The Space announces New Season
The Space is delighted to reveal the shows that will be coming to the venue from February to July 2023. An exciting array of talented artists will be serving up bold and brilliant new events. We’re continuing to offer live-streamed and on demand digital versions of our programme for those unable to make it to the Space in person.
Our associate company, Mrs C’s Collective present Dream School by Francis Grin, a thriller based on a real-life college cult. Part of A Call For Safe Practise, development of guidance and training on how to make trauma-informed art safely, made possible thanks to the University of Greenwich and Arts Council England.
The Space’s own Deputy Director, Matthew Jameson’s Ten Days is an epic, comic, political thriller charting an intensified history of Russia in 1917. Orange Peel revive Pullitzer Prize finalist, The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe, a liberating coming-of-age drama focused on nine female athletes. Best-selling author, Kate Danley also has their work revived with Working for Crumbs, a quick-witted, side-splitting farce about women in a testosterone-filled office, produced by Estelle Homerstone and directed by Cecilie Fray. Our third revival of the season sees a woman forced into the shoes of her recently deceased husband as Ottisdotter present Henrik Ibsen’s rarely-performed Lady Inger.
Set in a coastal village where women make the rules, Morveren is a coming-of-age story for three generations of women, written by Kate Webster and presented by Marvellous Machine Theatre Company.
Bullet Point Theatre bring infinite love stories in Our Last First with the four actors cast in their roles live on stage each night. Originally an online dance piece, developed during lockdown, Nova Grace Productions’ Unlocked reflects on the legacy that the pandemic has left behind 2 years later.
The power of the monologue is celebrated this season with solo shows including En Route’s Rachel, a comedy inspired by Gen Y anxieties, Purple Moon Drama’s The Wedding Speech, a dramatic comedy about codependency and toxic parenting, CaberADHD, a mixed media cabaret about what it’s like to have ADHD written and performed by Rachael Bellis and Maenad, a folk/punk multitude exploring disorder, addiction, queerness and survival, by Elena Sirett. We’re delighted to welcome back The Queens of Cups for an extended run of New Moon Monologues, new writing guided by the cycles of the moon.
Also returning to the Space is, London Student Drama Festival, Act II, bringing a dozen short plays on the theme of New Beginnings. We close out the season with the equally fascinating The S is Silent, which uses spoken word, visual poetry and Flamenco to explore womanhood in fascist Spain (presented by Mad, Who?), and You Wake Up/Octopus, an immersive journey where you play a newly conscious octopus searching for their missing mother (presented by mushmoss).
Last year’s in-house production, David’s Play was nominated for an Access award by OffWestEnd.com. Since then, David has been focussed on our SpaceLift campaign, which has so far raised over £13,000 towards the replacement of our passenger lift. The campaign continues with more social events including a Beetle Drive, a new monthly Board Games night and a live podcast recording of TV DNA.
And before all of that, we end our Winter season with A Monkey with Cymbals’ period piece The Masks of Aphra Behn and Gibraltar-based Dramatis Personae’s contemporary drama, The Blue Whale.
The performance details are (LS=Live-stream option available):-
THE MASKS OF APHRA BEHN
17 – 18 FEB (LS 18 FEB)
Aphra Behn – spy, writer, and libertine – a one-woman show about the first professional female playwright.
DAVID’S BEETLEDRIVE
21 FEB
Join us for an old-school fundraising event: the ‘beetledrive’ is a competitive game of chance and beetle drawing!
THE BLUE WHALE
23 – 25 FEB (LS 25 FEB)
Boy meets girl. Girl meets boy. Girl sets him challenges to prove himself. What could possibly go wrong?
TV DNA LIVE!
26 FEB (LS)
Join podcast hosts Damian, Neil, Adam and Grace for a live recording including TV reviews, previews and competitions. TV chat at its finest.
THE WOLVES
4 – 11 MAR
High knees. Butt kicks. Grapevine. An intimate snapshot of a regimented American girls soccer team who tackle pads, the patriarchy, and pressures of fitting in with the pack.
TEN DAYS
14 – 25 MAR (LS 23 MAR)
Political Chaos. Economic crises. War ravages Europe. Revolution erupts.
In secret, another revolution begins.
Welcome to Russia, 1917 as you’ve never seen it before.
MORVEREN
28 MAR – 1 APR (LS 30 MAR)
The siren’s song is calling Keren’s name to come home.
In this mysterious hidden coastal village, where women make the rules, she must decide: career or community?
ACT II FESTIVAL
8 & 15 APR (LS 8 APR)
ACT II is back at The Space for another year of the London Student Drama Festival!
Over 60 young people, 12 brand new plays, 1 jam-packed day…
CABARADHD
11 – 13 APR (LS 12 APR)
A mixed media cabaret about what it’s like to have ADHD and be diagnosed as an adult. A chaotic look at the life of a late diagnosed ADHDer, from her own perspective.
MAENAD
16 APR (LS)
A Maenad is a follower of the god of wine, drugs, war and madness. Rooted to a hillside for millenia Maenad speaks, Maenad sings of their life and their fury.
THE WEDDING SPEECH
18 – 20 APR
A dramatic comedy about codependency and toxic parenting. It explores a toxic bond between a glamorous, critical mother and her long-suffering daughter.
WORKING FOR CRUMBS
25 APR – 6 MAY (LS 6 MAY)
Meet outrageous office admins: Grace and Amy, stuck in a soul-sucking job. When disaster strikes, witness a domino-effect of destruction in this quick-witted, side-splitting farce.
UNLOCKED
9 – 13 MAY (LS 12 MAY)
From bedroom to stage. 4 dancers explore life in and out of lockdown – loss, isolation, confinement, fear, masks, vaccines and reunion. Don’t let’s sweep it under the carpet.
DREAM SCHOOL
17 MAY – 3 JUN (LS 25 MAY EVE & 3 JUN MATINEE)
When is a story ready to tell? Inspired by the ongoing real events of a college cult, DREAM SCHOOL is a thriller about who wins and who loses when we cash in on trauma.
OUR LAST FIRST
6 – 14 JUN (LS 8, 11 & 12 JUN)
The universal love story. Where you fall in love with someone for the first time but also for the last. Four Actors, cast live, whose story will you see?
NEW MOON MONOLOGUES
15 – 17 JUN (LS 17 JUN)
New Moon Monologues is a new writing night guided by the cycles of the moon that features an array of new writing from both emerging and established playwrights and actors.
RACHEL
20 – 25 JUN (LS 24 JUN)
A comic, raunchy one-woman monologue. A heartfelt cry of a young woman that questions our choices in the face of social pressure and global challenges.
LADY INGER
27 JUN – 8 JUL (LS 6 JUL)
Presented in the United Kingdom for only the fifth time in 120 years, Ibsen’s Lady Inger is a devastating insight into an Ibsen woman on the precipice of freedom.
THE ‘S’ IS SILENT
11 JUL – 13 JUL (LS 13 JUL)
Spoken word, visual poetry, and Flamenco: womanhood in fascist Spain.
YOU WAKE UP / OCTOPUS
14 JUL – 16 JUL
An immersive journey where you play a newly conscious octopus searching for their missing mother. Co-created through your collaboration and discovery.
For more information, visit www.space.org.uk