12 - 23 MAR
7:45PM
COLD, DARK MATTERS
£10 PREVIEWS/£13/£16
writer
JACK BROWNRIDGE KELLY
director
ROISIN MCCAY-HINES
There’s a shed in that field. It’s long forgotten. Unloved some would say. According to one curious stranger, it will soon be blown up.
A satirical dark comedy about rural communities, isolation, and the dangers of obsessively trying to fit in, Cold, Dark Matters delves into the murky underwaters of a community in Cornwall and its new resident whose desire for a rural retreat may not be all that it seems…
Cold, Dark Matters was first performed at The Solomon Brown Hall in Mousehole in 2023. With the help of FEAST and Ha Hum Ah Theatre, it has since toured across Cornwall to sold out audiences.
Audience feedback:
* ‘Beautifully written, structured, and performed… Loved it!’ – Mark Jenkin (BAFTA Winning Film Director of BAIT and ENYS MEN)
* ‘I absolutely loved this, what a great night! Really engrossing and engaging story and performance. Perfect format.’
* ‘I loved that I’ve been mulling over the ending all week. I was totally invested in the story from start to the end.’
* ‘Quick witted humour drenched in satire.’
* ‘One of the best things I’ve seen in a while. Brilliant writing performed with skill and consideration for the audience, loved it.’
23 MAR
1PM
THEATRE: MAKING IT AND DOING IT WORKSHOP
£40.00
company
CARMEN COLLECTIVE
Are you a theatre artist of any discipline who wants to:
Then this is the workshop for you!
This afternoon-long workshop is a crash-course on contemporary theatre-making, what it is and how to do it. Theatre-maker Sam Rees will equip you with the skills and knowledge to get your production on, make a success of it, and, most importantly, pay yourself and others for your work.
Sam will
Sam Rees is a theatre-maker, writer and performer. He is co-Artistic Director of Carmen Collective, a theatre company which has raised nearly a quarter of a million pounds in funding since its inception in 2021. He has created work across the UK, including Camden People’s Theatre, Oxford Playhouse, Norwich Theatre Royal and the Edinburgh Fringe. Recent projects include Lessons on Revolution (★★★★★, A Youngish Perspective) which played to sold-out audiences at Soho Theatre.
24 & 25 MAR
7:45PM
AM I PRETTY WHEN I CRY?
£13/£16
writer
NANCY EDWARDS
director
ABI DEANE
company
CHAPTER THEATRE COMPANY
One-woman play exploring the complex psychological after-effects of a sexual assault…
Am I Pretty When I Cry? depicts a young woman struggling with feelings of guilt and resentment, as she grieves for the boy who sexually assaulted her as a teenager. Having moved away to escape the people and memories of her small hometown, she finds herself trapped and isolated, stuck thinking over the events that occurred one summer more than six years ago, again and again. Finally, she has turned to a counsellor, and now she bears those years of hatred, regret and blame before an audience.
An original play by Chapter Theatre Company, Am I Pretty When I Cry? considers the grey areas of sexual assault, delving into the complicated psychological circles of this girl’s mind, still running after nearly seven years. The play considers mindsets related to sexual assault, how being assaulted can change a person’s life and relationships, whether a survivor can forgive and even love someone who has assaulted them, and the constant what-if’s that run through this young woman’s mind.
26 - 30 MAR
7:45PM
THE DREAM MACHINE
£10 PREVIEW/£13/£16
Making your dreams come true...
Welcome to The Dream Machine – Make It Beautiful’s unique, long-form improvisation show, based around audience members’ dreams.
This isn’t just a show, it’s an experience of the mind. The Dreamers will build a world full of crazy characters, odd challenges, and heart-warming stories. From one audience member’s dream, comes an entire production.
This hit improv show has had successful runs at many UK theatres, including: the White Bear, the Space, Trestle Arts Base, the Cockpit, the Garage Norwich, the Maltings Theatre St Albans, the OSO Arts Centre and the Golden Goose.
Now, in the futuristic year of 2024, The Dream Machine comes to the Hope Theatre. Weirder and more ambitious than ever.
2 - 6 APR
7:45PM
ODD JOBS
£10 PREVIEW/£13/£16
writer
MADISON GERRINGER
director
MADISON GERRINGER
‘Whatever you say. Boss.’
Watching.
Training.
Clowning.
Dreaming.
Pretending.
Mourning.
Burning.
Stare at the wall. Paint your face. Burn your dog. Cry harder. Why do you work? Why are you working so hard? What’s it all about?
Produced by the award-winning Elegy, Odd Jobs is an electric series of short plays excavating our relationship with work. Writer-director Madison Gerringer interrogates the workers’ relationship to their job, and possibly themselves.
Funny, ephemeral and heart-breaking, Odd Jobs asks us why cant we stop working? And what would we be willing to do to pay the rent?
There will be joy, pain, and seals.
So why don’t you take a sick day, and join us?
7 & 8 APR
7:45PM
TIDES
£13/£16
writer
JOE DENNIS
director
WILL SUTHERLAND
Tides… the intense waves of life constantly moving, in and out, up, and down, sometimes gentle, and other times big and overwhelming…
We’ve all experienced immense highs and lows, right? Well try dealing with them when you’re on the autism spectrum.
Dylan Ward is autistic. He doesn’t connect with people quite like how others can. He can’t follow conventional norms in the way that is expected from him, he doesn’t communicate in the same way, he has his own way of thinking, and his own way of doing things. Sadly, the rest of the world seems to not understand this. So how do you navigate a world which operates on a completely different wavelength to the one that you’re on?
A one person show based on the writer and performers real experiences of having and dealing with being on the autism spectrum, mixing movement, text, voice-overs, and combining heightened, Monty Pythonesque humour with a touch of real-world drama. Tides presents a story about identity and trying to figure out who you really are and who you’re really meant to be.
This is an insight into the world of at least one autistic individual… and the turbulence that they constantly face.
9 - 13 APR
7:45PM
MOTHER OF EXILES
£10 PREVIEW/£13/£16
writer
BRUNO MAGNANTI
A young woman buys a bar in Brooklyn, New York. She is saddled with her teenage accomplice, with whom she has hopped from bar job to bar job all across the city. They are Liberty and Cameron.
She is measured, responsible and restrained. He is chaotic, tumultuous and out of control. They are fiercely loyal to one another, but in the face of pressure, their differences might get the better of them. With the risk of going under forever biting at their heels, they have to figure out how to make their plan sustainable, or else lose the bar and their one true attempt at living a life on their terms, and nobody else’s.
Mother of Exiles is a story about found family, platonic connection, and identity – or a lack thereof. It is a compassionate look at carving out agency against tough circumstances, and finding one’s true self against the noise.
TOP PICK
16 APR - 4 MAY
7:45PM
IN EVERGLADE STUDIO
£10 PREVIEWS/£13/£16
writer
NATHANIEL BRIMMER-BELLER
director
NATHANIEL BRIMMER-BELLER & PHOEBE ROWELL JOHN
In 1974 London, three musicians and their manager seal themselves inside an underground recording studio to complete a country-rock album, unaware that materials in the walls are driving them to the brink of insanity.
As artistic and social tensions flare, the atmosphere grows thornier, the music grows stranger, and Everglade Studio’s mixture of creativity and claustrophobia demands its pound of flesh.
Black Bat Productions returns with this ferocious comedic thriller by Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller and with original music by Brimmer-Beller and Aveev Isaacson. This electric new production follows a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Fringe last summer (★★★★★ ‘an intelligently constructed masterpiece’ – The Student, ★★★★★ ‘fierce and intense’ – Butterwort, ★★★★ ‘tuneful, tense and entertaining… Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller’s most impressive piece to date’ – AllEdinburgh Theatre).