Photo Credit: Sami Sumaria (@sumarphoto)
ASSEMBLE Festival: Scratch Night #1
Date: Mon 29th April 2024
Time: 7.30pm - 9pm
Standard: £10
Please join us for a post-show dialogue after the show
Want more of ASSEMBLE Fest? Check it out.
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 grief, climate change, and disabled rage.
The night will conclude with a post-performance discussion in the bar and the opportunity to converse casually with the artists.
Programme Line Up
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“i just want to be held constantly”
Natalie and Aren are “dating”. Whatever that means. Taking place over an evening in Nat’s room, we witness the ups and downs of a “relationship” on a knife's edge.
swallow is an intimate look at fear of commitment and the tragedy of falling in love with potential. This engaging play about modern love in the Black community is written and directed by Women’s Prize for Playwriting finalist, lydia luke, and produced by HighRise Entertainment's Elizabeth Peace, with music by multi-instrumentalist and composer, Tim Gardner.
swallow has been supported by ACE, London Performance Studios, Brixton House, Masterclass Theatre Trust, Lemon House and Theatre Deli.
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More Lemons is a work-in-progress about a young woman looking for signs from a lost loved one. Filled with equal amounts of joy and sorrow, More Lemons takes you on a journey though grief and time. This piece is written and performed by Sophia Hail.
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A bold and provoking story that takes you on a journey through marshes, trenches and oceans. Un Fetê (a celebration) is about the celebration of life. The piece is an enigmatic mix of monologue performance - with elements of poetry, dance, music, movements and film. Embark on a journey around the world through a vibrant mix of theatrical elements and stories from across the seas. Get ready to dance on your chairs, to be shocked, be moved and provoked....all at the same time!
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When Bri gets trapped in his heating-up home, the Disaster and Emergency Committee are on hand to help... or they will be - just as soon as they finish their paperwork. ‘While You Wait’ is a comedy of errors where climate change meets The Thick of It, diving into what happens when we spend too much time talking and not enough time acting on climate issues.
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Disabled rage and optimism are uniquely placed, in that it is seldom heard of OR understood. We are expected to be grateful crips, silent crips, meekly accept the scraps of 'support' we are doled out.WE'VE HAD ENOUGH! We invite you to a RAGE-RAVE, a CRIP-CHAOS-CIRCLE to shake, berate, and believe in the power of community to vibrate higher than the frequency of ignorance! Louder than disbelief and PROUDER than shame! Our stims are magnificent, our ticks are time-telling AND our altered states present PORTALS to alternate realities! Come on a journey with us into the Mad, the mystical and the mentally unstable. Our piece features a live 15-minute DJ drum and bass set by Queen Kong, with improvised and participatory dance that encourages the audience to stim, headbang and shake along. Aligning with our values of Slowness, sustainability and de-growth, the rave will start off gentle before it careers into a core-shaking climax. Stim toys, blindfolds, ear defenders will be provided! Lighting will be trippy but you can lie down! We endeavour to make our performance spaces SENSORY-SAFE and supportive for ALL our disabled participants.
Gallery
About the Artists
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lydia luke is a Black woman playwright, poet, librettist + director based in Epsom. she makes complex, nuanced, deeply poetic + radically honest theatre about Black british people that examine the heart and human condition. her play upright enuf was a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2021 and shortlisted for the RSC’s 37Plays. she’s taken part in both the Royal Court’s Long Group and Introduction to Playwriting. she directed My Period, The Cockblock, which had a sold out run at the Golden Goose Theatre in Camberwell (2022) and VAULT Festival (2023). lydia is represented by Independent Talent Group.
copper & lead, commissioned by BBC Radio 4 and Talawa, is available to listen to NOW on BBC Sounds.
Instagram: @_lydialuke
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Sophia Hail (she/hers) is a theatremaker from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her previous work includes directing "Now Entering Ely, Nevada" at The Space Theatre, and directing a new queer musical "Run To The Nuns" at Riverside Studios. She specializes in devised theatre, movement, and musical theatre. She has an MFA in Collaborative Theatre from Rose Bruford College.
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Adam Hasyim is an actor/theatre-maker/film artist. He is an actor and film artist from Indonesia. Whether or he is the actor/performer or the person behind the piece, he loves to tell bold world stories and collaborate with different artists from different practices - including other international film makers, musicians, poets, painters, and photographers, writers and dancers for my work. His work tends to be borderless and have created work in Arabic, French, Indonesian and Spanish to name a few. He also founded production company called Feral Nomad Factory - a factory of creativity and stories and entertainment. Un Fetê is produced by Feral Nomad Factory.
Instagram: @lombokboy @feralnomadfactory
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Tenderfoot Theatre are an award-nominated grassroots environmental theatre company from Ormskirk, Lancashire.
Made up of a team of activists, researchers, artists and makers, Tenderfoot have been making climate-focused theatre works since 2021. The company are now the Artists in Residence at The Arts Centre at Edge Hill University, and have featured as part of two consecutive International Climate Change Theatre Action festivals. They boast a portfolio of artistic responses to the climate crisis including short films, spoken word, and audio plays - all produced using sustainable methods of creation. Their previous full works include 'Stop The World, We're Getting Off' (2022), and their debut, fully-compostable, feature-length show IMPACT (2021).
"Make sure you watch this one." - Audience Feedback"
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SENSORIA is a radical arts access collective co-creating with disabled, chronically ill and neurodiverse people, to educate, express and exchange through movement & music. We believe that by practising collective care we can challenge and disrupt systems of oppression that reinforce each other and work collectively toward building an equal and equitable society where everyone is supported and equipped to do what they want to do. Practising collective care is radical, it is anti-capitalist and pro-disabled in nature. It aids us in building sustainable support systems and normalises caring for ourselves through caring for our communities.
We do this by using our values of Slowness, Sustainability and De-growth to build infrastructures of care and radical access into our arts process and co-creation Slowness in practice allows breaking down ableist standards, and supports artists to care for themselves and have autonomy in their practice. Sustainability looks like embedding collective care within our spaces normalising caring for ourselves through caring for our communities. And finally de-growth explores how to grow outside capitalist frameworks through collective action, and innovative ways of fundraising, organising & redistribution of wealth.
Our organisation is made up of:
Saskia - a disability advocate, organiser and chronically ill artist working across dance, music & spoken word
Cleo Savva - Creative Producer, multi-instrumentalist, deejay and co-creator
Indera Tamara - storyteller and marketing consultant.As a jazz violinist and hip hop dancer- having a freestyle-focus and ‘each one teach one’ mentality is core to the principles of co-creation at SENSORIA and is how we like to make work - whether that be theatre, immersive soundscapes, the sensory-safe cypher jam or participatory dance and music work.
Website: www.wearesensoria.co.uk
Instagram: @wearesensoria
Event Information
Duration: 90 minutes
Have a look at our programme notes with content warnings.
A calm, quiet space will be available for anyone who needs it - please ask our staff.
Please e-mail us ahead of the day to ensure we are aware of and can facilitate any access needs
Can’t get enough of ASSEMBLE?
Check out the rest of the ASSEMBLE programme!