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Company number: 3724349
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What's on - October 2022
The Blue Elephant should be on every theatre goer's map
Sanctuary
Sanctuary is a dance theatre production around the very theme of sanctuary itself. It explores what it means to search for it and/or maintain it. We explore what it means physically (places, and objects), mentally (inside our minds/the concept of self image), and spiritually (finding connections with other people).
This work was created as a response to Covid-19 and how everyone almost at once lost any kind of security - be it financially, emotionally, physically.
A story of individual journeys of re-building oneself and reconnecting to others, and our communities.
Please note the artists will be using a Polaroid camera during the show (with flash), sometimes aiming it at audience members. The resulting photos will be disposed of immediately after the show.
About EQ Dance Company
EQ Dance Co. is an exploratory company of dance artists, working in collaboration to create and deliver dance experiences with impact based in the UK.
Led by choreographer/creative David West, EQ Dance Co. connects freelance artists with dancers to explore and enliven creative ideas in and around subjects such as mental health and the human experience.
Follow us on Instagram: @eqdanceco
Check out our website: https://www.eqdanceco.com/
TRUNKATED - AstroBlack edition
Blue Elephant Theatre's scratch night TRUNKATED is back with its brand new AstroBlack edition!
An evening of spoken word, music and film from some of the most exciting emerging black artists in South London.
Line-up
TATENDA MATSVAI - HOST / CURATOR
Tatenda (they/them) is a Zimbabwean born, south east London based facilitator and devised performance maker, working with spoken word poetry in theatrical and non-theatrical context, with a focus on community engagement. Their work is mainly bio-mythical, infusing their lived experience with myth, to challenge colonial cosmologies as an act of self-recovery. Their performances are joyful, participatory, and multidimensional.
EWA DINA - POETRY / SPOKEN WORD
Ewa is a Nigerian born, sheffield raised and now London based director, facilitator, actor, voiceover artist & poet.She is currently associate director at Nouveau Riche. As a facilitator, Ewa regularly works for Company Three and has worked with The Kiln Theatre, Central School of Speech and Drama, The Pleasence, The Damilola Taylor Centre. Music and movement are integral parts of Ewa’s process.
Recent acting credits include: Abidemi in Silkworm (Edinburgh Fringe Festival - Fringe first winner)
Ewa graduated from the Rose Bruford BA Acting course in 2019.
AXEL KENGNE - MONOLOGUE
Axel is a French-Cameroonian actor and writer currently in his final year of the BA Acting CDT at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, due to graduate in 2023. Recent roles in training include Hamlet in a devised production of "Hamlet", and Tobias in "Education, Education, Education". He is passionate about the history of race relations and its influence on the African diaspora.
He will perform a solo comedy drama called the "Coconut Glitch", a piece about a second-generation Black immigrant finding his sense of identity in the western world.
Instagram : @axelkengne
REBEKAH JOHNSON - MONOLOGUE
Rebekah Johnson is an actress who developed her writing skills as a way of creating work not just for herself but for others around her. Rebekah took her skills and applied them to The Cockpit Theatre In the Pound. She co-wrote and performed A Passage Through Time, which is currently online. She then started writing for actors she knew and wrote short monologues for them to film. During the lockdown, she has written a book filled with monologues which you can find at https://payhip.com/b/yPBY. This year Rebekah was a part of Passing The Spoon which was a spin on the Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters at The Tower Theatre. She also write and perform audio stories. https://youtu.be/cDarVNdkcNA.
Instagram: @Rebekah.johnson18
BRITNY VIRGINIA - VIDEO POETRY
Britny Virginia is a poet, writer, director, and creative facilitator. She is currently producing a short film she's written about her journey with disability.
Much of work is inspired by her St. Lucian culture, her disability and her faith! She hopes to inspire others one story at a time!
The Giant Who Slept For Ten Thousand Years / The Pony Club at the End of the World
Join us for a morning of puppetry, with two shows for little ones back to back! The Giant Who Slept For Ten Thousand Years (ages 2+) at 10:30am, and The Pony Club at the End of the World (ages 5+) at 11:30am.
These events are free to attend - you can book one or both!
Donations to Blue Elephant Theatre are encouraged, and can be made while booking. Every donation, no matter how small, makes a difference!
The Giant Who Slept For Ten Thousand Years
Sunday 16 October, 10:30am
Suitable for ages 2+
Running time: 30mins
Adapted from a Swedish folk tale, this puppet show for families takes us back in time 10 thousand years to when giants walked the earth and sea trolls lived in the waters. But what happens when humans move into the forests and mountains? A storytelling show about nature, friendship and the places we call home.
Made and performed by Bori Mező
Directed by Amy Rose
Music by Nicolas Lewis
The Pony Club at the End of the World
Sunday 16 October, 11:30am
Suitable for ages 5+
Running Time 30mins
A wacky puppet show about the apocalypse – starting at the village fair. Featuring terror in the trifle tent, vengeful vicars and a portaloo-related emergency. A blend of storytelling, puppetry and clown aimed at anyone with a silly side. Warning: May Contain Showjumping
Made and performed by Edie Edmundson
Music by Guy Hughes
Photo by Mark Morreau
About the artists
We are Edie and Bori, two puppeteers and theatre-makers based in London. Over lockdown, we were inspired by performers bringing their work to the streets and doing shows on doorsteps, in gardens and parks. Forced out of traditional theatre spaces by the Covid pandemic, we returned to the roots of live performance: intimate, accessible to everyone and - most importantly - LIVE.
{Doorstepping (vb): performing a live, portable show on someone's doorstep}
Our new website, The Doorstepper's Map is an online map leading to a directory of doorstep performers - it will be launched this October! To celebrate we are performing our own suitcase shows, 'The Giant Who Slept For Ten Thousand Years' and 'The Pony Club At The End Of The World.' The Map will allow you to book shows like this straight to your doorstep!
Find out more at https://thedoorsteppersmap.co.uk/
Facebook/Instagram - @thedoorsteppersmap
Bori Mezö
Bori is a freelance puppeteer and maker based in London. She regularly puppeteers for the Puppet Theatre Barge and String Theatre. She co-founded Hopeful Monster, a company that creates and tours visual theatre shows in the UK and abroad. She’s recently ventured into creating solo work with a suitcase show about giants. She feels most at home when there are books around so she always carries one or two with her, wherever she goes.
Edie Edmundson
Edie is a puppeteer, writer and theatre maker. She has worked for companies including Shakespeare’s Globe, Edinburgh Royal Lyceum, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. She also makes her own work including cabaret acts about flamingos and a suitcase puppet show about evil ponies. She loves to dance, walk through woods, and eat chocolate - sometimes all at once.
Found In Translation
The first showcase from CREANDO ESCENARIOS, our adult Spanish-language drama group!
For 10 weeks, participants of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds have gathered at Blue Elephant Theatre to experiment, play and create theatre together (some of them for the first time!). Come laugh, cry and ponder at their brand-new theatrical creations...
Please note the scenes presented will be in Spanish.
This showcase is made possible by Southwark Council's Public Health Grant.
____________
¡La primera presentación de nuestro grupo de teatro para adultos hispanohablantes!
Por 10 semanas, participantes de todas las edades, nacionalidades y procedencias se han reunido en el Blue Elephant Theatre para experimentar, jugar y crear teatro juntos (¡algunos por primera vez!). Ven a reír, llorar y reflexionar sobre sus nuevas creaciones teatrales...
Tengan en cuenta que las escenas se presentarán en español.
Esta presentación ha sido posible gracias al Public Health Grant de Southwark Council.
Supported by
Arrogant Soft
Sometimes, your partner says something and you let it slide. Not this time.
Date night has finished, John, Lola and their friends have talked relentlessly, drunk merrily and sung appallingly, well into the early hours of the morning. But after a Freudian slip, it becomes clear that there is more to discuss.
How much individualism is too much in a relationship? Are there some things that you keep from your partner? Do they have a right to know about all your decisions?
Written by Alphonso Brown, Arrogant Soft is a compelling new piece that looks into the joy, despondency and complexities that only a relationship can bring out.
Arrogant Soft is a work-in-progress presented as part Blue Elephant's Autumn residencies.
About the writer
Alphonso Brown is an actor, writer, model and workshop facilitator, proudly hailing from Croydon. After completing his University degree at the Plymouth Conservatoire, he returned to London where he has gone from strength to strength in each of his creative disciplines from touring as the lead role in Shakespeare's 'Othello', leading Drama workshops across the U.K. , modelling with Nike... writing is just the latest string to his ever-growing bow.
Forgotten Voices
Join us at Blue Elephant for a compelling hour of storytelling celebrating Black History Month during half-term week!
Running time: 30 min performance + 30 min drama workshop
"If I put my mind to it, I can do it!"
Esther enjoys helping out on her parents' farm in Jamaica, but her biggest dream is to become a nurse. When England calls for people to come work there, she seizes the opportunity and sets sail for the "motherland" to make her dream come true!
Forgotten Voices is a storytelling show for ages 7-11 about the human side of Windrush, and pursuing one's dreams in an unfamiliar land.
The show will be followed by a 25-30 min workshop with the children.
This project is made possible by Southwark Council's Black History Month fund.
Written by Jacqui Livingston
Performed by Tatenda Matsvai and Nikki Acquah
