Join us for an evening of short, work-in-progress performances and new writing exploring crucial topics. Themes of this evening’s scratch performances include social performance, home, heritage, migration, exile and loneliness.

The night will conclude with a post-performance discussion in the bar and the opportunity to converse casually with the artists.

Programme Line Up

Rati Whispers - a concept that celebrates the cheeky interplay between love, passion and religious devotion. Drawing inspiration from poetry from pre-Colonial India, Rati Whispers explores the intricacies and eccentricities of a unique concept, religious devotion expressed through the romantic liaison between human and the divine. Nikita Menon brings to life the words of enshrouded poets whose works were eclipsed by the conservative Western ideologies during colonisation through the language of Bharatnatyam, a classical Indian dance form originated in Southern India.
The show is a mix of post-verbatim, physical theatre and surrealism and brings together the conceptual/abstract with everyday humour. It plays with the hands as the focal point: thinking about how we use our hands and how we care for them (or not) and what do our hands say about our identities (whether personal or collective).
The story follows Mari whose Greek mum has just passed away. With her mum’s best friend, Nadia, as an extravagant and funny hairdresser leading her, Mari tries to reconnect with her Greekness and her lost mum. Meanwhile her dad has moved on much faster.
Hands On tells the stories of women: stories of sexual assault, of joy, and of the experience of being a migrant- or the child of one over the ages.
“It made me laugh so much”
“The audience participation was so much fun”
“It was really thought-provoking”
Directors: Michael Sookhan and Nasia Papadopoulou
Writer and Performer: Valia Katsi
Dramaturg: Amalia Paschalidi
Set builder: Yijin Li
Designer: Jeffrey Lee
Original music by Malik ElMessiry (MMKN) and Ilias Charalampous
Wanting to Fuck and Have No Body explores gender, the subjugation of women, the hypersexualization of femme bodies and the complicated relationship humans have with sexuality and shame. Katie Burke seeks to question audiences’ experience of intimacy in writing this piece. This piece defines itself by subverting expectations. You won’t be sure whether to laugh, cheer, get radical, or have a crisis in sexuality afterwards. It takes the empowered sexuality that flourishes in the burlesque environment and challenges it by making the audience aware of the commodification of the female body and the insatiable appetite of the male gaze. You’re supposed to be aroused. You’re supposed to feel uncomfortable. You’re supposed to feel empowered. You’re supposed to feel despaired. Or, in the words of the Divinyl’s, “It’s a fine, fine line between pleasure and pain”.
“This is a dispatch from the last theatre still open on this earth: your imagination.”
Stampin' in the Graveyard centres around the figure of Rose—an AI chatbot designed to give advice about the end of the world, from people whose worlds have ended. Throughout the hour, Rose unboxes different memories she has salvaged (and makes up some ‘facts’ in true AI fashion) in a process of collective re-enactment and reflection. The piece uses speculative fiction, soundscapes, poetry and physical theatre. The project draws from our lived experiences of migration and exile—the irrecoverable destruction and cleaving away of our places of belonging—worlds that no longer exist. The piece follows the thread of loss and loneliness that winds through experiences of inherited trauma, displacement, rootlessness, and ecological grief, to investigate pathways towards individual and communal action and healing.
Writer/Performer: Elisabeth Gunawan
Directed by: Matej MatejkaMusic
Arranged by Orest SharakMusic
Composed by Orest Sharak & Jack Parris
Scenography by Mona Camille
Video Design by Elisabeth Gunawan

Gallery

Rati Whispers by Nikita Menon

Hands On by Valia Katsi

Photo Credit: Silas Elliott

Hands On by Valia Katsi

Photo Credit: Silas Elliott

Hands On by Valia Katsi

Photo Credit: Silas Elliott

Hands On by Valia Katsi

Photo Credit: Silas Elliott

Hands On by Valia Katsi

Photo Credit: Silas Elliott

Hands On by Valia Katsi

Photo Credit: Silas Elliott

Stampin' in the Graveyard by Elisabeth Gunawan

Stampin' in the Graveyard by Elisabeth Gunawan

About the Artists

Nikita Menon is a distinguished Singaporean Bharatnatyam artist whose career spans remarkable performances worldwide. Graduating as the youngest student from the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society's Bharatnatyam Diploma program, she has since showcased her talent at prestigious venues like NIDA (Sydney, Australia), The Madras Music Academy, India, and Esplanade Theatre, Singapore. Nikita's contributions to the art form have earned her recognition from renowned publications such as Harper’s BAZAAR Singapore, The Hindu, and National Geographic Asia. Her journey exemplifies a profound commitment to the preservation and elevation of Bharatnatyam's rich heritage on a global stage.
"Valia Katsi is a performer, writer, dancer and a Pisces. She studied International Relations and Arabic (SOAS) during which she explored decolonial theatre practices and has just graduated from the MA Acting course at East 15. Speaking five languages, being from Greece and having spent much time in Egypt, she is interested in work that has a global perspective, specifically in themes around feminism and migration. She has previously performed at venues like the Young Vic, Kiln Theatre, Arcola and Tramshed. She is also a co-founder of Lemon Shed, a theatre company that has had sold out runs of the show ‘BAR’ (co-devised and performed) at Camden and Clapham Fringes. Reviews of that piece included
“Enjoyable, moving, relatable” – London Pub Theatres Magazine"
Instagram: @valiakatsi
Transplanted in London from Arizona right before second lockdown, Katie Burke has just completed her MFA in Actor and Performer Training from Rose Bruford College. Katie found an interest in directing and devising intimacy as theatre artists, and began to train with intimacy professionals to have a foundation in consent based work and performance. Katie is trained in burlesque dance and has been seen on London stages as Calamity Pain. She has used this and her intimacy training as a way of reclaiming the feminine gaze. Her Intimacy Direction has been seen on London stages in productions like "Tangerines" and "1000 Ways the World Will End (& How It Starts Again)". She is excited to premiere her first piece of writing at ASSEMBLE festival!
Elisabeth Gunawan is a critically-acclaimed and award-winning writer and performer, as founder of the artistic collective Saksi Bisou, her work seeks to decolonise, transgress and empower. Her work has been supported by partners including New Diorama (Intervention01), the Royal Court, Barbican Centre (Open Lab), Lighthouse Poole (Sanctuary Program), Shoreditch Town Hall and The Pleasance, among others. SAKSI BISOU is currently developing three new pieces: ’THREE SISTERS: SUBTLE, VAGUE & AMBIGUOUS’ is a dark comedy that explores stories as sites of struggle; ‘PRAYERS FOR A HUNGRY GHOST’ uses the myth of hungry ghosts to uncover the dehumanizing logic of model minority narratives; ‘PROMISED LAND’ explores the loneliness of the immigrant. She is currently conducting her practice-based PhD at Goldsmiths University researching the bouffonesque and the grotesque through the lens of decolonization and intersectional feminism—a research that was rooted in her Developing Your Creative Practice project ‘Myths, Stories and Worlds’ research (née ‘Mythical Storytelling’, 2021) and her residency at Grotowski Institute (2021-2022). She has worked as an actor, performer and deviser with Ad Infinitum, Flabbergast Theatre, and the David Glass Ensemble, and on multiple films with the artist Eelyn Lee.
Website: www.elisabethgunawan.art
Instagram: elisabettygun
Matej Matejka is a multi-award winning movement and theatre practitioner who specializes in opening up the creative potentials of the body, and this comes out in his teaching and directing. Most recently, he was movement director for Flabbergast Theatre's Macbeth (Assembly Roxy - Edinburgh Fringe) and co-director of Saksi Bisou's 'Prayers for a Hungry Ghost' (Barbican Centre) and 'Promised Land' (Bloomsbury Festival) UK. Born and raised in Czecho-Slovakia, curently living in Poland, he was an actor and movement co-trainer with Farm in the Cave studio in Prague from 2000-2005 and Teatr ZAR, Wroclaw, Poland from 2005-2018, where he performed in 'Dark Love Sonnets', 'SCLAVI: Song of an Emigrant', 'Anhelli: The Calling' and 'Caesarean Section: Essays on Suicide', winnning Herald Angel and Total Theatre awards in Edinburgh in 2006 and 2012. He is the founder and leader of Studio Matejka, a performance research studio and company under the auspices of the Grotowski Institute, in which he directed and created multiple theatre productions, short films and interactive performances among others 'Awkward Happiness or Everything I Don’t Remember About Meeting You', 'Charmolypi', site-specific projects including 'Angry Man: Variations in Defense of Anger' nominated for The Best OFF 2018/2019 in Poland. Matej directed seven short films, including 'Pearadise', which won the Best Foreign Film award at the Los Angeles International Underground Film Festival in 2013 and 'Conflict of Apathy' in NUDANCE Festival, Bratislava 2014.
Orest Sharak is a Ukrainian multidiscplinary performer and maker. From 2007-2011, he worked in Les Kurbas Theatre, where he performed among others in Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Five Elements based on the parables of Zen, Bohdan by Klim, Symposium by Plato and King Lear. In 2009, he established the ethno-ambient ensemble Kurbasy, whose work focused on exploring drama in Ukrainian Songs. In that time, he also collaborated with Lalish Teaterlabor (Viena), Tomasz Bazan (Teatr Maat Project Lublin) and Mariana Sadovska (Cologne). In 2012, he became an actor in Teatr ZAR, performing in Caesarean Section: Essays on Suicide, Armine Sister, Medeas: On Getting Across and Anhelli: The Howl. In 2012, after an expedition to Sicily, he became a member of In Medias Res ensemble which works with liturgical songs from Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily. He collaborated with Matej Matejka in the project Harmony of Contraditions: Poland and was music supervisor for Awkward Happiness.
Jack Parris is a performer, theatre-maker, writer and facilitator. Prior to his work with BPT, Jack worked as a teacher, musician and actor and experimental film-maker Egg (2016), The Hex (2017) and Words (2018). Jack retrained in Theatre Laboratory at RADA in 2019 and now his practice focuses on co-creating physical theatre through play using embodied approaches influenced through his time working with David Glass Ensemble, Theatre Re, Peta Lily, Gabrielle Moleta Company and Gecko. Jack currently works with the devising ensemble Kreants, Saksi Bisou and Bunkum, whose recent experimental film Dangling Man was in the official selection at the London International Film Festival and the Montreal Film Festival.
Mona Camille (Scenographer) is a set designer with a background in architecture. Mona’s recent work includes designs for Theatre503, Studio Goodluck Film productions, and the Chinese Arts Now Festival London as well as working as an associate designer alongside Moi Tran for productions at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and the Hampstead Theatre. Mona is also a multidisciplinary artist with recent artwork exhibited at the Seychelles Biennale of Contemporary Art 2022 and the Seychelles National Museum for the 2022 Festival Kreol, in her home country. www.monacamille.com