The topic of religion will forever cause a mass of debate worldwide, however there’s been a noticeable negative emphasis placed on the religion of Islam, due to the images presented to us via news rooms, newspapers and video images. Shattering preconceptions of a typical girl who follows the faith, Ambreen Razia‘s Diary of a Hounslow Girl is a breath of fresh air to the narrative constantly fed to us on a daily basis.
fanSHEN and Tipping Point, with Ovalhouse present Invisible Treasure. Invisible Treasure is part of the autumn 2015 theatre season Fabulism, an extraordinary collection of work celebrating the fantastical in the everyday. Invisible Treasure is an interactive digital play space, an electrifying exploration of human relationships, power structures and individual agency, where your actions can change everything. I caught up with director of concept and production, Rachel Briscoe to find out more about the show.
Don’t despair if you cannot go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer. There is a plethora of productions previewing in London. One of those little gems is this award winning show by Flight of the Escales, created and performed by Artistic Director Sarah Calver, which has its UK premiere at the Ovalhouse.
Orpheus, mighty prophet of Greek legends, has seen better days. Fat, sweaty and in desperate need of a shave, we find him slumped in a chair, possibly comatose from the sugary doughnuts and alcohol beside him. Robbed of the love of his life Eurydice by the eternal flames of the underworld, Orpheus has abandoned his music and taken up stand up comedy to regale his story to an audience transformed into the gods of legend.
‘Ten Women’: An unusual title for a play with a cast of sixteen, but still strong with a critical message of changing perceptions in a time where the media appears to call the shots. Bethan Dear has written and directed this pioneering production as a way to make people question their own perceptions of beauty, and to ask the audience, “What is real?” By using ten women to relay the story of one, reinforcing that we all face the same issues, is an amiable attempt at rocking the boat – but just how successful is this work in progress at actually achieving its goal?
Amy Clamp
From the very moment you switch on your Computer, Television, Tablet or smartphone, you’re bombarded with so called images of perfection, and that’s even before you’ve left the house! Then there’s the numerous amount of inescapable ad campaign in magazines, billboards and bus tops tempting you to buy the latest luxurious shampoo or miraculous mascara. But what, in 2014 does it mean to be a woman? To be a feminist? With the movement of feminism being a hot topic at present, Jackdaw Theatre explores this in their latest production of TEN WOMEN. I was able to talk to Artistic Director Bethan Dear and Creative Producer Amy Clamp ahead of their production about the Theatre Companies beginnings, travelling to Uganda and and why their proud to call TEN WOMEN a feminist play!
You’ve both formed Jackdaw Theatre whilst studying at Middlesex University. What inspired the creation of the company?
Amy: It was initiated by the fact that Bethan quite soon after University went and did a Residency Programme at the Finborough Theatre. Afterwards, she was offered a spot for a Sunday (and) Monday show and invited me to come on board as Production Manager, so that was the first project we worked on together and from that point realised that we worked really well together.
In a generation where every living moment is documented on social media sites, it can be very easy to take the value of photographs and memories for granted. In a fast paced and immediate technological world that we know live in, Lowri Evans‘ The Secret Life of You and Me offers a much more authentic alternative…
