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Past programme
Showcases an eclectic range of fresh and interesting contemporary work, largely by emerging artists
Tom's
Three shows, three critically-acclaimed offerings: since 2005 Sketty Productions have been using original puppetry to fuel their physical approach in creating emotive drama.
The work produced has been praised as extraordinary, innovative, beautiful and intelligent, and as much dynamic as it is deeply moving.
Taken from the true story of Tom Nabarro and his partner Ellen, this latest piece explores the lives of an inspiring young couple prevailing over apparent tragedy. What has been discovered is a story of astounding determination, unique love, hope...And laughter.
Recordings
Click to play
- Radio Interview
- Feature on Reprezent radio
Clichéd & Mind The Gap
Clichéd
Sebastian Rex Dance Group
Cliché: an overused expression or idea.
What happens when clichés are stripped from their meaning and being given new ones? Can Mendelssohn’s wedding march ever be used for the unhappiest day of your life? Will the Jaws theme tune ever signify anything less frightening or are there plenty more fish in the sea? Following critics’ choice in Time Out, SRDG return to the Blue Elephant with an exploration of the oldest phrases in the books…
Mind The Gap
Acting Like Mad Mind the Gap is a playful exploration in story-telling, channelling into the futility of youth. Four friends go on holiday to London. They sit, talk, sleep with each other and play games in short staccato dialogue, with characters playing other parts in order to tell their stories. We get a glimpse into these young lives - their personalities and childhood traumas - in a quirky and energetic manner. Scenes are short and dynamic. Just like that sentence was. Even more so. Like that. Reviews Review by Vicky Bell from The Public Reviews Review by Olivia Parker from Running In Heels Review by LondonDance.comRecordings
Click to play
- Feature on Reprezent radio
The White Devil
Following a hugely successful production of The Duchess of Malfi at the Blue Elephant last year, Lazarus returns to John Webster to stage one of the finest and most complex Jacobean tragedies, The White Devil.
Vittoria, wife of Camillo, is consumed in a decadent and dangerous love affair with Duke Bracciano, husband to Isabella. Their intoxicating game of lust and sexual obsession leads to the destruction of the court and their own existence.
This passionate and tragic piece will be played by a large ensemble who - through the use of text, movement and music - create the debauchery and decay of the Italian court. The hunt is on for The White Devil…
Reviews
Review by Katie Shellard from Running In Heels
Review by Naima Khan from Spoonfed.co.uk
Review by Georgia Blake from WhatsOnStage.com
Press coverage
Interview with director Ricky Dukes
Recordings
Click to play
- Feature on Reprezent radio
The Cave [WORLD PREMIERE]
by Mervyn Peake
In one cave, thousands of years of history are played out. A history marked by conformity and the persecution of anyone who dares to speak out. One family struggles to live their day-to-day lives. Then one day a young girl enters the cave and throws their belief system into question.
This unsettling and powerful play by Mervyn Peake - author of Gormenghast - is a dark, inquisitive look at the nature of authority and its effect on the human condition.
There will be a post-show discussion with the writer's son, Sebastian Peake chaired by writer Neil Norman on Tuesday 26 October.
Reviews
It has streaks of the angry postwar nihilism of Anouilh and Sartre: the hopeful theme of rejecting fear and social coercion leads only to amoral fragmentation in the last act. But it is extraordinary: a howl, an imperfect and painful philosophical struggle, part of a remarkable artist's testament. Honour to the little theatre." –Libby Purves, The Times
Review by Caroline Jowett from Express.co.uk
Review by Paul Vale from The STAGE
Interviews
Interview by BehindTheFringe.com
Londonist Out Loud 2: Aaron Paterson from Londonist on Vimeo.
Rehearsal
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The three artists involved in the exhibition to accompany the play 'The Cave' have spent a number of days watching and making drawings of the rehearsals. They have all responded in ways particular to their own working methods. Collecting images and ideas during rehearsals has been enormously inspiring for all three artists.
Florence Peake has concentrated on 'one to one' contact with the director and cast of the play and produced a set of drawings showing the dynamic nature of the rehearsals. By a mixture of quick observations and more 'worked' drawings she echoes her own practice in choreography and performance.
Lewis Peake, with his experience in film and television, has used a combination of photography and drawings as starting points for his work in the exhibition.
Fabian Peake has used the drawings and watercolours produced during the rehearsals to develop ideas and visual themes in his studio. The work produced displays a linear path which often diverges greatly from the original subject. The initial drawings 'on set' were the basis for a more cerebral interpretation of events encountered in the rehearsals.
Jukai 樹海
At the base of Mount Fuji lies a stretch of forest known locally as 'The Sea of Trees'. Centuries of secrets lie hidden under the mossy earth, where rivers of lava have hardened over to form the cavernous forest floor. Thousands of people who have entered these woods have never been seen again. Some simply got lost. Others went in intending to disappear…
Theatre Témoin collaborates with Taiko drummers to devise a new piece which incorporates half-mask, contemporary theatre and Japanese traditional music to tell a story about straying from the path.
FAQs: "Jukai" @ Blue Elephant Theatre, London [BehindTheFringe.com]
Featured article: JUKAI Review 28 Sept -16 Oct [JapaneseLondon.com]
★★★★★Review of Jukai 樹海, by Theatre Temoin [Remotegoat.co.uk]
Review by Amy Yorston [The British Theatre Guide]
Borough Faces etc.
A member of The Camera Club at Kennington, Philip Ratciff is a local portrait photographer.
Most of the pictures were taken in and around the Borough Market with enthusiastic co-operation of members of Trinity College of Music.
Stairway To Heaven
Cheops’ Pyramid. Egypt. 2,700 B.C.
The biggest, most terrifying and dangerous construction site the world has ever known.
A hundred thousand men will haul two and a half million limestone blocks weighing a total of six million tons up a building the size of a skyscraper using nothing but human muscle.
On his first day working on the pyramid, one young man has to adapt quickly to a new life in a work gang where intense friendships and hatreds are forged in a feverish furnace of desert heat, brutal humour, backbreaking work, horrific accidents, drink, sex and death.
And as the ghosts of dead workmates and visions of Amun Ra the Sun God elbow their way into Makhthon’s dreams, something strange is happening just out of sight, on the higher ledges of the pyramid, where the workers are never allowed.
Where does the stairway really lead?
Press
We see the World through the Prism of our Understanding
An exhibition of work by Jessica Davies.
Spark: London
Everyone has a story in them. Extraordinary true stories of life in this fine city told by a specially-selected group of Londoners.
Recordings
Click to play
- A story told by Martin Cullingford
Press
The Book of Disquiet
Listed as one of The Guardian’s top 100 books of all time, Fernando Pessoa’s The 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.
Have you ever thought how invisible we really are to one another?
How little we really know about each other?
We look but do we really see?
We listen but what we hear is our own voice inside.
The Book of Disquiet
Naughty!
Modern Romance
Sebastian Rex Dance Group
A full-length contemporary dance piece examining gender politics and the effect of the re-definition of identity on our modern interpretations of love and romance. With a soundtrack buzzing with songs from the Noughties.
$ellebrity
Acting Like Mad A very short play about commodities. This dark comedy asks a very simple question – if celebrities sell themselves to the public – who owns them?Press
Othello
WINNER: 'Best Fringe or Regional Play' Broadway World UK Awards 2010
A sweeping and dramatic production of Shakespeare's classic story of love, betrayal and jealousy - using text, movement and music with an ensemble cast of fourteen.
Press
More of Venice
Photographs of Venice by Tina Engström
Watercolours of Venice by Bianca Marsden