THE BLUE Elephant Theatre has announced its programme for Autumn 2014 and it includes a wide range of new work by talented emerging artists and companies.
The season opens with In Transit from Artichoke Theatre, which runs from October 2 to October 10 at 8pm. Tickets: £10 (£8 concessions, £7 Southwark residents). Early Bird Offer: £8 tickets available until September 18.
In Transit is a voyage through the mind of Ella, who has lost all perception of where and who she is. Desperate to re-learn her past, she brings us into a world full of strange characters where she will unlock the secrets of her broken mind and confront the hardest moment of her life.
A highly physical one-woman show accompanied by original live music, In Transit is a tragicomical tale which captures moments of sheer beauty alongside nuggets of sweet and well-observed humour.
Artichoke Theatre is an award-winning Brighton-based company, run by Chilean sisters Solange and Florence Leon. Conceived by people from different continents and cultures, In Transit was first presented at the 2013 Brighton Fringe where it took second place in the awards for Best International Show.
There will be a post-show discussion on Thursday, October 9.
Next comes SEA ArtsFest Scratch on October 17 at 8pm. Tickets: £4.
SEA ArtsFest is the first Southeast Asian arts festival in the UK, championing and developing the work of the artists of Southeast Asia and those inspired by Southeast Asia. SEA ArtsFest brings together artists, practitioners, makers and thinkers to increase awareness of SEA Arts and its audience base.
The SEA ArtsFest Scratch is a new platform introduced this year by the SEA ArtsFest to provide a platform for new work inspired by Southeast Asia or by emerging Southeast Asian artists. The scratch looks to showcase new works in progress and support them to develop further.
Next it’s the turn of Unstable Table Double Bill. A double bill of works in progress by emerging company Unstable Table, it runs from October 21 to October 25 at 8pm. Tickets: £10 (£8 concessions. £7 Southwark residents). Early Bird Offer: £8 tickets until October 7.
In Lone Rangers one female human discovers she is not alone. So does the other. A physical comedy, Lone Rangers combines clowning, monsters and a lifetime supply of shaving equipment. How will our heroines survive the first chapter of their perilous adventure?
James Ivens directs Janet Etuk and Lily Levin, who also devised the piece.
In One for Sorrow Keith has been awake for six days. He will do just about anything to avoid sleeping. He’s been talking to his grandmother, even though she’s dead, and now he wants to talk to us. One for Sorrow is a darkly comic audience with a man confronting his lifelong nightmares.
One for Sorrow is written by James Ernest, directed by Lily Levin (with assistant director Janet Etuk) and performed by Richard Foster-King.
Lily Levin and Janet Etuk founded Unstable Table in 2013 after graduating from East 15 Acting School in 2012. The company aim to bridge the gap between comedy and tragedy. Commenting on their choice of double bill, they describe Lone Rangers as “a keyhole into the world of the wildly absurd and the very real” and James Ernest’s One for Sorrow as “sensitively written, but will leave you feeling quite bruised and battered”.
There will be a post-show discussion on Wednesday, October 22.
The double bill is followed by The Lonely Room, which runs from October 29 to October 31 at 8pm. Tickets: £7.50 (£6 concessions& £5 Southwark residents). Early Booking Offer: £6 tickets available until October 15.
The Lonely Room is an enchanting mime duet by Eloise Carles and Flavia Bertram telling the story of two women trapped in the in-between of life. This story is inspired by our inner passive dreamers. We all know them: they articulate their desires, but take no real action towards fulfilling their imagined adventures. Through the language of corporeal mime and dance set to an atmospheric score by Michael Neo, the duo create a timeless world of fears, anxieties, dreams and – most importantly – hope.
The Lonely Room is presented as a work-in-progress.
Eloise Carles performed for four years with Emmanuel Oger’s company Le Jour Se Lève, before studying at the International School of Corporeal Mine and joining Le Theatre de L’Ange Fou for one season.
Flavia Bertram is trained in corporeal mime and has performed with Twisted Hip, OneTaste Cabaret and OneTaste Theatre’s Buster’s Silver Screen Daydreams. Most recently she has co-devised Tack-On Tours in association with the London Festival of Architecture and In TRANSIT Festival.
Michael Neo is a composer, lyricist, sound designer and recordist. His work includes Flatmates V Zombies (Camden Fringe 2013 top picks), Milk Teeth (International Physical Theatre Festival 2013) and recording stand-up comedian Yianni in binaural audio.
Next up is Cycles of the Southern Wild from TailSpin, which runs from November 4 to November 8 at 8pm. Tickets: £7 (£6 concessions. £5 Southwark residents). Early Booking Offer: £6 tickets available until October 21.
In November 2012, Cat Gerrard began a journey across America by bicycle. She soon learned that 2,767 miles is not just a journey on a map: it’s a journey into our own depths.
Travelling across swamp and desert, stretched out and blown about by forces outside and in, she discovered how to stay still at full tilt. Join Cat (performer) and cyclist and musician Belinda Sherlock (percussionist) as they interclash and rhythmically mash storytelling and percussion, using only their voices, bodies and bicycles.
“Cat Gerrard has taken the art of the personal narrative to a new dimension in Cycles of the Southern Wild, it is woven cleverly into fragments of myth and folklore…She invites us as audience to go with her, and it is easy to say yes”. Clare Muireann Murphy, Storyteller.
There will be a post-show discussion on Wednesday, November 5.
Cycles of the Southern Wild is followed by The Son of Heaven, the Servant of God & the Map of the World. From Tattooed Potato, it runs from November 11 to November 15 at 8pm. Tickets: £6 (£5 concessions. £4 Southwark residents). Early Bird Offer: £5 tickets available until October 28.
Beijing, 1582. An Italian Jesuit presents the Emperor of China with a map as tall as a man and twice as wide, one of the first ever to show the whole world, old and new, East and West.
Anticipating the internet by four hundred years, two men – one thousands of miles from home, the other in a palace he would never leave – survey the world without taking a step. This is a journey through memory and imagination to discover whether home is a place or something we carry within ourselves.
Physical Theatre Company Tattooed Potato return to Blue Elephant Theatre with their work-in-progress production of The Son of Heaven, the Servant of God & the Map of the World. Their production of The Nightmare Dreamer ran at the Blue Elephant in June 2013 and in Washington in 2012.
The piece is directed by John Michael MacDonald and performed and devised by Gerard Alvarez, Melissa Phillips, James Riccetto and Teele Uustani.
There will be a post-show discussion on Wednesday, November 12.
Next comes Scratches from Spare Tyre – on November 16 at 6pm. Tickets: £6.
Gavin Dent directs provocative and abrasive new writing by three emerging artists aged 70+. Writers explore ageing: looking back, looking forward, looking towards death. Scratches challenges prejudice and celebrates diversity.
Spare Tyre is one of the UK’s leading participatory arts charities. They have over 35 years of experience of using and making theatre that enables voiceless communities and individuals to share and celebrate their untold stories.
Finally comes MYTHS from Hammer and Tongs Theatre, running from November 18 to December 6 at 8pm. Tickets: £12.50 (£10 concessions. £8.50 Southwark residents and previews – Tuesday, November 18 and Wednesday, November 19). Early Bird Offer: £10 tickets available until November 4.
Join the Fates for an evening of hilarity in the underworld as Hammer and Tongs Theatre take on the myths of Ancient Greece, accompanied by live music. Dodge snakes with Medusa’s stylists, chug protein shakes with the goddess of war, and glimpse the dinner-party squabbles on Mount Olympus that really started the Trojan War.
MYTHS is Hammer & Tongs Theatre’s second production, following the success of Arabian Nights which played at the 2012 Camden Fringe and at Blue Elephant Theatre in December 2013.
MYTHS is directed by Jennifer Rose Lee, with set design by Beth Heaton.
There will be a post-show discussion on Wednesday, November 26.
For more information or to book, visit www.blueelephanttheatre.co.uk/.