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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
The Wordcatcher
Following Seemingly Invisible last year, Smoking Apples return to the Blue Elephant with a new piece. Using puppetry, physical theatre and live music, its characters try to fix things in place that don’t fit together and through the expert use of miscommunication, the audience will witness how the holes and gaps in this story fill a void rather than leave one.
Smoking Apples aim to ignite an adult imagination, confronting the most human situations and allowing the minds of their audiences to run free.
“Their use of puppetry, in the broadest sense, is creative and exciting" – Puppet Centre Trust
Photos by: Jax Braithwaite
Reviews
Beatrice On Fire
Beatrice on Fire is a comedic and absurd retelling of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing told by a young woman who has been trying to find her way through depression, bereavement and post-traumatic stress disorder. Using a combination of visual and physical theatre, puppetry, storytelling and music, this piece is a completely new take on the story of Beatrice and Benedick. This work-in-progress performance aims to keep the audience on their toes with a smile on their faces.
Suitable for ages 13+
Reviews
What The Soul Can’t Hide/Harbour
For Black History Month, we present a double-bill combining Contemporary & Afro-contemporary dance, telling two unique stories which combine as a journey of personal battle, cultural differences and a celebration that creates an overall vibrant, captivating and thought-provoking performance.
Reviews
Trunkated
A showcase of excerpts and short works-in-progress of new material from London's most exciting artists across the arts. Physical theatre, dance, music, storytelling... A Blue Elephant season in one evening!
You and Me
Little Soldier Productions presents a rose tinted window into the lives of two elderly sisters who have spent their entire existence together and now face their final years cut-off and isolated from the world. Sharing fantasies, memories, anxieties and fears, we see how this couple cope with an ever‐changing reality and cling on, in very different ways, to what they know as home. Performed by two Spanish Actresses, it directly draws from their own roots, cultural identities and languages. Adapted from an absurd text, You and Me is underscored by music, movement sequences and physical comedy.
Writer: Roger Simeon
Performers: Merce Ribot and Patricia Rodriguez
Director: Bryony Shanahan
Rob Marr
South Londoner Rob Marr has headlined gigs at the Roundhouse and Ronnie Scott’s, been supported by The Noisettes’ Jamie Morrison on drums and Gorillaz’ Al Mobbs on bass & had airplay on BBC 6 Music from both Cerys Matthews & Tom Robinson. His lyrics feature kitchen-sick narratives & eccentric takes on day-to-day life in the world’s most exciting city, inspired by the writers Raymond Carver and Annie Proulx. His music is a mixture of classical piano, hip hop, blues and soul, hymns & Britpop. His aim is to play every county in England and every country in Europe before the UK devolves and the Euro collapses.
Me, Myself and I
Set to haunting music created by composer Sarah Sarhandi and atmospheric lighting by Antony Hateley, Threads Dance Company present scenes from ‘Me, Myself and I’ exploring the notion of being alone. Firstly as the solitary, lonely figure. Secondly craving solitude, whilst being hounded by thoughts and people. And lastly to be contentedly alone, even within a crowd of people. Choreographed by Elizabeth Peck, this solo reaches into the depths of loneliness examining the conflict of despair and hope it stirs within.
Concept and Collaboration: Sarah Sarhandi and Elizabeth Peck
Choreography: Elizabeth Peck
Music and Viola performance: Sarah Sarhandi
Ney: Jan Hendrickse
Lighting: Antony Hateley
Dancer: Elizabeth Peck
Rémy
Everything I Own presents one man's journey through Napoleon's wars.
Rémy is French, lives in a prison cell, and isn't quite sure how old he is. He's good at gardening and once tried to somersault off the back of a galloping horse. Best of all Rémy tells stories; stories of foolish kings and tiny emperors, bouncing bullets and shapeshifting circus girls. Anything can happen in a war, after all. Don't believe him? You will.
Created and performed by: Claire Gaydon
MIND MY STEP
How much are we able to stop an accident from happening? When do the rules that are created to protect us start to prevent us from functioning? This new piece by Energinmotion Theatre Company explores Health and Safety policies and how they could affect our private lives.
Using highly skilled movement work combined with text, the company aims to highlight an area of our world that is both dark and comic by turns.
Created by: Energinmotion Theatre Company
Boy in Darkness
The Blue Elephant continues its association with celebrated writer Mervyn Peake with a one-man adaptation of 'Boy in Darkness', one of only two novellas he wrote. Storyteller Gareth Murphy brings Peake's unique imagery and vivid language to the stage in this unnerving episode of Gormenghast hero Titus Groan's teenage years.
Written by: Mervyn Peake
Performed by: Gareth Murphy
The Fantastical Adventures of [Not] Being With You
"We are about to embark on ’Us’. From here on out, all we do, see, hear, taste, smell, and touch will be Us. Different parts of and points in Us. This will not be a direct flight."
Two men share their timeless love story via moments alternately charming, childish and churlish. Join A & B in a funny, quirky piece of physical theatre full of fantastical adventures.
Told using only playful storytelling and a suitcase of props...
"Our final destination is Final Destination Unknown. Estimated arrival time: we'll know when we get there".
Tweet Tuesday on the 26th of June: The one show when you won't have to put away your mobile! Join us for a special performance when you'll have the freedom to live-tweet your reactions to the play as it happens. This is a unique opportunity to engage with the performance and your fellow audience members.
You can keep you up to date with all the goings on direct from the rehearsal room on Justen’s blog:
The Fantastical Adventures of [Not] Being With You Blog
Reviews
Supported by
ID=Y?
The Fantastical Adventures of [Not] Being with You plays with ideas of established gender. Written so that A & B can be either gender, it is only in performance that gender is embodied. It will be accompanied by ID=Y?, a video installation by Jennifer Stokes, which suggests that it is within the performativity of everyday life that a person's gender identity and gender expression reveals itself.
ID=Y? aims to create a real representation of androgynous performativity of women in the UK; reminiscent of the punk DIY film-making of the Riot Grrrl movement. It features self-identified androgynous women that have represented and expressed their gender performativity for camera using a variety of art forms. It also prompts its viewers to question their own understanding and acceptance of the androgynous, gender identities that form part of our society today.
Machines for Living
Reviews
Press
Fringe Review
Spoonfed
Travels in Architecture
Travels in Architecture. Great or even modest buildings are like a string of jewels connecting the world, history and peoples.
Artist Suzie Balazs exhibits a selection of pastels and watercolours depicting buildings she has seen travelling around Britain and the world, providing a counterbalance to Machines for Living's bleaker exploration of architecture and its impact. It is a celebration of interesting and beautiful buildings and the feelings of community they can evoke.
There will be a private view of this work on Monday 28th of May from 6 to 8pm.
Wine Games: Music and Dance
What happens when certain laws are simulated and certain other laws are no longer simulated? For Wine Games: Music and Wine Games: Dance Joe Stevens has constructed sequences using a program that generates music and dance respectively as determined by the random arrangement of colours in packets of Wine Gums. Audience members are invited to interpret the sequences using the props available.
The practice of Joe Stevens concerns the language of new media. This could be described as being a new form of literacy encapsulating the areas of systems, play and design. A graduate of the Contemporary Arts BA course at Nottingham Trent University and the Interactive Media MA at Goldsmiths University of London, Stevens works in performance, sculpture and installation. Methods have been developed through several residencies, including a six-month stay at the National Art Studio in South Korea, in addition to group exhibitions and a solo show in 2010.
There will be a private view of this work on Friday 11th of May from 6 to 8pm.
For How Much? / Underfoot
For How Much
Faceless .... Distorted fingers reaching out to the skies... Spinning coins on the ground... Is this the cost of the goods we buy and consume? Is this the cost we do not have to pay?
Originally commissioned by the International Organisation for Migration U.K. (IOM) as part of their Buy Responsibly campaign, this dance theatre piece takes inspiration from the lives of the people who have worked under forced labour in India, Africa, South America and parts of Europe and from the sculptures by London-based artist May Ayres and her critique of consumerism and capitalism.
Underfoot
Underfoot is an intimate and sideways exploration of that which we share and stand on. Dwelling, shifting and zooming through structures and improvisation.
"The moment one gives up one's verticality, the first thing one discovers is that even the smoothest ground is not flat. The ground is grooved, cracked, cool, painful, hot, smelly, dirty." (Andre Lepecki)
Reviews
Annarita is misspelt and Lina Patterson is another dancer in For How Much (not Underfoot). Underfoot’s cast is just Katja Nyqvist
ConcertTheatre - Sonata Movements
Exemplifying the possibilities of cross art form collaboration, ‘ConcertTheatre’ combines classical music and theatre to create a new performance experience for audiences with enhanced opportunities to make meaning from what’s onstage.
Sonata Movements pairs up four short pieces of theatre with four pieces of classical music structured in the form of a sonata. The four plays are linked by a common character of alienated relationships between people. A coherent performance will be created through characters, music, costumes and the performance space and it tells the journey of a musical sonata.
Reviews
Review in London Festival Fringe
Programme
| Abortive | Caryl Churchill (1938-) | Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828) | Sonata D. 960 Mv. I (with adapted development) |
| Other People's Gardens | Kenneth Emson (1983-) | Frederic Chopin (1810 - 1849) | Nocturne Op.9 Nr.2 Ballade Op.38 Concerto Op.22, Mv.III |
| Portrait of a Lady | T.S. Eliot (1888 - 1965) | Sergei Prokofief (1891 - 1953) Frederic Chopin |
Sonata Op.28 Prelude in E Minor |
| Swan Song | Anton Chekhov (1860 - 1904) | Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) | Sonatas (Last Movements) Op.81a Op.53, Op.57 Op.31 Nr.3 |
Recordings
Click to play
- Feature on BBC Radio 3 'In Tune'
The Women of Troy
A world at war, a world ablaze and all its men savagely murdered, Hecuba, Queen of Troy is forced to stare into a world in which women are the spoils of war, a world full of pain, disease and persecution.
She must learn how to survive and give security, encouragement and joy to the very people who look to her as mother of the nation. From despair, an all-female ensemble moves towards hope and fortitude, through means of a dramatic fusion of text, movement and music.
You can keep you up to date with all the goings on direct from the rehearsal room and stage on their blog:
Take a look at The Women of Troy in their rehearsals with these production shots by Adam Trigg
The Women of Troy Photo Gallery
Reviews
Press
WhatsOnStage on Hecuba
Kevin Quarmby, Big Q Reviews
The Fantasist
Alone in her room, Louise is desperate to fall asleep. A surprise visitor interrupts her and takes her on a strange journey - through excitement and creativity, horror and destruction - to the forbidden chamber of her own mind.
Theatre Témoin and Cie Traversière use an exciting blend of puppetry, object manipulation, physical theatre, and original music in this zany and sensitive exploration of bipolar disorder, shedding new light on a woman's internal struggle against the swirl of extreme moods.
Reviews
Review in London Festival Fringe
Trumpety Trump: Noah's Ark
All aboard! Escape the rain and join Captain Noah and his animals on the ark. Adventure awaits as they set sail. Will they reach land safely or will Vulture and his evil companions cry mutiny?
Join us for an imaginative and musical retelling of the Biblical story, never before seen on stage.
Don Carlos
Love, betrayal and revolution...
Often remarked upon as Schiller’s Hamlet, Lazarus Theatre Company visits one of the greatest of the classical European writers in this powerful, dramatic and rousing adaptation.
Betrayed by his own father, King Philip of Spain, Don Carlos is in love with Elizabeth, who through political advantage becomes his father’s wife and Queen. Their desperate love affair is played out against a Spain in the grasp of war, tangled in untruths, corruption and deceit. The revolution of the nation destroys the lovers and the very world they wish to create.
Through the use of text, movement and music, a large ensemble will create a world of passion, conflict and rebellion. Their love will change them, their lives and their kingdom forever.