Fuel Announces A Programme Of Work For 2022

We’re delighted to announce a programme of work for 2022 that encompasses a commitment to work for children and young people as well as work that investigates urgent global questions that face us all.

Following the launch of Fuel Digital, 2022 continues this work with more ground breaking born digital projects. Projects that launched in 2021 and earlier will be revived throughout 2022 to complete an ambitious and inspiring season.

Kate McGrath said:

“It’s a new year and a new start for us all. Despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, the team at Fuel – including all of the freelancers and partners with whom our work is created – have been working hard to plan an ambitious new programme of work for 2022, which we’re launching today. We know we may need to adapt our plans with agility and care and we’re ready for that. Wherever you are, we hope you’ll join us for some adventures together this year.”

A Dead Body in Taos
26th October to 12 November 2022; tour dates include Warwick Arts Centre 15th-19th November
David Farr (Writer), Rachel Bagshaw (Director), Ti Green (Designer), Joshua Pharo (LX & AV Designer), Elena Peña (Sound Designer), Nwando Ebizie (Composer)

The body of a 70-year-old woman is found in the New Mexico desert near the town of Taos, a place of pilgrimage for those seeking to embrace alternative forms of living.

Set against the backdrop of modern America, A Dead Body in Taos is part mystery, part sci-fi epic and part love story, that leaves the audience wondering whether, in the 21st Century, freedom is something we should run to or escape from.

A Dead Body in Taos is co-commissioned by Fuel and Warwick Arts Centre with support from Bristol Old Vic. The work is supported by Arts Council England and produced by Fuel.

Fuel in collaboration with Slung Low presents
Issy, BOSSS and Fractal
National tour to schools 
From May 2022
Keisha Thompson (Writer), Alan Lane (Director), Stuart Heyes (Designer), Nick Barnes (Puppetry Designer), Hobbit (Beatbox Associate)

Issy is an Environmental Specialist from the British Organisation for Seashore Surveillance or for short BOSSSsssssssss. Everything seems normal until one day something extraordinary washes up on the beach, humming, glowing, organic – like an organism found deep on the ocean floor. Issy knows enough to know that this has been built by someone very clever and can’t possibly be from this planet. It looks like a spaceship… an alien spaceship!

Issy, BOSSS and Fractal is a Fuel and Slung Low collaboration which centres around a journey from the classroom into a spaceship using nothing but your imagination! As the audience travel on this exciting mission, there are puzzles to solve, clues to discover, aliens to save and homes to find in this playful, interactive children’s production.

Fuel in partnership with Lewisham Borough of Culture and Shipwright presents
The Gretchen Question
The Master Shipwright’s House
22nd September – 2nd October 2022
Melly Still (Co-writer and Director), Max Barton (Co-writer & Musical Composer), E.M. Parry (Designer)

The phrase ‘climate change’ induces helplessness and moral anxiety in almost everyone. How do we manage this sense of impotence and hopelessness?

Gretchen bears witness to the discoveries of world exploration at the Royal Society in the late 18th century. Maisie is an influencer with an exciting new brand partnership. Estelle is trying to remember what happened last night. Through these interwoven stories, The Gretchen Question dissects how we have arrived at the current climate emergency. Taking inspiration from the past, this exciting new production boldly invites us to inquire what the future holds for us.

This site-specific production will be staged outdoors in the historic grounds of the Master Shipwright’s House on the banks of the Thames in Deptford, with original composition by Max Barton and design by E. M. Parry.


Fuel presents
Osoyegbon
Dates TBC
Gloria Patrick

Osoyegbon: I am not a slave.

Osoyegbon follows one woman’s journey to the UK from Nigeria following the promise of a better life; why she left, what happened when she arrived, and where she is now. 

Osoyegbon gives a moving first-hand account of courage, resilience, and survival. It is the story of the power and perseverance of one woman’s humanity in the face of unimaginable hardship. An act of testimony and defiance, Osoyegbon is a reminder of the fragility of freedom and the responsibility we all share to protect it. 

The Day I Fell Into A Book
Schools remote touring
March 2022 previews, touring autumn 2022
Lewis Gibson

Welcome to The Institute.   
We conduct experiments in to the power of imaginations.   
We want to know what happens to your mind when you read.   
We want to get inside your heads.   
It is all perfectly safe. Trust us.  

The Day I Fell Into  A Book is an immersive storytelling adventure for families and school groups that explores the magic of reading and the vitality of young imaginations. Using binaural sound recordings, intricate lighting technology and projection, the audience is taken into a lost world of classic tales. The stories seep into the room and come alive all around us as we venture further into the deep recesses of our minds.  

Suitable for 8-12 year olds and their families, this innovative adaptation is a three-dimensional sound and theatre experience for everyone who loves myths, legends and reading. 

To Those Born Later 
Remote touring
April – June 2022
Uninvited Guests: Jessica Hoffmann, Richard Dufty & Paul Clarke

To Those Born Later is an interactive online event, which brings together groups from different countries to discuss what should go into a time capsule to be opened in 150 years.

What do you want to save for our children’s children’s children’s children? What do you want to pass down to future inhabitants of the world? Join us in preserving something of you, your community and culture, for those who are yet to be born.

Every show will be different, made with and for its audience. The content of the time capsule is chosen by those in each meeting and added to a growing online archive.

Covid and the climate crisis have made us more conscious of how we live in one world and how our problems and our dreams for the future need to be looked at on an international basis. In response to this unique moment in history, To Those Born Later will bring geographically distant people together for live connection and debate, about our legacy and what matters. The aim is to enable exchanges between people in different cities and countries, around what personal objects should be passed down and what from our cultures we should take care of.

Revivals and remounts

In addition to these new productions, Fuel will present revivals of previously presented work including: an international tour of An Evening with an Immigrant by Inua Ellams, new iterations of Inua Ellams The Midnight Run, Common Wealth and Speakers Corner’s epic site specific Peaceophobia, and London transfer dates for Heather Agyepong’s The Body Remembers, and Salt and Sugar by Hemabharathy Palani.