New Diorama Theatre – London’s top theatre for work by emerging companies will present a sparkling range of shows this November, leaping around different theatrical forms, covering subject matter ranging from pressing real-life issues to fantastical (yet oddly familiar) universes, and made by companies from around the UK and beyond.
Deafinitely – the UK’s only professional deaf-led theatre company, will present a brand new site-specific production of Contractions (1-29 Nov) – the searing dark comedy about corporate survival by Mike Bartlett (Dr. Foster, King Charles III).
The production will be the first full-length run to take place at ND2 the cavernous former JP Morgan building in Regent’s Place, currently used by New Diorama as an affordable rehearsal space and site-specific theatre venue.
Atresbandes – the inventive Catalan company who transcend the borders between physical theatre and performance art – will then follow with their latest production All In (7-11 Nov) in which dictatorships, nightclubs, national anthems, education and self-help manuals combine to form an epic story that questions how free we really are from the tyranny of the crowd.
The theatre will also showcase a range of fearlessly experimental and deliriously fun work by some of its brightest emerging companies.
First up, I Want You To Admire Me/But You Shouldn’t is a brand-new interactive performance-game show from Dirty Rascals, whose work combines installation art, audience games and urgent direct address prose to create an utterly individual experience. (12 Nov)
Following this is Thunder-Whales: Escape from Wave World – a raucous psychedelic comedy from Red Cape Black Cape about a pair of killer whales’ quest to escape from a Florida water park. (14 Nov)
After that, Child’s Play by Kalon is an explosive spoken word interrogation of what it means to be 20-something, over-educated, and suspicious of almost everything (16 Nov), while Fat Rascal’s Tom and Bunny Save the World is a zombie apocalypse comedy with a live folk soundtrack. (17 Nov)
The Coolidge Effect by Wonderfools uses real life interviews with porn advocates, addicts, mental health experts and scientists to explore the role of pornography in society through interactive storytelling, poetry and science (18 Nov), before Argonaut’s Action at a Distance explores the relationship between the nation and the individual and President Barack Obama’s complex legacy, particularly when it comes to the use of drones in combat. (20 & 21 Nov)
The final week of the month sees Wagner & Potter present Leaf – an unhinged comedy that might possibly be the theatrical spawn of Monty Python and the Mighty Boosh (25 Nov), and Lands by Bush Theatre associate company Antler; a raw but playful insight into a relationship on the brink of collapse. (26 & 27 Nov).
