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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
Trunkated
A showcase of excerpts and short works-in-progress of new material from London's most exciting artists across the arts. Puppetry, physical theatre, performance art... A Blue Elephant season in one evening!
The Thinker
The story of how the wounded ego must hide everything we believe that is unacceptable about ourselves. To fulfil this task the ego builds a mask to prove to others that we don't have so many defects. The play is depicted very creatively mixing the use of masks, shadow and rod puppets, object animation, physical theatre and art installation to create a magical and unique atmosphere.
Outside Puppets is an exciting new puppet company that produces high quality contemporary theatre based puppetry shows.
What You Risk
London 1936. Tensions are running high. Europe is inching closer to war and the home front is fraught. In East London pressure mounts as Oswald Mosley prepares his Fascist 'Blackshirts' to march on the immigrant population and show them they are not welcome. On October 4th, 250,000 people come together to defend the East End.
Using verbatim and historical accounts, Scrawny Cat Theatre Company brings to life the story behind the Battle of Cable Street. The lives of three women, from very different walks of life, become intertwined as the dramatic events of that day unfold, with unforgettable consequences.
Chips
Chips delves into the friendship of two young women who live for booze and sequined pants. Through witty observations and discerning movement, Chips exposes the less attractive side of Saturday's nightlife. Through wit, backchat and some drunken dancing, the Mustdashios draw on their cheeky northern unabashedness to take you on a journey in which they laugh, dance and possibly cry their way through an intoxicated friendship.
Machines for Living
There is functional and efficient performance, he claims, between artist and the hi-tech faith.
But this is Architecture.
Machines For Living is –
he wishes his buildings to try to explain.
'Let Slip' are a Lecoq-trained duo.
Machines for living have been given a full production at the Blue Elephant Theatre from Tuesday 22 of May to Saturday 16th of June 2012.
Tonight, with COD
A lady emerges from the shadow of the street. Inexplicably, COD stumbles upon a night of extravaganza in a desolate nightclub.
A change has been forced upon COD’s body due to unfortunate circumstances. What is he going to do? How is he going to deal with it? Can the lady lead him to where he wants to be?
It’s all confusing time for a cod like him especially with an unfamiliar emotion beginning to sprout within. Should he choose 'I' or should he choose 'Ai'*?
(* Ai - "love" in Japanese)
RAW
Solo exhibition of painting and installation work by this Russian artist exploring the stigma of mental illness.
Writers at Work: The Fantastical Adventures of [Not] Being With You
Leaping between moments in time, from train cars to undersea exploits to low-tech laser tag, two people pull each other along an impulsive journey through memory, adventure, and a relationship on tenterhooks. These two men bend narrative to their whim, battling with lists, reconciling with biscuits, and running from a reality they can't decide to embrace or defy.
There are moments in life that everything is either before or after; The Fantastical Adventures of [Not] Being With You is about those.
Writers at Work: Flying Asparagus
Could you memorize a whole volume of the Britannica in an hour? Do you look people in the eyes? What’s the most unusual pet you would have? You hate green peas, don’t you? How do you react when people touch you?
Max has asparagus in his head. Or so he thinks. Trapped in a research programme, he is trying to resist, to find himself, to exceed his limits. Max is our alter-ego. In his case, it’s called Asperger's. It could also simply be called Different.
Mi patria son mis zapatos (My Hometown is in my Shoes) and The Other
Mi patria son mis zapatos
A piece exploring the conflict of nomadic existence through movement, primitive drums and song. Can one find permanent residence in one’s own footwear?
- Choreographer and dancer
- Florencia Guerberof
- Musicians
- Najib Coutya (voice and oud) & Elizabeth Nott (percussion)
- Lighting
- Arata Mori
The Other
SOnal
Lost in the night garden
A man comes across a strange creature
The Moth
Repelled by her
Yet intrigued
They dance towards the light
- Cast
- Genovel Andrei Alexa & Lucia Tong
- Visual Projections by
- SOnal, Luc Song & Maaike Anne Stevens
Seemingly Invisible
“Rain was pouring in London Town…”
People pass you by, time ticks away on a typical British morning until, out of the settling gloom, an almost tangible and apparently invisible force emerges… What this force offers is for every individual to discover.
Smoking Apples Theatre invites you to embark on a journey, through trial and tribulation, to the ultimate destination where they give you back your dreams…
The Book of Disquiet
Listed as one of The Guardian's top 100 books of all time, Fernando Pessoa’s Book of Disquiet was discovered in a trunk in his apartment in Lisbon after his death in 1935. Part novel, part memoir, part philosophical meditation on the futility of living, Pessoa’s Livro defies definition and endures as a testament to modernist writing.
Why do I feel strangely drawn to the kind of people I’d usually run a mile from? Religious fundamentalists, for example. At least those guys make an effort. They yearn for what they really don’t know. The rest of us cross the stage as walk-ons, extras, without any lines. Satisfied with the pompous solemnity of the crossing itself.
(Wo)men and me
"'Cause it's OK to be a boy
But for a boy to look like a girl
Is degrading
'Cause you think that being a girl
Is degrading
But secretly you'd love to know
What it's like, wouldn't you?
What it feels like for a girl"
Charlotte Gainsbourg, Secret Garden
Performance maker and choreographer Tonny A returns to the Blue Elephant with an exploration of androgyny and psychological identity with this new dance double bill.
AR-men is a male duet which engages in a physical dialogue, playing with their bodies' own contradictions, contrasts and similarities, to perfect and eventually challenge the ultimate image of the Masculine Man.
Women in Me ponders what a man is meant to make of his sexual and social identities when he re-acquaints himself with his lost femininity. A blend of sensual, erotic and dark undertones, this solo piece playfully takes on what it feels to be feminine inside a man's body.
Sweet or Sour specializes in contemporary performance as well as in experimental dance and physical theatre, often crossing over various artistic disciplines to conceive pieces that deal with sexuality, ethnicity and social identity.
Transformers
An exhibition of mixed media drawings.
Costume transforms; the performer transforms... 'Walk a mile in my shoes' means so much more if they are transparent perspex stilettos and if you are a six foot muscular black man.
How we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us cannot be controlled but it can be manipulated and subverted. How we dress can be manipulative and subversive...
Barbe Bleue
Bluebeard had many wives, in succession, and killed every one. Can Louise turn the tide, or will she too fall victim to Perrault's notorious killer?
The setting: a London artist's studio flat. The time: very early in the morning... Or is it very late at night? Louise is sleeplessly searching for inspiration, until her work is interrupted by the arrival of a surprising visitor. Theatre Témoin uses puppetry, clowning, and original music to take you on a journey through urban isolation and psychosis to unlock the forbidden chamber of the creative mind.
A reworking of Barbe Blue has been given a full production at The Blue Elephant Theatre from Tuesday 28 February - Saturday 17 March under the new title of The Fantasist.
Casa and Magical Chairs
Casa
A theatrical dance piece with elements of structured improvisation, a collage of still images and stylized sketches inspired from typical everyday life situations.
Big heavy coats come to life... Characters go through individual journeys... Sense of belonging and what makes a place home are questioned...
Magical Chairs
"There are an estimated 143 million abandoned chairs worldwide. Many millions more are abandoned or separated from their immediate and extended owners, living on the street, in institutions, or supporting their siblings on their own..."
A short play about childhood, magic tricks and musical chairs brings you a game of the absurdist kind, with realistic undertones and dystopic nuances. Can you take it seriously? Can you enjoy it?
www.youtube.com/user/annaritamazzilli#p/a/u/0/J60xJa3CEbQ
Mervyn Peake 1911-1968: Centenary Celebrations
The Blue Elephant marks Mervyn Peake's centenary year with a mini-festival of his plays and poetry celebrating his diversity as a writer. Following our world premiere of The Cave last year, we discover once again that Peake's imagination and inspiration extended far beyond Gormenghast...
Tuesday 26 April: Rehearsed reading of Noah's Ark
Intended for children, Peake’s unmistakable prose makes his behind-the-scenes account of this well-known biblical story just as engaging for adult audiences. Originally aired on BBC radio, this charming play is long overdue a theatrical staging.
Noah's Ark was given a full production at the Blue Elephant Theatre for Christmas 2011.
Wednesday 27 April: Rehearsed reading of Mr Loftus or And a Horse of Air
The dust in his room is ankle deep yet Mr Loftus still insists on being served tea and brandy by his butler. With an eccentric anti-hero whose manners are decidedly ungentlemanly, this previously unseen play is Peake's distinctive take on the comedy of manners.
"Mad? Did you say mad? I have gone sane. That's much more difficult."
Thursday 28 April: The Poems of Peake
An evening of Peake's poetry read, staged and interpreted by a range of artists. With a post-performance Q&A with the writer's son Sebastian Peake.
Trunkated
Rosie’s Pop Diary
Fringe Report Award-winning Comic Rosie Wilby started out as a singer-songwriter fronting her own band ‘Wilby’. The story of band relationships and breakups, bizarre auditions, parties and gigs was captured in words in the column Rosie’s Pop Diary that ran from 1996-2000 in the now defunct Making Music Magazine.
Mixing visuals, storytelling, stand up and acoustic versions of the songs written at the time, Rosie brings back to life the emotional rollercoaster of trying to make it in the music business at the height of Britpop… and investigates whether her column really told the whole story…
Yellow Moths & Spilt Milk
Four wise men once asked:
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality…
(Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see)
Drawing on dreams, popular culture, autobiography, mythology and physics, Pachamama’s Bordello invites you to plumb the depths of reality from the cell to the celestial. Join us as we run across the planes of human existence with wild abandon. Prepare to encounter shady tricksters, a mother obsessed with birds, a poor version of Judy Garland, cabaret singers, hospital patients and eternal wanderers. Using a heady mix of live singing, physical theatre and snippets of stories, Yellow Moths & Spilt Milk pokes at what it means to be on this journey called life.
Asta Nielsen is Dead [a silent move]
"The silent film actress Asta Nielsen died in 1972
A performer doesn’t have a long life on stage
One of us has to die
Soon”
These are the first subtitles in this performance. Two performers will interact with projected texts and images, using methods found in silent films. As in these films, the performers will suffer from the tragedies of love & attempt to escape bizarre and humorous accidents. At the end there is just one open question: who is going to die?
Asta Nielsen is Dead is an experimental dance mime by
[RE:artzzZ]------re|thinking art.
Concept & Performance: Regina Fichtner & Patrizia Carlota
Music & Sound: Steve Haben
Editor: Ana Carrusca
Rubies In The Attic
1898 An Italian boards a boat for America as a Russian Jew. Mistakes Cable Street for Cape Town.
1900 Charles joins the circus.
1938 Pat is taken in by a bald man at the bar.
Beautiful and bold Cabaret Theatre created and performed by The Ruby Dolls. Rubies In the Attic explores the shared histories of four women, starting at the turn of the 20th century. Intertwining Coward with Klezmer and Tango with African folk, the Dolls cross musical landscapes and political divides. Join them as they unearth their beginnings and sing their back way home.
Not looking for anyone
"People want to be found, but they’re not looking for anyone…"
Guerilla Dance Project attempts to answer the question of what has become of
social dance and physical courting rituals in an anonymous urbanised society,
and what its prospects are as our social interactions become increasingly
digitalised.
The show examines this through the lens of a female individual, using
vocabulary from the company’s trademark ‘random acts of dance when you least
expect them’. As she observes the numb world around her, routine movements
unfold into a vibrant display of our contemporary physicality, forcing us to
'experience the everyday as aesthetic'.
Once Upon a Time...
Filskit Theatre is commited to creating work that ignites the imagination of
audiences. Using their own special 'Filskit' blend of micro projection, light,
movement, shadow and music, they take a closer look at a real fairytale
female...
http://www.filskittheatre.com/
Macbeth
Ambition, violence, tyranny and evil... Lazarus returns to Shakespeare for this explosive and blood thirsty production of one of the most iconic plays ever written.
Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, rises with a viscous and savage thirst for power, reputation and dominance. His rapid and sensational succession through the ranks - encouraged by his wife's dominance - leads to him being crowned King and ultimately his destruction.
A large ensemble of over fifteen actors will create this dark, violent and demonic production, combining text, movement and music to create a world of witchcraft, masculinity and divine intervention.