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 experiences of the care sector, feminist and neurodivergent retellings, loneliness, longing, identity and the self.

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

Programme Line Up

The Cycle is a new piece of writing that highlights the struggles and joys of working in the care sector; from lived experience and testimony of care workers. Focusing on the struggles carers face and their frequent isolation. The show enables them to share these experiences and open up the stories of those receiving care to families and a wider audience. This performance explores the experience of working in the care system as an hourly paid carer in the community. Using text, physical theatre, circus and music to explore the issues and the variety of emotions that are provoked when working in healthcare. It tells real life stories of care, loss and joy. Giving voice and dignity to the stories of care givers and care receivers.
The true tale of the worlds loneliest Gannet penguin.
A moving story about longing, vulnerability, care and our need for connection, as told by a man dressed up as a bird and his plastic companion (as well as they can, anyway).
The Red Shoes, based on the story of the same name by Hans Christian Anderson, is a work-in-progress two-hander play written by Georgia Andrews and devised for performance by Georgia Andrews & Sophia Utria, which uses surrealism and fairytale storytelling tropes to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable, confronting audience with the experience of those Othered as 'monsters' for being unable or unwilling to conform to the feminine tropes of maiden, mother, crone and the ways in which disability is intertwined with fairytale. Combining well-known and loved modes of folk storytelling with direct audience address and interaction, this project embraces discomfort and attempts to place neuroconforming (those who identify as "typical") audience members in the (red) shoes of the fairytale characters cast out or burned alive for their difference, challenging the ideals inherited from western folklore and belief systems and aiming to unite audience of all identities against the unspoken ableism that pervades society and norms, ending in a wolf-like howl of empathy & resilience.
This work-in-progress piece will be performed by Georgia Andrews & Sophia Utria.
If you had to describe yourself as what you “are not”, who are you?
Neg(ate) is an autobiographical solo fusing poetry, music production and choreography. The piece explores intersectionality and the restrictions language places on us in its attempt to construct identity. The piece celebrates the power of “writing yourself into existence” and taking control of the pen that authors your life story. It is through the process of negation that we begin shedding the weight, unlearning and inhibiting our own self-defined connotations and flow.
“Kurogo Me version 1.2” is a participatory performance art piece that reframes the traditional Japanese theatre, video game avatar, and live participatory theatre. Kurugo is a figure on the stage dressed completely in black in Japanese traditional Bunraku puppetry and Kabuki theatre, signifies “invisible”/ “non-existent”. Ashizawa reinterprets her cultural heritage and spotlights what is perceived “invisible” figure as a main character.

Gallery

Niquella LaTouche

Photo Credit: Dave Barros

Niquelle LaTouche

Photo Credits: Nigel Corley Simon

The Cycle by Liz Fairnell

Nige by Samuel Skoog

Photo Credit: Marshall Stay

Kurogo Me

Photo Credit: Sarah Allam

Kurogo Me

Photo Credit: Sarah Allam

Kurogo Me

Photo Credit: Sarah Allam

Kurogo Me

Photo Credit: Sarah Allam

The Red Shoes by Georgia Andrews

About the Artists

Liz Fairnell is a physical theatre performer based in Bristol. During the 1st lockdown she applied to work as a carer and within a week of applying she’d started work. It was a life changing experience in so many ways; not only were their eyes opened to the hidden world of care, but they felt like they saw death for the first time in Liz's life. That led her to be inspired to create a project about her time as a carer, to record and share through performance some of the things they encountered and learnt.
Website: thecyclelizfairnell.blogspot.com
Instagram: @lizfairnell
"Samuel Skoog is a performance maker, writer and producer who was born in the London, grown in Wellington (NZ), and taught things in Glasgow. He has collaborated with people from all over, including The National Theatre of Scotland (Cadaver Police In Quest Of Aquatrax Exit) and on projects in London (There She Is), Glasgow (Cleansed, To Have Done with the Judgement of God), Estonia (A Body To Dwell) and New Zealand (Thin Skin, Open Home). His poems have been published in Wet Grain and Goodbye Scarecrow. His first play, Bucket Men, was shortlisted for the Scottish Arts Club Theatre Awards at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Sam is interested in the co-dependent relationship between the individual, the environment and narrative forces, especially mythic ones. As a result he has worked primarily with text, either as a writer or dramaturg, but is now expanding into non-verbal modes of expression, including clowning, puppetry and dance."
Georgia Andrews (Writer/Performer - The Red Shoes) is a neuroqueer actor & creative. Specialising in Shakespeare, Georgia often uses canonical works as a Trojan horse for contemporary considerations of community, marginalisation & othering. An award-winning performer (2021 Groundling's Choice Award, 2023 60 Hour Shakespeare Slam grand champ), her recent credits include LilyPower (RSC 37 Plays Project), Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (Shake-Scene Shakespeare) and Hamlet (Feature Film, shot at Streatham Space). 'The Red Shoes' is their first exploration into writing for performance.
Sophia Utria (Dramaturg/Performer - The Red Shoes) is a multidisciplinary storyteller who writes, acts, & designs with a focus on accessibility, heritage & research. Sophia's credits include Assistant Director on Fame Whore by Tom Ratcliffe (King's Head Theatre),& Co-Creator & Performer in Omelas by James Christensen after Ursula K Le Guin (No Such Theatre), and Dramaturg on devised piece WE REAL COOL (Royal Central School of Speech & Drama). She also works as a theatre & events technician, most recently on The White Rose (Applecart Arts). Sophia is excited to be appearing in & collaborating on 'The Red Shoes'.
Niquelle LaTouche is an artist-educator who is invested in creating spaces of creative collaboration and togetherness. She is the founder of Niquelle LaTouche Arts (2014) and It Takes a Village Collective (2020) which are hubs for empathy building, challenging normative ideas and encouraging proactive social change. Niquelle is a trained Fine Artist, experienced Poet and Choreographer and an English specialist spanning supplementary, language schools and mainstream secondary education. She is an advocate for cross-disciplinary practice and champions the development of pedagogy, curriculum and more inclusive and equitable resources which can empower, raise attainment and shift cultures.
Website: www.niquellelatouchearts.com
Instagram: @N_L_Arts @Niquelle_L
Twitter: @N_L_Arts @Niquelle_L
Izumi Ashizawa is a Japanese-born-raised-trained performance art practitioner and visual artist. Specialized in cross-cultural trans-media performance art, she reinterprets the Japanese traditional codes and places them in different contexts to generate a whole new meaning. She utilizes physical story-telling and unconventional puppetry and object animation. Her past commissioned projects have taken place in the U.S.A., Japan, the U.K., Canada, Turkey, Iran, Norway, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Russia, Estonia, Australia, the Cayman Islands, Greece, Cyprus, Peru, and Greenland.
Website: izumiashizawa.com