behaviour, our work looks at what makes us us.
www.monixarts.com
Supported by
RED
An evening of spoken word. Artists come together to share a high-energy and thought provoking mix of storytelling, rap, poetry, song, comedy and MC-ing, all inspired by the colour RED.
Expect moments of love, loss, longing and laughs in an interactive showcase of some of South London's most exciting and diverse spoken word talent.
RED is a charity event and 100% of ticket sales will be donated to the Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam; a grassroots theatre organisation that works with underprivileged children in Tamil Nadu, South India.
James Sherwood
James Sherwood is the Blue Elephant's "comedy-songwriter-in-residence" though everyone prefers the word 'Minstrel'. His show features many of the songs written at the Blue Elephant, mixed in with stand-up routines from his award-winning set.
When James is not at the Blue Elephant, he works on the UK stand-up circuit. He has also written for many Radio 4 comedy favourites, including The News Quiz and The Now Show. He appears as the pianist on Radio 4's improv show Chat Show Roulette, starring Justin Edwards and Matt Lucas.
'Imaginative musical jokes and beautifully crafted original comedy songs...The material he offers is fresh, contemporary and pin-sharp original.'
The Guardian
Reviews
Ieva Kuniskis-Double Bill
Choreographer Ieva Kuniskis creates works of physical storytelling which offer snapshots into other people’s worlds.
Gone To Get Milk
The same walls, the same people, the same incessant landscape make you want to scream for change, yet that same familiarity brings you comfort. And every time you say you're leaving, you are just going to get milk...
Women’s Tales
Four female performers use their personal stories to paint honest self-portraits, offering glimpses into their own lives. Drawing on folklore traditions, the women share these intimate tales, creating a delicate and tense communion reminiscent of the scattered soundtrack of haunting folk voices and fingerpicked guitars.
Photo credits: Judita Kuniskyte
Reviews
Supported by
it goes here now
Inspired by the cultural debate on genetic modification and designer babies, 'it goes here now' creates a dystopian world through explosive and dynamic contemporary dance.
Stitching together a body of ideas from bio-clones and the alchemical homunculus to Frankenstein’s demon, Tempered Body Dance Theatre combines physicality with hard science to expose fetishes, reveries and revulsions – and asks what it means to be human.
Intricate duets and delicate solos are brought to life by an original music score, and interplay with responsive projected images, to tell the narrative of innate human curiosity. Vigorous and energetic choreography is set in contrast with intricate and detailed physicality to embody a collective, cultural inquisition.
