Blue Elephant Theatre - March/June 2008
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
CAMBERWELL’S Blue Elephant Theatre has announced its forthcoming season which includes physical theatre, dance and rehearsed readings.
Ben Samuels directs The Harbour, a physical theatre comedy, from March 5 to March 7, 2008 (8pm).
Fishermen lost on the open ocean; a woman on dry land escaping her past – sea, seals and superstition bubble to the surface in what is described as a darkly comic and beautifully twisted tale that explores themes of loss, risk and renewal.
The Harbour is brought to life through visual storytelling and haunting live music by physical theatre company Limbik, in a premiere production starring Juan Ayala, Sarah Johnson, Will Pinchin and multi-instrumentalist Sarah Moody of the Darkin Ensemble, whose other musical and composition work includes Tristan and Yseult, A Matter of Life and Death and The Bacchae (all for Kneehigh).
Tickets: £7, £5 concessions.
Euripides’ Hippolytus – April 8 to April 26, 2008 (8pm).
Following last year’s The Lady of Shalott, director Aaron Paterson returns to the Blue Elephant with another classic, using his signature style to bring to life the rhythm, images and language of the text through rich movement, music and song.
Queen Phaedra lies sick with incestuous love for her stepson Hippolytus. Told of her passion by her faithful nurse, Hippolytus rejects her. Pride, shame, lust, revenge, honour and love interweave, slowly culminating in a web of lies and unspoken truths that result in death and tragedy.
Tickets: £10, £8 concessions, £6 Southwark Residents (valid Tuesday to Thursday).
Hide and Seek, physical theatre by Israeli director Tal Jakubowiczova – from April 29 to May 17, 2008 (8pm).
In this UK premiere, a woman and her memories of the past scavenge amongst the ruins and devastation of the world she once knew. However, when the woman discovers a baby amongst the ruins, the things that matter the most become obvious.
Hide and Seek was first shown in Tel Aviv last year.
Tickets: £10, £8 concessions.
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Out of Chaos, physical theatre comedy blending Ancient Greek mythology with modern true stories – May 20 to May 24, 2008 (8pm).
In the beginning, there was chaos. Then the Gods took that chaos and gave it an order. They made the world and some animals and everything went pretty well. But one day Prometheus made a new beast, and he raised it up onto two feet so it could look at the heavens. And that’s when things started to kick off.
Gods and mortals, parents and sons, sisters, lovers and strangers on the Tube come head-to-head in a playful blend of Ancient Greek mythology and modern true stories, exploring the ways in which people fight and rage.
Out of Chaos is devised and written by the company – Juan Ayala, Lorna Beckett, Beatrice Curnew, Troels Hagen Findsen, Nick Jesper and Tomoko Komura – and directed by Mike Tweddle.
Tickets: £10, £8 concessions.
Pluto, a new play by Jonathan Bonfiglio, runs from May 28 to June 15, 2008.
Set on a mountainside in Pisco de Elqui, Chile, in the vicinity of one of the world’s most important observatories and underneath some of its clearest skies, Pluto is a new play about man’s relentless struggle to define the world and beyond. Joe Fredericks directs.
“Ad astra per aspera” (a rough road leads to the stars), the inscription at Launch Complex 34, at the Kennedy Space Centre where, in 1967, all three crew members of the first Apollo spacecraft died.
Tickets: £12, £10 concessions.
Times: Wednesdays to Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 5.30pm.
Writers at Work – rehearsed readings by the writers and directors of tomorrow – takes place at the Blue Elephant Theatre during March 2008.
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For more information on all productions call the box office on 020 7701 0100 or visit the website.