For their spring season 2017, Ovalhouse have returned to their roots of home-grown talent, staging urgent, radical theatre that continues to inspire. This will be Owen Calvert-Lyon’s first major season as Head of Theatre and Artist Development at Ovalhouse – London’s longest serving commissioning theatre.
This season provides an imaginative and innovative collection of shows including TOOT’s exploration of the dark heart of commercial culture, the discovery and connection of female ancestors in Perfectly Imperfect Women and Custody’s exploration of suffering from police injustice. Alongside the 130th show by People Show and two magically wonderful family shows providing some half term fun, the season concludes with two Edinburgh Festival Fringe hits – JOAN, a gritty and tender re-telling of Joan of Arc, and Eurohouse – a darkly comic view of the Greek financial crisis.
Owen Calvert-Lyons, Ovalhouse’s Head of Theatre & Artist Development, comments, “It is such a privilege to create a theatre programme for this iconic venue. Ovalhouse has an extraordinary history as a home for radical theatre. In the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s all of the revolutionary theatre movements had a home here. From Gay Sweat Shop to the Black Panthers, Ovalhouse ensured that marginalised voices and ideas were brought into the mainstream. My first season intends to continue that great legacy; ensuring that new artists, with new things to say, have the space in which to say them, to ensure that we take risks on both art and artists. Our job is to ensure that we create an environment in which the next radical theatre movement, when it comes along, is recognised, nurtured and championed.”
