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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
Way Back When...
A playful storytelling performance and workshop for families, created by Blue Elephant Theatre for Black History Month.
Weaving together African and Caribbean folklore and factual history, Way Back When… celebrates the efforts of previous generations, finding inspiration for today.
Tickets are FREE but should be booked in advance to confirm availability.
Suitable for all ages, especially for 6-10.
Performances will take place at:
Peckham Library on Tuesday 22 October at 2pm
Blue Elephant Theatre on Saturday 26 October at 11.30am
Brandon Library on Saturday 26 October at 2pm
Supported by
Hurricane Diaries
Victoria is from Puerto Rico, an island ravaged by a hurricane like none before it. Finding herself in London, she looks back at what it is to be from a place forever changed by violent forces.
As she recalls three major hurricanes that hit the island, this solo show reveals a woman rooted in Latin America, shaped by its history, but living far away from home.
Hurricane Diaries explores the complex relationship an immigrant has with their country of birth, the devastating effects of natural disasters on poverty stricken nations and how colonial regimes affect countries today.
Nuestro pueblo jamás será derrotado, pues generación tras generación parirá héroes y heroínas.
Our country will never be beaten, as generation after generation, we breed heroes.
Pedro Albizu Campos
Hurricane Diaries is written and performed by Amanda Vilanova, a Puerto Rican theatre maker living in London. Her work explores the immigrant experience in the United Kingdom, cultural nostalgia and colonialism.
Reviews
Swish
Swish, swoosh, splosh!
Welcome to the Ocean! Come and join the fun with Dotty, Blue and Olive on the reef – and help them watch out for the strange orange Tangle and other mysterious things that keep appearing in the ocean.
Featuring puppetry, Makaton and plenty of audience interaction, Swish is a playful multisensory exploration of life underwater and the positive ways in which we can reduce plastic in the ocean.
Chica Michelle Concert
Treat yourself to an evening with some of South London’s most exciting new acts.
Chica Michelle Concert is a new platform for emerging artists with their own distinctive and individual style of performance.
Expect music, dance and more in this fresh explosion of talent, headlined by Chica Michelle.
Free refreshments with your ticket.
Doors open at 6pm, with the performances starting at 7pm.
Friday Flop
What happens when you put a bunch of clowns into a theatre with an audience?
Ever feel uneasy in the current climate? Faced with a global tsunami of idiocy in the real world, who will make sense of it all? Clowns have been making the meaningless, the taboo and the unthinkable into digestible fun for millennia. Why would they baulk at the present opportunity?
To laugh or not to laugh, that is the question.
London's international clown company continue their research into what makes clowning happen.
Citizens of Nowhere all trained at the London Clown School in the art of ridiculing themselves and everything else. They are trained to respond to laughter (and its absence) and directed by Jon Davison, one of the world’s leading clown practitioners.
Supported by
Science Adventures
In their top secret lab, the science fictionaries are trying to collect the fizziest, flashiest, most marvellous stories about science! Join them on their quest and maybe they will even tell you a few - if they can get the computer to work!
Stories about the wonders of space, stories about dinosaurs, stories about asking amazing questions. Using specially designed interactive technology, storytelling and puppets, this band of mad scientists have created a delightful show for children aged 5-12 years and adventurous adults!
Don’t miss this special chance to see the show before the science fictonaries head to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival!
*suitable for younger children too.
Coppice Theatre is a Cornwall based company specialising in creating engaging, entertaining and accessible productions that showcase talent, new writing, design and new digital media. We are a collective of practitioners that work across multiple projects and collaborate with various Cornwall based companies. Our work is aimed at young audiences and we all share a love of great storytelling.
Supported by
Trans*Atlantic
Join Dian Cathal, an immigrant of country and gender, in an attempt to prove their hypothesis: that Trans jokes can be funny.
If you laugh, it’s comedy. If they cry, it’s theatre. It may sound binary but heck, it’s always good to know where you stand, right? Trans*Atlantic is a humorous exploration into life beyond the binary. Hailed as Nanette 2.0, the show is Dian Cathal’s first solo performance. You’ll laugh, laugh some more and adjust your perspective.
‘It's rare that a stand up show makes us laugh, cry, and question our ideas of gender but Trans-Atlantic did that and so much more. It's been a month and I still cant stop thinking about it. Shout out to Dian for raising the bar.’ Spoiler Magazine UK
Miller & Salmon: Genesis
The Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene of sketch comedy will soon arrive on the moors of Edinburgh - following a stop at ye olde Camberwell. Hold tight as you go on the bumpiest, most dazzling experience of your life with this iconic, potty-mouthed pair.
Fresh out of Soho Theatre's Young Company and Sketch Off! semi-finals, expect big fat massive laughs, synchronised swimming, Russian meat vendors, Dirty Diana Spencer, the late great Marilyn Monroe, A LOT of lip-syncing, choreography and sexy Bette Midler. Don't miss out on what will surely be the birth of two outstanding, beautiful, sexually available comedy legends / big fat huns. Following London previews, Miller & Salmon: Genesis will play Just the Tonic at the Charteris Centre August 1st - 25th (not 3rd or 12th), 4.40pm, as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Since training at National Youth Theatre and Soho Theatre’s Young Company, Lucy Miller and Benjamin Salmon have been writing and performing together, on the quest to become the comedy equivalent of the Spice Girls. They have performed at venues including Soho Theatre, Rosemary Branch Theatre, Hackney Showroom, and were semi-finalists of this year’s Leicester Square Theatre’s Sketch Off Competition.
Prepare to be amazed.
YAATRA
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British Indian artist, Jaivant Patel presents a captivating evening of solo Kathak and Contemporary dance.
Rooted in his own experience of being a homosexual man of different cultural heritages, Jaivant offers a fresh perspective on South Asian LGBTQ+ narratives, faith and spirituality. The evening celebrates two cultures and the intersectionality of living in one, while paying tribute to traditions, heritage and often untold stories of another.
There will be Q&A at the end of the performance with Jaivant Patel and Southwark LGBT Network.
Jaivant Patel is an award-winning independent dance artist, cultural producer and choreographer based in Wolverhampton. He is artistic director of Jaivant Patel Dance. Jaivant Patel Dance makes work that ‘challenges the complexities of inherited notions, perceptions and stereotypes surrounding British-Asian identity'.
YAATRA is supported by Arts Council England with seed commissions from MAC Birmingham, Arena Theatre, Dance4, Gem Arts, Creative Black Country, Black Country Touring & SHOUT Festival.
Reviews
Metro
Supported by
How Bright She Must Have Been
Charlotte and Tom are two siblings struggling to cope with the death of their mother. Their Father, Harry is also battling with alcoholism as he tries to pick up the pieces of his fragmented family. Their lives become distorted as they exist in alternate realities, trying to escape the way they are feeling, which leads them further and further down a path to destruction. They are aided by the people they meet on the way who are all battling with secrets of their own.
This coming of age tale is a contemporary take on a greek tragedy and battles the themes of love, loss, sex, grief, friendship and what it takes to be a teenager in the modern day.
DCO12 believe in creating epic theatre that breaks the boundaries between reality and illusion to provide audiences with something to truly think about. If theatre cannot help bring change to the world and truly effect the people it reaches, then there is no point in creating it at all. DCO12 want to be a part of something that is much larger and try to tackle some of the hardest hitting themes and issues within society.
Ironing Out
مسرحية عن الغربة والحي ... فيها شعر وغناء بالعربي والإنجليزي
What happens when you are forced to leave your home? Will you find community? Will you find peace or more struggle? What about those who didn’t make it across the sea? What about Ahmed? And those who came before us?
Ironing Out is a play centered around an Ironing Shop, a place where dreams & realities past, present and future collide. People from different walks of life come by searching for answers, looking for loved ones, or to sit listening to the news; reliving lost revolutions; ironing a school shirt or just hanging out.
However, the Ironing Shop stands in the way of the brutal regeneration machine that is eating up the city. No one knows how long the shop will last or how the community surrounding it will respond…
Ironing Out combines physical theatre, dance, shadow theatre, hip hop and poetry.
Based on real life experiences and wild imagination, it explores young migrants’ resilience in the shadow of mental health, exile, racism and displacement.
It has been created by Alleyway Radical Theatre, a collective of artists from Palestine, Hackney, Kashmir, Egypt, Spain, Japan and beyond.
Presented as part of Refugee Week 
Supported by
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A Splash of Vintage
A solo show of a selection of semi abstract portraits in acrylic on canvas, on a vintage 1940s to 1950s theme.
Monday to Friday: 14:00 – 19:30
Open as part of Camberwell Arts Festival Open Studios Saturday 22nd June, 5.30pm- 8pm, and Sunday 23rd June, 3pm – 6pm.
This exhibition is FREE.
Wild Shenanigans
Wild Shenanigans is a festival of clowning, slapstick and mayhem. Join us for a week of wild comedy created by some of the UK’s most talented idiots. With cabaret, clowning, stand up, sketch, music and more, there is something for everyone. Come and laugh at comedy in all its ridiculous forms with the infamous stage diva Nina Divina from Tuttifrutti cabaret, Russian clown Julia Masil (Pete Nash Comedy Award Winner), Viggo Venn the Viking (Best Comedy Award Winner, Adelaide Fringe) and many more!
Who’s up for some Wild Shenanigans?
Tragic Scenes of Legendary women where snakes were (kind of) present
18th & 19th June
Two clowns. Some legendary women. Lots of snakes. A guaranteed tragedy.
Join Nina Divina - actor extraordinaire - and her faithful assistant Lucia Bombilla as they attempt to stage the most tragic scenes of legendary women...and snakes.
Expect fierce flamenco dancing, seductive apple munching and that classic hit song we all know and love: “I’m not a woman, I’m a snake!”. An anarchic, silly, fun-filled hour of clowning and cabaret that celebrates all things woman (and some things snake).
Mighty Boosh with Smack the Pony’s sly feminism all wrapped up in one glamorous clown cabaret.
Devised by Nina Divina and Lucia Bombilla.
A Mouths of Lions and Tuttifrutti co-production presented as part of Wild Shenanigans comedy festival.
Love songs to Guinea Pigs
20th June
Award winning comedian and clown Elf Lyons presents a surreal tale of love and loneliness. In the style of a 1980s Elton John rock concert.
In October 2018, Elf was taken to hospital and told it was best she never perform again.
After months lying on her back and recovering from spinal surgery, Elf had to rethink what she was going to do*. This is the show she devised in response : A work-in-progress show about being a work-in-progress.
Music, Mime, Clowning and entirely true stories, join Elf as she embodies her inner Elton on an absurd narrative of love, heartbreak, hospitals, friendship, romance, re-learning your own body and rodents.
This is the perfect show to take a tinder date to, an ex, a friend who is going through a difficult divorce, that guy you know from your book group, your step-mum as an attempt to ‘bond’ and indeed your work team on a social outing. Or just come on your own and be a legend.
(*One of the things Elf DID decide to do was rescue two Guinea Pigs.)
We Must Live
21st June
Julia Masli and Tatiana Collet-Apraxine AKA The Pushkinettes present their London premiere of "We Must Live"
Two absolute idiots host a traditional Russian state funeral for Anna Karenina. You are invited, along with Queen Elizabeth II; Frida Kahlo; Tsar Alexander II, Joan of Arc, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Barack Obama and many more.
This buoyantly desperate, epic, ridiculous show merges clowning, physical theatre and Russian classics.
Viggo the Viking - CANCELLED
We apologise, however, due to unfortunate circumstances tonight’s show Viggo the Viking has been CANCELLED.
22nd June
Venn presents his work-in-progress of Viggo the Viking.
Best Comedy winner, Brighton Fringe 2016 (Zach & Viggo). Best Comedy nominee, Fringe World 2018 (Pepito). From the deep forests and tall mountains of Norway comes Viggo the Viking, the dumbest viking in the world. A new show from Gaulier-trained clown Viggo Venn. 'My cheeks were aching with laughter' ★★★★★ (FringeGuru.com). 'I laughed so much my face hurt' ****1/2 (Latest). 'Chaotic Masterpiece' ★★★★ (List).
Tragic Scenes of Legendary women where snakes were (kind of) present
Two clowns. Some legendary women. Lots of snakes. A guaranteed tragedy.
Join Nina Divina - actor extraordinaire - and her faithful assistant Lucia Bombilla as they attempt to stage the most tragic scenes of legendary women...and snakes.
Expect fierce flamenco dancing, seductive apple munching and that classic hit song we all know and love: “I’m not a woman, I’m a snake!”. An anarchic, silly, fun-filled hour of clowning and cabaret that celebrates all things woman (and some things snake).
Mighty Boosh with Smack the Pony’s sly feminism all wrapped up in one glamorous clown cabaret.
Presented as part of the Wild Shenanigans Comedy Festival.
The Rebirth of Meadow Rain
Meadow is throwing a party to celebrate her new life.
Expect a rip-roaring soirée of games, dancing, more games and one top-secret present! So leave your morals at the door and your kids at home.
Please note: guests arriving with gifts (e.g. fish food, rubber gloves and any parents/partners/colleagues you find moderately irritating*) will receive special treatment.
This darkly comic tale, exploring themes of emotional abuse, is brought to you by the award-winning creators of fringe sell-out show So It Goes.
‘A gem’ **** Evening Standard on So It Goes.
*List not exhaustive.
The show was made with support from the Shoreditch Town Hall and is presented as a work-in-progress performance.
On The Run are delighted to be partners with UK SAYS NO MORE, a national awareness raising campaign, working together with their 350+ partners, to change societal narrative towards Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence.
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