Blue Elephant Theatre – 2012 Spring Season
A “Made in BET” Season
“Thinking big for a little venue, Blue Elephant Theatre in Camberwell presents a cross-platform programme that takes in dance, theatre, music and art, usually all mashed together” Time Out
The Blue Elephant Theatre announces a season of new and exciting work, developed and nurtured with its committed in-house support. Three productions – The Fantasist, Machines for Living and The Fantastical Adventures of [Not] Being With You – had work-in-progress incarnations at the Blue Elephant in 2011. Lazarus Theatre Company and choreographers Annarita Mazilli and Katja Nyqvist return to create work in its welcoming environment while for ConcertTheatre and visual artists, Suzie Balazs and Jennifer Stokes, it is their first experience of the bespoke support the theatre offers.
A characteristically Blue Elephant season, the work on offer is ambitious, diverse and engaging. All the work is being created by emerging artists and companies, from a variety of art forms and approaches, with the encouragement and assistance of Artistic Director, Jasmine Cullingford,. Jasmine says “This season, we are delighted to give a taste of even more art-forms than usual to our adventurous audiences, taking in theatre, contemporary dance, classical music, puppetry, visual and video art. Ranging from a 16-strong ensemble Greek tragedy to our two men and a suitcase piece of new writing, our eclectic programming continues to defy description!”
Shortlisted for OffWestEnd’s Award for Best Production for Young People in 2011 for Noah’s Ark, the friendly and personable Blue Elephant Theatre has an enviable knack for spotting and developing London’s rising talent. It was there that David Mercatali and Ben Monks of Supporting Wall were first teamed up (Director and Producer of last year’s off-West End hit Tender Napalm) and others who were supported early in their careers include Levantes Dance theatre (Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award-winner), designer Mamoru Iriguchi (Evening Standard Award-winner) and George Mann (The Stage Best Solo Performer Award-winner).
Listings Information:
Venue: Blue Elephant Theatre, 59a Bethwin Rd, Camberwell, SE5 0XT (entrance on Thompson Ave)
Nearest tube: Oval (Northern Line)
Wheelchair accessible
Box Office: 020 7701 0100
www.blueelephanttheatre.co.uk
info@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk
Twitter: @BETCamberwell
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Theatre
THE FANTASIST
Theatre Témoin and Cie. Traversière - www.theatretemoin.com
28 February – 17 March
Press Night: Thursday 1 March
“There is a chasm in the pavement. You pretend not to see it. You fall in..."
A re-working of Barbe Bleue, previously shown as a work-in-progress at the Blue Elephant and a ThreeWeeks and The Argus top physical theatre pick at the Brighton Fringe, The Fantasist is an outstanding example of the strengths of collaborative storytelling through devising.
An evocative blend of physical theatre, puppetry and original music tells the story of a woman's battle with the swirl of extreme moods. Struggling with the tricks her mind plays on her, Louise yearns for sleep. Instead, she must take a strange journey with a surprise visitor in this thoughtful and thought-provoking exploration of bipolar disorder.
International ensembles Theatre Témoin and Cie. Traversière, formed by graduates of the London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA), have created and performed new, exciting and socially engaged work all around the world. They previously collaborated on the creation of Ni Ibya Buri Wese ("For Everyone"), performed in Kigali, Rwanda, in commemoration of the 1994 genocide and Theatre Témoin’s Jukai, featuring Japanese Taiko drumming, had a sell-out run at the Blue Elephant in 2010.
Puppet Director Robin Guiver is Movement and Horse Choreography Assistant on War Horse. He was previously a member of the original West End cast of War Horse, playing the hind part of Joey the horse.
Director: Ailin Conant
Puppet Director: Robin Guiver
Devising Cast: Julia Correa, Cat Gerrard and Julia Yevnine
Composer: Milkymee
Puppet Design and Construction: Julia Yevnine and Katerina Damvoglou
Set Designers: Daniel Moss and Giorgio Ritucci
Costume designer: Kirsten Fletcher
Lighting designer: Allan Ramsay
Dates: Tuesday 28 February – Saturday 17 March (Tuesday – Saturday only)
Time: 8pm
Tickets: £9.50 (£7.50 conc. and previews Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 February), £6.50 Southwark residents
Post-show discussions: Tuesdays 6 and 13 March
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Theatre
WOMEN OF TROY AFTER EURIPIDES
Lazarus Theatre Company – www.lazarustheatrecompany.webs.com
20 March – 14 April
Press Night: Thursday 22 March
Euripides’ fierce depiction of the true cost of war
Amidst the slaughter and ruins of Troy, the women wait to be handed out to the victors. Hecuba, Queen of Troy, must confront both a bleak future and Helen, the woman who brought this humiliation to them all. From despair, an all-female ensemble move towards hope and fortitude, through means of a dramatic fusion of text, movement and music.
Ricky Dukes, recent recipient of the Fringe Report’s Best Artistic Director Award for his leadership of Lazarus Theatre Company, looks to Women of Troy to explore the challenge of finding dignity and strength when choice and faith are gone, exploring modern parallels to Euripides’ timeless story of the barbarism of war.
Lazarus Theatre Company are already well-known to Blue Elephant audiences for their reinvigorated and stylish productions of Shakespeare, Schiller and Webster, plaudits for which include Broadway World’s Best Fringe Production Award (Othello, 2010). This is the first time the company has presented Greek drama at the Blue Elephant but their strong, ensemble-based adaptations of Euripides’ work elsewhere in London have received great praise:
“Ricky Dukes’ inventive direction…succeeds in making this 2000 year old play feel fresh”
Helena Rampley, Whatsonstage about Hecuba
“A welcoming show for novices of the classics through its clarity of story-telling and the arresting use of ensemble and spectacle.”
Ed Birch, Fringe Review, about Electra
Costume Designer Emily Stuart returns to the Blue Elephant for the first time since winning the OffWestEnd Award for Best Costume Design in 2011. She started her career at the Blue Elephant, working on two in-house productions shortly after graduating from Wimbledon College of Arts in 2009.
Director and Designer: Ricky Dukes
Costume Designer: Emily Stuart
Dates: Tuesday 20 March – Saturday 14 April (Tuesday – Saturday only)
Times: 8pm (Wednesday matinees at 4pm on 4 and 11 April)
Tickets: £12.50 (£10 conc. and previews Tuesday 20 and Wednesday 21 March), £8.50 Southwark residents
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Classical Music/Theatre
ConcertTheatre - Sonata Movements
ConcertTheatre
17 April – 5 May
Press Night: Thursday 19 April
Exemplifying the possibilities of cross art form collaboration, ‘ConcertTheatre’ combines classical music and theatre to create a new performance experience for the audience with enhanced opportunities to make meaning from what’s onstage.
Sonata Movements is a collective of short pieces, like the repertoire of a concert, exploring the potential form of ‘ConcertTheatre’.
A collaboration between emerging Directors DaDiow Lin and Jude Christian, Designer Gary Thorne (Head of Design at RADA), and An-Ting Chang, doctoral student at the Royal Academy of Music, this will be the first fully-realised production of ‘ConcertTheatre’.
Directors: DaDiow Lin and Jude Christian
Pianist and Music Designer: An-Ting Chang
Designer: Gary Thorne
Costume Design: Nadia Malik
Dates: Tuesday 17 April – Saturday 5 May (Tuesday – Saturday only)
Time: 8pm
Tickets: £13 (£10 conc.), £9 Southwark residents and previews Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 April
Post-show discussions: Wednesdays 25 April and 2 May
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Dance
UNDERFOOT / FOR HOW MUCH?
Katja Nyqvist/Mazzilli Dance Theatre
10 – 19 May
A double-bill of contemporary dance exploring what we share – and what we refuse to share
Underfoot, choreographed and performed by Katja Nyqvist, is a sideways look at our common ground, uncovering fresh perspectives as it zooms and shifts through structures and improvisation.
For How Much?, choreographed by Annarita Mazzilli, is inspired by true stories of forced labour across the world, calling into question the consumer choices which allow such practices to continue. It was originally commissioned by the International Organisation for Migration UK (IOM) as part of their ‘Buy Responsibly’ campaign.
Annarita and Katja have both previously choreographed shows at the Blue Elephant. Lumenis Theatre brought Annarita’s first dance theatre piece, Casa, there in May 2011 (in which Katja performed) while Katja’s association with the theatre dates back to 2007 when she choreographed and performed Six Litres of Air, a collaboration with an electric cello player.
Katja Nyqvist gained her initial dance experience in Finland, later graduating from Laban. As well as being an experienced dance artist and performer, she lectures at a number of London universities, including Roehampton and Birkbeck. She focuses on work which gives attention to presence and the spatiality of performance, making the intimate Blue Elephant an ideal performance space for her.
Annarita Mazzilli came from her native Italy to study Dance at Bretton Hall (University of Leeds), continuing her studies, like Katja, at Laban. She is an associate artist of Dance Physics and La Strada Fashion Circus and co-ordinating the performing arts department for Idea Store Learning. The work of her Mazzilli Dance Theatre Company explores ideas relating to multiculturalism, cultural identity and integration within a society, inspired by her own experiences of fitting into life in England.
Underfoot
Choreography and performance: Katja Nyqvist
Film: Richard Misek and Katja Nyqvist
For How Much?
Choreography: Annarita Mazzilli
Original Music: Andy Higgs
Lighting Designer (for both): Simon McCabe
Dates: Thursday 10 May – Saturday 19 May (Thursdays – Saturdays only)
Time: 8pm
Tickets: £9 (£6 conc.), £4 Southwark residents
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Theatre
MACHINES FOR LIVING
Let Slip
22 May – 16 June
Press Night: Thursday 24 May
Everything man needs can be contained within nine square metres.
A husband and wife, both architects, believe that the ideal home size is nine square metres and design a tower block accordingly. But as the estate they build falls into disrepair and becomes a notorious no-go zone, riot is in the air and the blame falls on them.
Machines For Living is a provocative production about housing, communities and segregation, inspired by the architects of the sixties and seventies who believed tower blocks would create urban utopias. It asks urgent questions about social housing, segregation and the urban landscape. Is the problem the buildings? Or the people in them?
Originating as a ten-minute piece for the Blue Elephant’s scratch night ‘Trunkated’, its thematic concerns have a strong resonance with the local area of the theatre, nestled as it is amongst high-rise tower blocks and just a stone’s throw from Aylesbury Estate, once one of the UK’s most dangerous neighbourhoods.
This is the second theatre production by Let Slip, following the graduation of founder, David Ralfe and Associate Artist, India Banks, from the Jacques Lecoq Theatre School in Paris last year. Their first show, Hamster Town, was part of the 2011 Camden Fringe Festival and reviewed by Naima Khan of Spoonfed as “a great performance by a theatre maker I'll be looking out for in the future”.
Other Lecoq-trained companies to have made their debuts at the Blue Elephant include Theatre Ad Infinitum and Scandimaniacs.
Devising cast includes: David Ralfe, India Banks and Frode Gjerløw
Designer: Christina Hardinge
Dates: Tuesday 22 May – Saturday 16 June (Tuesday – Saturday only)
Time: 8pm
Tickets: £12 (£10 conc.), £8 Southwark residents and previews Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 23 May
Post-show discussions: Tuesdays 29 May, 5 and 12 June
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Visual Arts
Travels in Architecture
Great or even modest buildings are like a string of jewels connecting the world, history and peoples.
Artist Suzie Balazs exhibits a selection of pastels and watercolours depicting buildings she has seen travelling around Britain and the world.
This exhibition runs alongside Machines For Living, providing a counterbalance to its bleaker exploration of architecture and its impact. It is a celebration of interesting and beautiful buildings and the feelings of community they can evoke.
Artist: Suzie Balazs
Dates: Tuesday 22 May – Saturday 16 June (Tuesday – Saturday only, pre- and post-show). Appointments may be arranged in advance during other times.
Admission Free
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Theatre
THE FANTASTICAL ADVENTURES OF [Not] BEING WITH YOU
Blue Elephant Theatre
19 June – 7 July
Press Night: Thursday 21 June
"Our final destination is Final Destination Unknown.
Estimated arrival time: we'll know when we get there."
Join A and B as they embark on “us”, a love story told through games and make-believe. With just two suitcases of props and playful ingenuity, the two men share their cherished, childish and even churlish moments of romance.
This season’s Blue Elephant in-house production, The Fantastical Adventures of [Not] Being With You is an endearingly quirky and original piece of new writing. It was chosen following a successful rehearsed reading last October, marking the start of the relationship between the Blue Elephant and its writer and director, Justen Bennett, who moved to London from his native Canada in 2010.
This is Justen’s third play and, with its story-telling style and elements of physical theatre, it plays with the idea of portraying relationships as we remember them.
The playwright says “We don’t recall relationships by starting at the beginning and walking through a linear story. Instead, we leap from moment to moment in our memory, recalling things they did that we hated, what we loved about them and what it felt like to be with them.”
Writer & Director: Justen Bennett
Dates: Tuesday 19 June – Saturday 7 July (Tuesday – Saturday only)
Time: 8pm
Tickets: £12.50 (£10 conc.), £8.50 Southwark residents and previews Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 June
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Visual Arts
ID=Y?
The Fantastical Adventures of [Not] Being with You also plays with ideas of established gender. Written so that A and B could be either gender, it is only in its performance that gender is embodied.
It will be accompanied by ID=Y?, a video installation by Jennifer Stokes, which suggests that it is within the performativity of everyday life that a person's gender identity and gender expression reveals itself.
The exhibition will run in the Blue Elephant’s gallery/bar space from 19 June to 7 July.
ID=Y? aims to create a real representation of androgynous performativity of women in the UK; reminiscent of the punk DIY film-making of the Riot Grrrl movement. It features self-identified androgynous women exploring their gender through a series of tasks, and asks its viewers to question their own understanding and acceptance of the androgynous, gender identities that form part of our society today.
Artist: Jennifer Stokes
Dates: Tuesday 19 June – Saturday 7 July (Tuesday – Saturday only, pre- and post-show). Appointments may be arranged in advance during other times.
Admission Free
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