Co-presented with Camden People’s Theatre and supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation through the Home Run Commission. Funded by Arts Council England and the Leche Trust. Development supported by Ovalhouse.
Mel your body is yours, you can f**k who you want!’
Melissa is having a bit of a crisis. This bold, funny and honest hour explores the reasons why; starting with her mum, God and sex.
Told by a first generation British Ghanaian woman on the hunt for an orgasm, So Many Reasons is a one-woman show that prods the ideas of femininity and womanhood inherited by daughters. Exploring cultural and generational shifts, religion and sexuality, this brave new show asks what happens when we realise mums don’t always know best.
NOMINATION: Off West End Theatre Awards – Best Female Performance
‘Rollicking good fun, serious philosophical lowdown, and pure youthful emotion’ – London Theatre 1
‘Fresh, fun and utterly vital’ – List
Tanya Stephenson – Lighting Designer and Production Manager
Ben Grant – Sound Designer
Lanre Malaolu – Movement Director
Sarah Beaton – Associate Designer
Key Image Credit: Guy Sanders
Production Photo Credit: Dan Tsantilis
Arcola Theatre and Fuel presents
A Dead Body In Taos
A new play by David Farr
Directed by Rachel Bagshaw
World premiere
David Farr’s compelling new play is both an unexpected science fiction and an intimate study of loss and bereavement.
‘When they called saying your body had been found, I had one immediate thought. I remember thinking that maybe now I’d be free.’
Sam hasn’t spoken to her mother Katherine for three years when she learns that she’s been found dead in the New Mexico desert.
Travelling to the small town of Taos to identify the body, she soon discovers Katherine has become embroiled in an unsettling enterprise. Now Sam has an unimaginable chance to rebuild their broken relationship. But first she must decide whether she can finish what her mother started.
Directed by Rachel Bagshaw (The Shape of the Pain), A Dead Body in Taos examines how artificial intelligence could alter our understanding of death, consciousness and the soul.
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 co-produced by Arcola Theatre and Fuel.
#ADeadBodyInTaos
Fuel presents The Little Prince, in association with English Touring Theatre
Adapted by Inua Ellams
Directed by Femi Elufowoju, jr
Broken down in the Sahara Desert, desperate to repair her fighter jet, a pilot meets an extraordinary Little Prince. As he recounts his adventures, the pilot re-discovers the power of belief, the importance of doing what we can to protect our natural world, and the true meaning of friendship.
In Inua Ellams’ magical retelling, the Little Prince descends from an African race in a parallel galaxy. He travels across time and space seeking help to bring peace to his warring planet. His journey as a galactic emigrant addresses climate change, morality, takes us through solar systems of odd planets with strange beings, and shows how even a little thing can make a big difference.
Children and adults will be transported to the world of the Little Prince with puppetry, music of North African heritage and a rich Afrofuturist aesthetic.
Writer: Inua Ellams
Director: Femi Elufowoju, jr
Designer: Miriam Nabarro
Movement Director: Kemi Durosinmi
Composer: Cassie Kinoshi
Sound Designer: Lewis Gibson
Lighting Designer: Neill Brinkworth
Puppet Designer: Nick Barnes
Puppet Director: Laura Cubitt
Casting: Nadine Rennie
Dramaturg: David Greig
Co-commissioned by Fuel, Stratford Circus Arts Centre, ASU Gammage, Z-arts, The Albany, Warwick Arts Centre, and Future Arts Centres. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England, Golsoncott Foundation and the Garrick Trust.
#TheLittlePrince
Radical Mother is a music project that combines contemporary multi-vocal singing, improvisation, electronic sound, poetic and verbatim text.
It combines climate research, environmental philosophy, singing and sound, together with input from its audience, to build a fierce manifesto in answer to the crisis in our natural world. At the heart of the project is the concept of kinship and parenthood. Can we extend our understanding of those human experiences beyond immediate family, species and gender norms, and build a more just future society for each other and our biosphere?
The project constructs a future facing landscape of social thinking and feeling, through performance, writing, conversation, activism, street singing, composition and provocation.
The ideas for the work are founded on Melanie’s ongoing explorations in ecology, feminism and the future. She fuses her highly-skilled approach to theatre making with contemporary theories of compassion and community from philosophy (Timothy Morton), political theory (William Ophuls), eco-feminism (Donna Harraway), ecology (Dark Mountain) and climate change research. Melanie is collaborating with environmental psychologist Dr. Stuart Capstick (Cardiff University) on the project, who studies human behaviour in relation to climate change.
The project appeared at Pulse Festival and Coastal Currents Festival in 2018, and Latitude Festival 2019.
It will next appear at TEDx Bristol on 17th November.
A Fuel and National Theatre co-production.
Chekhov’s iconic characters are relocated to Nigeria in this bold new adaptation.
Owerri, 1967, on the brink of the Biafran Civil War. Lolo, Nne Chukwu and Udo are grieving the loss of their father. Months before, two ruthless military coups plunged the country into chaos. Fuelled by foreign intervention, the conflict encroaches on their provincial village, and the sisters long to return to their former home in Lagos.
Following his smash-hit Barber Shop Chronicles, Inua Ellams returns to the National Theatre with this heartbreaking retelling, directed by Nadia Fall (Home, Dara).
CREATIVES
Inua Ellams – Writer
Nadia Fall – Director
Peter Mumford – Lighting Designer
Polly Bennett – Movement Director
Michael Henry – Music Director and Vocal Arranger
Katrina Lindsay – Set and Costume Designer
Donato Wharton – Sound Designer
Femi Temowo – Composer
Moji Elufowoju – Staff Director
CAST
Ronke Adekoleujo
Adedeji Adetayo
Jonathan Ajayi
Jude Akuwudike
Tobi Bemtefa
Peter Bankolé
Anni Domingo
Lola May
Jerome Ngonadi
Sarah Niles
Ken Nwosu
Racheal Ofori
Joseph Ogeleka
Nasa Ohalete
Offue Okegbe
Chloe Okra
Sule Rimi
Natalie Simpson
Diana Yekinni
Following 18 months of extensive research into socio-economic inequality across the UK theatre industry, COMMON are using this research as a foundation to move into the next stage of our work as a sector-support organisation.
As part of our growth we are looking to design and deliver the pilot versions of career development programmes for creatives from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. In the first year we are particularly interested in focusing this support toward playwrights and producers.
As a producer-led organisation with learning and representation as two of its core values, Fuel is committed to supporting producers at all ages and stages, currently by offering paid producing internships, full and part time jobs for producers at different levels (which come with training budget and mentoring support), mentoring and advocacy for independent producers, and initiatives like Producer Farm. We are keen to continue removing any barriers producers from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds might face, and to discover new ways we can offer accessible development opportunities.
We are therefore delivering a COMMON: GROUND event to provide a platform for theatre producers from working and under-class backgrounds to share the barriers to skill and career development they encounter in the industry. COMMON’s Artistic Director, David Loumgair, will curate a solutions-focused dialogue with attendees around what support is needed in the sector to enable producers to overcome these barriers.
Our learnings from the discussion will enable COMMON and Fuel to learn how to design new, and develop existing, career development programmes to provide meaningful support to producers from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
This event is delivered with generous support from the Donmar Warehouse.