Ovalhouse begin 2018 with another dynamic and innovative season of shows plus four new FiRST BiTES. For the first time, Owen Calvert-Lyons, Ovalhouse’s Head of Theatre & Artist Development, will be directing a brand-new show Random Selfies by Olivier Award-winning playwright Mike Kenny, as part of a three-year research project into child loneliness.
Their Spring Season will open with Medea Electronica – an electrifying retelling of the myth of Medea which has been reimagined as a 1980s Prog Rock gig. Additionally, in the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum last year, Spanish artists Patricia and Mercè invite you to their ‘leaving party’ in Derailed. And, if you thought you’d had enough of referendums to last a lifetime, This Restless State fast forwards us to 2052 where Europe is ravaged by a continental war with a new referendum looming. The season will conclude with Coconut, a new comedy challenging the assumptions about Islam as we follow a modern Muslim woman looking for love.
Ovalhouse’s FiRST BiTES remain a significant part of their programme as springboards of new ideas. This season sees One Item Only and So Many Reasons – two successful and poignant past FiRST BiTES – that return as full-length productions. This season’s four new works-in- development will explore female sexuality, mental health, and neo-liberal capitalism.
Owen Calvert-Lyons, Ovalhouse’s Head of Theatre & Artist Development, comments, It’s hard to know what to be more excited about in our Spring Season programme: our artists’ responses to Brexit; my own debut production for Ovalhouse; the launch of our new Learning and Participation programme; or the fact that 75% of our productions this season are female-led. If I had to pick one thing, I might choose A Crash Course in Cloudspotting, our Unlimited commission, which invites audiences to take part in the radical act of lying down in public. It might just be the most rewarding 10 minutes that you spend this year.
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