A Family Business 

Thu 15^th Feb | Full £12 | Conc £8 | Age 14+

A show about how not to blow up the planet

Written and performed by Chris Thorpe
Directed by Claire O’Reilly
Developed with Rachel Chavkin and Lekan Lawal

We don’t really talk about nuclear weapons much.
Even though they accompany us everywhere.
Invisible guests in cafés, on the shelves of supermarkets, in line at the cash machine.
Guests that could destroy all of that and more in a second.

A Family Business is about diplomats, activists, and a journey to change the world. If these weapons could wipe out all our tomorrows, then why aren’t we all talking about them today?

“… the words are eloquent, essential and powerful, and the performance full of a brilliant, prowling precision…” (Status)

Scotsman Fringe First Award Winner 2018

In partnership with Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg. Supported by Warwick Arts Centre and using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

“A Family Business is brilliant. A show which encourages us to be part of the urgent conversation and action for the sake of present and future generations. A show full of hope and humanity”

Véronique Christory, Senior Arms Adviser for the International Committee of the Red Cross at the United Nations

chinaplatetheatre.com

Image credit: Ahmed ElHassan | Andreas J. Etter © Rebecca Lupton & Ivan Pieri Gonzalez

Feel Me

Thu 22^nd  Feb | Full £12 | Conc £8 | Age 12+

Who do you care about and why?

Feel Me is a new interactive theatre show from The Paper Birds, UK leaders in devised verbatim theatre. Feel Me asks, via your mobile phone, who and what you care about from the stories unfolding live on stage in front of you.

A stunning mixture of live performance, film, projection, dance and music, Feel Me will explore the different lenses through which we are told, and connect to stories in the modern digital world. 

Worlds unfold from backpacks, and tents are constructed and dismantled again, each scene and location temporary, like a transient teenager in search of safety, acceptance and a new place to call home. An interrogation of empathy, Feel Me asks what makes us ‘feel’ for another person, as we journey through landscapes and across borders, through weather storms and paperwork, changing seasons, endless queues and interviews.

Please note: All performances have integrated captions

Feel Me is made by The Paper Birds in Partnership with Theatre Centre. A Co-Production with New Wolsey Theatre. Supported by Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja and The Point, Eastleigh. Funded by British Council International Collaboration & Arts Council England.

thepaperbirds.com

Image credit: The Paper Birds

Toy Stories   

Thu 29^th Feb | Full £12 | Conc £8 | Age 16+

Meet Chris

Chris is a 54-year-old artist financially trapped in the house where he grew up. The garden shed has become his studio, where he tries to create works of art that will allow him to come to terms with the absurdities of modern living – or else to escape his daily life entirely. 

Chris now turns to the stage – where,  in this new show he shares stories of his latest projects, from his efforts to make friends with Essex taxi drivers to his quest to understand more about his Polish heritage (without speaking a word of Polish). Toy Stories sees Chris dig up some metaphorical ghosts of the past, as well as a real German tank dating from the Second World War, and reminds us how little has changed in populist politics between then and now. 

Part stand-up comedy, part performance lecture, Toy Stories takes the audience on an irreverent adventure through art, contemporary politics and twentieth- century history. 

Reviews of past performances, Antarctica and All Roads Lead to Rome:

***** live art in all its glory

Three Weeks in Edinburgh

***** takes us from the personal to the political, across a great swathe of 20th Century history

The Scotsman

**** an hour of charismatic storytelling

Broadway Baby

chrisdobo.com

Image credit: Ashley Day 

2024 Spring Tour

Thu 11^th Apr | Full £8 | Conc £5

3Fall Dance Company welcomes you to their 2024 Spring Tour

Following the success of running a non-profit dance company for over ten years, 3Fall are excited to present an evening of contemporary dance works from renowned choreographers Abi Mortimer (Lila Dance), Kieran Page and Ashley Jordan (Ascension Dance).

This is a dynamic and diverse programme drawing on the choreographer’s styles. Contemporary pieces ranging from exploring life within a virtual reality, reimagining Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’, and deepending human connections to one another. Alongside a showcase created by emerging choreographers within the 3Fall Dance Company.

3falldancecompany.co.uk

Image credit: Bryony Jackson