BET mailing list
Submit your email
BET on Twitter
Loading feed...
Charity number: 1077161
Company number: 3724349
Blue Elephant Theatre Privacy policy.
We use cookies for Google Analytics, but these can be disabled via your browser configuration.
Past programme
Showcases an eclectic range of fresh and interesting contemporary work, largely by emerging artists
The Duchess of Malfi
Lazarus presents John Webster’s gripping and powerful Jacobean tragedy in a production using movement, visual art and an original score. Re-imagined in 1940s England, this dark and passionate play follows the Duchess’s tragic spiral of reputation, love and ultimately death…
London 1939, on the eve of war.
The Duchess, a widow, finds love in the arms of her servant Antonio: their dangerous love affair is played out against the darkness of a world that forbids them to be together.
Press
The Soldier With No Name
The Soldier With No Name is based on the story of French surrealists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore - two female artists in a male-dominated world - and their resistance campaign against the Nazis in occupied Jersey.
Told through puppetry, dance, physical theatre and storytelling, the piece explores our ideas of identity and the relationship between art and socio-political change.
The Winged Cranes was created by Alle Valle in 2007 to explore themes related to identity and the relationship between art and social political change through the use of puppetry and physical theatre. TWC wants to open borders in society, through the stories of people, places and time. It is an open company that wants to work on specific projects with other artists through collaboration and mutual understanding.
Press
All Grown Up
All Grown Up features paintings and drawings exploring the experience of getting older and what it means to be a grown up.
Trunkated
Spring
Tal Jakubowiczova
Spring is known to be the first season, but we all know it comes after winter. This physical piece shows a woman between hopes struggling her way to spring.
Havisham
Aaron Paterson
Miss Havisham locks away her life and love in a house that is as grim and dismal as herself. Within this sanctuary and prison, Miss Havisham stagnates in memories as an eternal bride. In Havisham, Dickens’s heroine collides with her modern counterpart: Aaron Havisham. Aaron chains his love life to his untrustworthy laptop, which is as erratic and frustrated as himself. Taking sanctuary online, Aaron stagnates in cyber hopes and virtual dreams of every potential wedding. Justification for, and clarification of, the connection between adoration and isolation are sought and debated upon in the vocalised internal monologues of these two overlapping characters. Miss Havisham is a warning to a modern isolationist waiting to begin living life.
(In) Formalities
Silversmith Dance Theatre
Fanfares. Marches. Anthems. Speeches.
Combining innovatively expressive movement with live trumpet players - and a bunch of quirky characters - this comical piece explores formal events, and the aftermath of when nothing goes to plan!
I Am Nesia
Rosie Wilby
The 2006 Funny Women Finalist presents an excerpt from her 2008 Edinburgh Fringe show. This investigation into the human memory manages to combine spoof Greek mythology, games and beginner's neuroscience.
"A talented performer with a winning self-deprecating personality" Evening Standard
She's My Lady Bits
Sylvia Ferreira Dance Company
- Director/Choreographer: Sylvia Dos Santos Ferreira
- Dancers: Vanessa Abreu, Alex Hemsley, Rosie Pearman, Fiona Smith & Lorraine Smith
- Costume: Seema Iqbal
- Sound Designer: Dan Potter
An Ornery Tale
Shady Dolls
Fascinated with the grotesque, and employing a keen sense of the perverse, Shady Dolls conjure a world of distorted images: of femininity, of history, of lullabies and legends…
An Ornery Tale takes place both on and behind the stage of the kind of Victorian Music Hall which is rarely found today, and details the plight of sisters Minnie, Ruby and Constance Hately, who found fame and notoriety upon it.
The Sunflower and Behind Closed Doors
The Sunflower
by Lamb|da
- Choreographer: Clare Thurman
- Poet: Nathan Thomas
The Sunflower is a duet between choreographer Clare Thurman and poet Nathan Thomas, weaving together fragments of intimate, personal narrative to explore what happens when two people try to communicate with each other. The piece seamlessly blends words and movement, creating a spellbinding meditation on the human conversation: absence and presence, closeness and distance, and everything in between.
Behind Closed Doors
by Lo Commotion
- Choreographer: Jo Meredith
- Cast: David Cameroni, Katherine Kingston, Caroline Lynn, Franscesco Mangiacasale, Jo Meredith, Ted Sikstrom
Set in the aftermath of World War Two during an engagement party, 'Behind Closed Doors' explores the relationship of two returning soldiers.
Lo Commotion's young and vibrant dancers perform this narrative work to the atmospheric and romantic music of Rachmaninoff, Cole Porter and Jerome Kern.
Post-performance discussion chaired by Sean Bruno
Press
Soft Cuts
Jane Spencer – Pseudological Fantastica
by Sarah Turner
- Choreographer: Maria Korsnes
- Performer: Rebecca Evans
This body of work is an attempt to isolate a moment of transcendence: that fleeting moment in time at which limitation is exceeded, and instinct becomes heroic impulse.
The process of adaptation; fitting in to different conditions or developing physical and behavioural characteristics in order to survive, does over time become a repeat pattern or a constant that becomes established. If this repeat pattern or constant is exhausted, an opening for transcendence can take place.
A moment of genuine transcendence can be rare and difficult to identify, quantify, and qualify. This body of work is a way of attempting to embody this intangible fleeting moment into an appropriate form.
Oh Baby
- Choreographer: Hagit Yakira
- Dancers: Takeshi Matsumoto & Hagit Yakira
A duet discussing the relationship between a man and a woman who are totally manipulated and influenced by love songs, love movies, love letters and love images in art…
(photo by Julia Burstein)
In-tubed
by Etta Ermini Dance Theatre
- Choreographer: Etta Ermini
- Performers: Chelsea Greene, Durassie Kiangangu, Ziggy Lowe-Vidal & Elena Molinaro
Stuck together in a tunnel, four very different people decide to open up to each other under the pretence of spatial intimacy to reveal the abyss of their emotions…
Press
Toy Boy and Living With...
ACTING LIKE MAD is a young, London-based theatre company, which seeks to challenge theatrical form and content. The themes present in their productions aim to explore dramatic writing and test their audiences' perceptions of theatre. They aim to seek new ways of channelling the skill of acting.
Toy Boy
In Toy Boy we enter a world of cynics who use and abuse; and those who obey. Can real love still grow in such a dog-eat-dog world?
Living With…
Living With… tells the story of a man forced to move into a new flat with three hedonistic beings who torture him and each other. Will he be able to overcome his demons and learn to live with them, or will they beat the life out of him?
Press
Dr Samuel's Soothing Serum & (In) Formalities
SILVERSMITH DANCE THEATRE produces innovative and accessible dance theatre through artistic collaborations. The company’s work focuses upon human themes and narratives of a dark comedic nature, merging different movement styles with the theatrical to create thought-provoking contemporary work.
Dr Samuel's Soothing Serum
- Performers: Lianne Dixon, Danna Kolesarova, Chris Mead, Dusty Payne, Ianthe Wright
- Choreography: Lorraine Smith & performers
- Director: Lorraine Smith
- Composer: Nico Bentley
(In) Formalities
- Performers: Chris Mead, Dust Payne, Catherine Pinhorn, Fiona Smith
- Choreography: Lorraine Smith & performers
- Director: Lorraine Smith
- Composition/Musical Direction: John Chambers
Fanfares, marches, anthems, speeches and dry coughs…
This piece explores formal events, and the aftermath of when nothing goes to plan!
Relax. Cleanse. Micro-minerals. No more wrinkles. Soothe. Transcend Mortality. Detox. Digestive transit. Refresh. Healing herbal highs. Botox. Bifidus Actiregularis. Believing is feeling. Placebo effect. Revitalise. Empty. Inside.
Press
A Mind's Journey in Search of Destiny
Anwesha Dance Company was established to evolve new choreography from the Manipuri tradition and to bring Manipuri dance to wider notice in the UK and internationally.
A Mind's Journey in Search of Destiny explores the creative genius and the conflicting urges that drive an artist. Tradition, self-doubt and wavering courage rein in the artist from full expression of creativity.
Combining expressions of award-winning choreographer Anwesha's imagination - improvised from classical north-east Indian Manipuri dance - this work infuses tradition with freedom and also the heritage is moulded to modernity, the classical reinterpreted through originality. It is about the move towards self expression and thus combines music, speech, film and new physical language or new movement which is born from Manipuri classical dance, to explore all of these resonances.
This production resonates beyond the uncertainties of a person moving from a valued but traditional society into a more liberal but alien one, to talk to the self-belief and insecurities lying beneath the artistic impulse.
A Mind's Journey in Search of Destiny had an Edinburgh run in August 2009.
First Class
When Michael Bates makes a routine trip to the post office, he meets Beatrice – an impossibly enthusiastic postal worker, who takes him far beyond the confines of a mail room into the universe of her imagination. Powered by her infectious lust for life, Bea leads Michael on a journey to find something he never knew he had lost.
Fusing physical theatre with comedy and music, this absurd yet oh-so-believable human tale unfolds with delightful results.
First Class had an Edinburgh run in August 2009.
Press
Art accompanying 'First Class'
Total Image Nation is a photographers' network and online resource, created and maintained by photographers across the UK. The purpose of Total Image Nation is to provide information, advice, networking and opportunities for all photographers.
Pluto
"Our heroes and our Gods, under scrutiny, have become dwarves. As if that was something they could ever be. That we could ever allow. That's why we rail against the day’s passing, struggle to get in another word or action, because tomorrow … tomorrow we may not know where we stand. Not recognise ourselves when we stop to look."
Ad astra per aspera (a rough road leads to the stars):
Inscription at Launch Complex 34 at Kennedy Space Centre where all three crew members of the first Apollo spacecraft died in 1967.
Press
Mervyn Peake and his Art
Photos courtesy of the Estate of Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Peake was a writer, artist, illustrator and a former tutor at Camberwell College of Arts. Best known for his Gormenghast trilogy, he also wrote poetry, short stories and plays for adults and children.
Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor
First published in 1939, Mervyn Peake’s pirate yarn has recently been re-issued, giving a new generation the chance to read about the exploits of Captain Slaughterboard and his crazy crew - Billy Bottle, Jonas Joints, Timothy Twitch, Peter Poop and Charlie Choke.
Mervyn Peake: an illustrated talk
Presented by Sebastian Peake
Inspired by his father’s incredible collection of paintings, photographs and letters, Sebastian Peake provides an exclusive insight into one of the most creative minds of the 20th Century.
Part of Camberwell Arts Festival 2008
Out of Chaos
Out of Chaos re-imagines the tragic chorus and incorporates live music, clowning and physical theatre in a devised piece that draws on the international origins of the actors.
In the beginning, there was chaos. Then the Gods took that chaos and gave it an order. They made the world and some animals and everything went pretty well. But one day Prometheus made a new beast, and he raised it up onto two feet so it could look at the heavens. And that's when things started to kick off. Gods and mortals, parents and sons, sisters, lovers and strangers on the Tube come head-to-head in a playful blend of Ancient Greek mythology and modern true stories, exploring the ways in which people fight and rage.
Out of Chaos had an Edinburgh run in August 2008
Winner:
Best Production at the International Act Festival, Bilbao 2008
Winner:
Audience Prize at 100° International Theatre Festival, Berlin 2008
Hide & Seek
Set in the aftermath of environmental devastation, a woman scavenges amongst the ruins of the world she once knew. She discovers a baby and the things that matter the most become obvious as a result of the discovery.
Is she still looking for hope?
Can she find it?
And more importantly -
will she recognise it?
Using movement, puppets and original music, this is a tragi-comic tale of hope and humanity in the most desperate of circumstances.