theatrecreation

theatre creation and arts for Earth

theatre creation aims to encourage the making of theatre in communities using a range of approaches - often by mis-direction (forming plot and character whilst making visual art). It is a single strand of the broader 'arts for Earth' initiative, which seeks to encourage artists to address the most important issues we currently face. All arts are included, including cookery and permaculture, and we hope that experienced and novice artists of all disciplines can gain encouragement from each other and that the network of reciprocity can grow around the world.

Wild Swans

This was a devised play based on the tale by Hans Christian Andersen. It was performed prior to the inception of the arts for Earth project but was strongly focussed on love and the possibility of relationship. Three actors were used with a basic set. It was an original piece of writing envisioning the situation of the characters in the fairytale forty years later. A scene of 'scrabble' playing provided a battleground, whilst a mask was used for a dream-sequence enacting an incident with a bird in St James's Park.

Wild Swans

The Tempest

This two-man performance of Shakespeare's exotic pageant perforce played with the impossibility of representing all the characters - particularly in the last scene when they all turn up at the same time. The challenge was also made explicit when Caliban and Trinculo lie under a sheet and Stephano drunkenly examines them. With props and garments swiftly swapped, the surreality of this production resembled the play of two children discovering that their parents' wardrobe has been left open and that it was time for 'let's pretend'.

The Tempest Poster