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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 artistslondondance.com
Dance

Springheeled 2008

 

Three evenings of dance & multimedia works that engage, entertain & inspire.

Dates
Thursday 3 April 2008 - Saturday 5 April 2008
Supported by
Arts Council England

  • Riccardo Meneghini 'Carry on Tripping'
  • Etta Ermini Dance Theatre 'Fixed Wheel'
  • Evolving Motion, Cathy Seago 'Vanishing Point'
  • Hagit Yakira 'Leah'

Press

"For dance audiences it [the Blue Elephant] can be an intense experience - especially if you're used to studying abstract geometry from the heights of the upper circle. These are real, powerful, bodies, right in front of you, complete with flesh, discernible faces and flying beads of sweat."
Theatre

Writers At Work

 

Rehearsed readings by the writers and directors of tomorrow

Dates
Wednesday 19 March 2008 - Friday 28 March 2008

Closed Circuit

  • Writer: Sara Pascoe
  • Director: Katie Lewis

Closed Circuit deals with the macrocosmic issues of city life through the microcosm of a central London sex-shop. The story is told through theatrical naturalism and stylised montages, creating a sensory and thought provoking reflection of the city and the lives we all inhabit.

Strange Land of Stars

  • Writer: Emily Hunka
  • Director: Emma Hewitt
  • Cast: Simon Carroll-Jones, Brandy Doubleday, Laura Glover, Alex Watson & Ben Wigzell

A family celebrates. A stranger arrives at the door. Claiming to have a message, will he bring peace and goodwill or is he a dangerous threat waiting for the right moment to blow them apart? And in a nation obsessed with security, are they putting themselves at risk by letting the unknown in?

Strange Land of Stars asks: when do a country’s laws stop protecting its citizens and start persecuting them?

A new play about a land not too different from our own.

The Dada Suicides

  • Writer: Afsaneh Gray
  • Director: James Kermack
  • Cast: Sophie Michaels & Robert Orme
    • Jacques Vaché, a friend of André Breton, acquired notoriety after he killed himself and a friend in Paris in 1919. Waking up on stage, he finds himself the unlikely subject for a play.

      The Dada Suicides explores the fragility of the psyche from a place where all physical being is lost and only consciousness remains. With a Dada twist.

      Golden Lads & Lasses Must

      • Writer: Peter Lindley
      • Director: Rebecca Tortora
      • Lighting Designer: Jason Kirk
      • Cast: Irene Bradshaw, Gerald Davidson, Rachel Halliwell, Jen Holt, Terry Jermyn, Lucy Le Messurier & Holly Strickland

      London October 1998: Ted Hughes, the Poet Laureate, is dying of cancer. He slips in and out of consciousness, dreaming of Sylvia Plath, the one true love of his life, and the fateful weekend in 1963 when she committed suicide.

      The Americans

      Grey Light Theatre

      • Writer: Matthew Freeman (one of nytheatre.com's People of the Year 2004)
      • Director: Georgina Guy
      • Designer: Hilary Statts
      • Cast: Matthew Bulgo, William Fysh & Jack Farthing

      Presented as part of Grey Light Productions' series of contemporary American writing, in conjunction with the New York Metropolitan Playhouse.

      One young man sitting alone in his room writes a poem that in a moment of unexplainable magic causes his apartment to explode. In another part of town another young man finds his windows blown in by the blast. Downtown a third steps out onto the street to find himself covered with white plaster.

      With the identity of their hometown and of themselves under scrutiny, all three begin a search for the source of the disaster.


Gallery

Things I've Seen and Made by Ben, Age 30

by Ben Hathaway
Dates
Tuesday 11 March 2008 - Thursday 13 March 2008

An exhibition of work including oil paintings, cartoons, photographs and other follies, all made in the artist's small London flat, exploring the fight against the tedium and drudgery of modern life…

Ben Hathaway studied at Camberwell College of Art, London College of Fashion and the London Metropolitan University.

The exhibition includes Ben's collection of The Cat From Mars Pocket Cushions.

Theatre

The Harbour

by Limbik

Dates
Wednesday 5 March 2008 - Friday 7 March 2008

A child born as a fish; a woman trying to escape her past; sailors lost at sea. Set in an unnamed harbour town, this bold new show puts a contemporary spin on old stories of the sea, colliding a cast of characters all searching for shelter in a world past redemption. Combining elements of magic realism and the grotesque, the company uses the tools of physical theatre, puppetry and live music to bring this darkly comic world to life.


Director
Ben Samuels
Lighting Designer
Jason Kirk
Cast
Juan Ayala, Sarah Johnson, Sarah Moody, Ben Samuels & Will Pinchin

Press

"The impressive and skilful ensemble who devised The Harbour were as flexible as their props. It can often be difficult to integrate dialogue with a physical performance as one discipline can conflict with the other; however The Harbour united both perfectly" www.britishtheatreguide.info
Theatre

Seneca's Oedipus

by Leonie Kubigsteltig in association with Cherub Productions
adapted by Ted Hughes

Date
Thursday 28 February 2008
Supported by
Geothe-Institut London

This work is a first collaboration between Leonie Kubigsteltig (London) and Simone Younossi (Berlin). Together they are searching for new forms of experimental chorus work, based on its strong tradition in German theatre.


Director
Leonie Kubigsteltig
Chorus work
Simone Younossi
Lighting Designer
Boris Kahnert
Cast
Marcel Bruneau, Justin Davey Mitchell, Nick Richards, Caroline Thompson & Cath Whitefield
Dance

After They Left & Rumpelstiltskin

by Silversmith Dance Theatre

Two exciting and fresh pieces of dance theatre combining innovatively expressive movement with live electronic, instrumental, and environmental sounds created by award-winning composer John Chambers.

Dates
Thursday 13 December 2007 - Saturday 15 December 2007

SILVERSMITH DANCE COMPANY 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.

After They Left

A woman feels that her house and its memories are too painful, so she decides to move on... and live in her garden for a while. Come and peek over the fence as she is left to ponder on her loneliness, and indulge in her imagination and environment.

Rumpelstiltskin

This classic Grimm Brothers tale is re-told through dark physical imagery and atmospheric music. Two dancers and four musicians conjure a world of power, greed, and sinister magic. A world in which a living thing is more precious than any treasure.


Dance

Meet Me In The…

 

An evening of collective arts selected by three female choreographers

Dates
Thursday 13 December 2007 - Saturday 15 December 2007
Art accompanying 'Meet Me In The' by
Alec Moors

Marks That Behold

Sylvia Ferreira Dance Company

  • Director & Choreographer: Sylvia Dos Santos Ferreira
  • Musician: John Chambers
  • Dancers: Lorraine Smith, Jacqui Johnston & Wang Chen Chang

Marks that Behold has enticed and embodied the dark and light images of the Catholic religion. The work explores the dancers' and choreographer’s interpretation of those images. The piece does not attempt to make a statement about the religion: that is what the audience is there for…

Bäzarre

Being Small Dance

  • Directors: Bruno Mathez, Lizzie Sells & Maria Svensson
  • Performers: Lizzie Sells & Maria Svensson
  • Composer: Benoit Seyrat
  • Film Designer: Bruno Mathez

Being Small Dance’s latest work is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. First performed at Abundance International Dance Festival in Sweden in 2007, this new adaptation sees two dancers and a video artist experimenting more abstractly with the notions of dreams and surrealism.

Six Litres of Air

cupboarddances

  • Choreographer: Katja Nyqvist
  • Composer: Jacob Shirley
  • Performers: Katja Nyqvist & Jacob Shirley

Six Litres of Air explores the idea of breath as a rhythmic stimulus for movement and sound. It is a collaboration between a dancer and a musician playing the electric cello.


Theatre

Pelleas & The Lady of Shalott

by Revolving Doors Theatre

Dates
Tuesday 20 November 2007 - Saturday 8 December 2007

The legends of King Arthur are Britain’s version of the Greek Myths: big stories that are psychologically compelling and dramatically visual in their motifs and language.

Revolving Doors Theatre focuses on two such legends: Pelleas, the young knight's tale of love & betrayal, and The Lady of Shalott, the ill-fated maiden who falls in love with Sir Lancelot.

Pelleas

  • Written & directed by Louise Harley
  • Cast: Charlotte Ammerlaan, Martina Clarke, Jamie Debbage, Jago Northcote, Caroline Partridge & Patrick Ross

The Lady of Shalott

  • Poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
  • Adapted & directed by Aaron Paterson
  • Cast: Elizabeth Boag, Bodelle de Ronde, Anne Rabbitt & Heather Saunders

Dance

Memories of Three

 

Dates
Thursday 15 November 2007 - Saturday 17 November 2007

In a Place of Uncertainty

  • Choreography: Chris Clow
  • Performers: Lauren Aizlewood, Andrej Gubanov & Minami Tamagawa
  • Music: Oli Newman

What happens to the world around you, when someone you love becomes a distant memory? In this beautifully crafted trio, three stories are told through an innovative work that blends dance, music, film & lighting.

Human Echo

  • Choreography: Maria Korsnes
  • Music: Rob Colquhoun
  • Lighting: Gregor Knuppel

An atmospheric study of home, of memories of a visual landscape & thoughts about the environment we now find ourselves in. Drawing on personal memories and experiences alike, layers of textures and moods are presented to the viewer by moments of stillness and thought.

Somewhere Between a Self and An Other

  • Choreography: Hagit Yakira
  • Performers: Yarit Dor & Hagit Yakira
  • Lighting: Hagit Yakira
  • Costume Design: Ruggiero Desantis
    • This is a performance based on a lengthy experiment which combined self exploration and movement research with aspects of Lacan's post modern theory on self identity. The work explores inter-personal relationships in a Lacanian context (amongst other post modernists) and discusses how relationships of oneself with an other and oneself with his own memory (memories), influence our individual search for identity.


Press

"A contemporary dance treat" www.extraextra.org
Gallery

Photographic exhibition accompanying 'Memories of Three'

by Julia Burnstein
Dates
Thursday 15 November 2007 - Saturday 17 November 2007

Burstein's dance photography evolves from her experience both as a photographer and a dancer.

She photographs the performing arts, collaborating with choreographers and dancers, creating still images that convey not just the physical aspect of the performance, but the experience as a whole, comprised of all senses; the rhythm; the space; the relationship between the dancers; the relationship between dancers and space; watching the dancers, witnessing the moment, translating and capturing the essence of a transitory creation.

Theatre

Behind the Mirror

“An exhilarating piece of theatre” Metro ★★★★

Dates
Tuesday 23 October 2007 - Saturday 10 November 2007

Man loves Woman, Woman loves Man - but Man has a mirror image, hell-bent on ruining everything…

A fast, comic and touching love story - without words.

Behind the Mirror had an Edinburgh run in August 2008 and was nominated for a Total Theatre Award.

Theatre Adinfinitum website

Theatre Ad Infinitum became an associate company at The Bush Theatre earlier this year.


Directed and conceived by
George Mann (Best Solo Performer for "The Odyssey", The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence 2009)
Devised & performed by
George Mann, Deborah Pugh & James Turpin
Photo by
Adeline Ishiomin

Press

"The Lecoq-trained mime ensemble Theatre ad Infinitum have moved to the front of the pack, their vivid mix of theatre, clowning and storytelling gaining them critical acclaim as well as a Fringe Best award for Behind The Mirror" The Guardian
Theatre

Uncle Barry

by Grey Light Productions

"Every man has a potential moustache. It's just that I've embraced the potential"

A new comedy by Cameron Mackintosh Award-winning writer Sam Thomas

Dates
Tuesday 2 October 2007 - Saturday 20 October 2007
Supported by
Unity Theatre Trust

Barry is unemployed & angry at the goings-on at the Neighbourhood Watch. This time he thinks he has the answer. Barry has decided to set up his own state. In a pathetic attempt at living-room nation-building, Barry enlists the help of his best friend Mickey and his nephew Pecks, who is brought in to oversee matters of national security. With no idea what they're doing, and no future thought beyond the opening ceremony, this three-man attempt at democracy results in flags being made, anthems being sung and life-long friendships being tested…

"We - Michael Jeremy Davis and Barry NoMiddleName Parfitt - I'm not going to tell you what will happen. But what I will say is this: I've hired a heavy"


Directed by
Georgina Guy
Designed by
Hilary Statts
Lighting by
Martin Ellsmore
Cast
Lee Bane, Philip Brook, Audrey Leybourne & Matthew Ward

Press

"Well-crafted study in male incompetence" The Stage
Theatre

Shall I Kill Mama

by Marysal Productions

A bitter-sweet comedy by Trevor Thomas

Dates
Tuesday 11 September 2007 - Saturday 29 September 2007
Post show discussions
Chaired by psychotherapist Jadzia Kopiel

- I’m dying Bunter. Just a matter of when.
- What makes you think God’s ready for you yet?
- He’s ready. Told Him I’m coming.
- You told God?
- Yep, and He told me to call you.

Mama may be frail but she’s also feisty. Who will win this mother of all battles?

"A Mama wants to die. She needs her son’s help. He should help, plain and simple. It’s his duty. What’s all this about motivation? I wanted a son, I get Hamlet…"


Writer
Trevor Thomas
Director
Anton Phillips
Lighting
Paul Micah
Cast
Lavern Archer & Victor Romero Evans

Press

"Thomas provides a well-wrought drama; Archer crowns it with a star turn" www.reviewsgate.com
Gallery

Tea is Essential at Afternoon Meetings

by Team
Dates
Friday 13 July 2007 - Friday 17 August 2007

"The innovative design group Team" The Guardian

A selection of self-initiated projects including:

A proposal to the British Wind Energy Association to establish the image of wind-farms as a quintessential part of the British countryside;

An advertising campaign called 'Boycott Oxfam';

A soundtrack for the east of England;

A series of products that answer needs generated around the cigarette break phenomenon;

The Vending Machine Project: a vending machine that makes you consider whether it should be your responsibility to put the good of society above your own interests.

Theatre

Writers At Work

 

Rehearsed readings by the writers and directors of tomorrow

Dates
Tuesday 3 July 2007 - Saturday 7 July 2007

Werfel Vs Odets

  • Writer: Michaela Ronzini
  • Translator: Penny Black
  • Director: Christopher Gutmann
  • Cast: Saul Reichlin & Tom Sykes
    • Los Angeles 1943: Franz Werfel has written a play based on his personal experiences in exile from the ever increasing expansion of the Nazis. The United States Theatre Guild brings in former leading New York playwright Clifford Odets to give the play a 'make-over' to appeal to American audiences. In this fictional account of an actual event, who will win this battle for Broadway?

      Good Hands

      • Writer: Emily Hunka
      • Director: Emma Hewitt
      • Cast: Sian Breckin, Laura Glover, Gareth Richardson, Simon Ryerson, Alex Watson, Fiona Whitelaw & Ben Wigzell

      A child is taken away from its family. Better off? Or in some imaginable danger in the hands of people that think they know best?

      A look at the intricacies of family relationships, how children are cared for and when things are taken too far.

      God Explodes Laughing

      • Writer: Dorit Makleff
      • Director: Ellie Joseph
      • Cast: Matthew Delgaram-Nejad , Leanne Hall, Jessica Knight, Sam Lester, Robert Pearce & Julie Sandiford

      Part love story, part dreamlike soul-searching, God Explodes Laughing invites us to consider free will versus predestination through the lives of Udi, an Israeli photographer who lost his legs as a young soldier, and Lora, a British news reporter who travels the world telling other people’s stories instead of living her own.

      The Defence

      • Writer: Duncan Gates
      • Director: Serena B Robins

      A young man is accused of killing a police officer, but after the dust has settled, who is really on trial? A play about love, evil, innocence and belief, where accusation is easy and defence is the hard part.

      Experiments with Chai

      • Writer/Director: Serena B Robins

      A group of friends reunite after ten years and discover how differently their lives have changed. What painful secrets are shared over a cup of 'Chai'? And what courageous choices have to be made?