Gateforth Street (Off Church Street)

London, NW8 8EH

Telephone: 020 7258 2920

Fax: 020 7258 2921

E-mail: mail@cockpittheatre.org.uk

Reservations: 020 7258 2925

----------2006-2007 Season----------

 6 MARCH 2007 

Reginald Ofodile presents Across The Bridge

Voices from differing streams of culture, experience and expectations. 

Written and performed by Reginald Ofodile 

Smoke Yourself Slim presents She Becomes One

Four lonely hearts, one bar, four different tales to tell.

Smoke Yourself Slim has bee looking into 'the pursuit of love' and the idea of 'love as a necessity', using the performers' own beliefs and experiences.  They have also researched this theme by taking part in internet dating, blind dating and speed dating in order to compile personae. 

Performed by Claudia Daufratshofer, Ella Mauger, Robert Nials, Iara Solano.

Directed by Naia Headland-Vanni

Devised by the company

Music by Adam Ireland and Sammy Metcalfe  

The Pounders’ Slot presents Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

The measure of the story is the causality between the events. Reordering events results in the disordering of causality. What happens next (or previously) is anyone's guess. Attend.

Performed by Michael O’Kelly

Written by Chris Lincé 

INTERVAL 

Siren Turner presents Hotpants

'One woman. One mirror. A few men....'

Written and performed by Siren Turner  

Limelight Theatre Company presents It's My Life

See the world through a young person's eyes.  A group of passengers on an underground train, a fighting crowd of rivals outside a nightclub, the truth about teenage pregnancy.

The merriment, trials and tribulations of childhood are explored in this upbeat powerful musical. 

Performed by Rahi Chadda, Lauren Cummins, Elton D'sane, Jesse English, Monique Etlenne, Osman Mohamed, Veronica Nolasco, Marie Osman, Karina Sheehan-Crespi.

Director/Producer: Jordan Blake-Klein

Assistant Director: Bella Keegan

Stage Manager: Rosie Cooper

Choreographer: Catherine Nolasco

Singing Coach: Adwoa Mintah

Drama Tutor: Donovan Simpson

 

SHOW PHOTOGRAPHY BY FELIPE RAMALHO

 6 FEBRUARY 2007 

City Lit Diploma Group 1 presents Total Theatre 1

11 Lines.  11 Lives.  Simple.

Devised and performed by Jean Apps, Emma Rachel Blackman, Karlina Grace, Caz Potter, April Small, Wendy Maclennan, Richie Cloete, Stephen Graham, Scott Hinds, Tom Boddington, Tom Harris 
Additional direction by Petina Hapgood

Just Us presents Fanciful Flight

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  A piece about a girl and her experiences with boys.  Of course she's in search of the fairytale, but she knows Prince Charming probably had an affair when the princess hit the menopause.  She's aware - it'd just be nice to know there were a prince worth marrying in the first place. 
Performed by Anna Davies and Rob Smytheson  Written and directed by Anna Davies

Interval 

City Lit Diploma Group 2 presents Total Theatre 2

Savour this collection of mouth-watering moments.  An exquisite blend of nutty nibbles with a bitter sweet  aftertaste.  And Stuart!

Devised and performed by Eilis Jordan, Lauren Little, Edith Barlow, Cecilia Mandanes, Ruth Rowbury, Amanda Steadman, Stuart Taylor, Ryan Wilson, Bill Hutchins, Stephan Middleton, Ben Rogers. 
Additional direction by Petina Hapgood  

T Performs presents Camille Claudel 

“Alone at the Quai Bourbon, the sculptress Camille Claudel grapples with the memories of her loved ones - Rodin, mother, brother - and, through her work, seeks to carve out her own identity as a woman and an artist. Stylised movement, text, sound and projected images serve to evoke Camille’s world as she drifts further from the realms of reality.” 
“…I construct my own reality. I construct it out of formless clay. I caress it into existence with the love and tenderness of my raw hands, my twisted reason…” 

Devised, performed and text written/compiled by Tania Coke 
Video art by Carly Ashdown    Soundscape by Tony Nwachukwu

Interval 

Motormouse Productions presents Raise The Spirit

A snippet of a global wine tour run by Angus Tarte (Plymouth's leading wine critic) lands him in some hot water and a showdown with Blue Nun, "the filthy mistake from the 70s".  Blue Nun intends to redeem her name and expose the fraudulent wine connoisseur. 

En route, Angus meets some characters he'd probably rather have left at 'Wine Rack'.  Definitely not for wine snobs.

Angus Tarte - Clive Ward

Brony - Rebecca Hunt

Carol - Karen Bartholomew

Blue Nun – Mairead Conneely

Written by Karen Bartholomew       Directed by Stephan Bessant 

Look Up! Theatre Company presents The Loop

Waiting at the same bus stop, going to different directions, but coming back to the same place as ever. Same destiny to all different destinations…

Inspired by the idea of "transportation" in the big cities, The Loop is about the absurdity of lives created to survive in the modern jungles called the city.  Everyday we meet with lots of different people in the bus stops, tube station… Have you shared the same destiny with any of them?

Devised and performed by Lisa Cornelius and Ceyda Erdemli

Video Projection by Yilmaz Demir

 9 JANUARY 2007 

1st - The Pounders' Slot presents Sleight of Mind

Another unrehearsed reading of a theatrical experiment.  This month we explore the merits and flaws of preparation v spontaneity.

Performed by Michael O’Kelly

Written by Chris Lincé

 2nd - Partner in Production Crime presents Something about Sara

The play is a comedy based on Sara’s real life experiences in her insane attempts to find Mr Right. Would you have dared to do half the deeds Sara has attempted in her life? One thing is for sure, you will not know what to expect when this unpredictable actress takes to the stage to perform this unique show.  The play is a comedy based on Sara’s real life experiences in her insane attempts to find Mr Right.

Written, performed and co-produced by Sara Louise Campbell

Directed and co-produced by Bambos Antoniou

INTERVAL

3rd - Freefall Performing Lab presents Game for 4 and Double Bass

Game for Four and Double Bass is based on the idea of finding an effective and focused body - a body 'at work'. Strict game rules, set in a mathematical structure, are used to condition the movement and text and release the performers from psychological motives and performative worries. It becomes then a composition of sound and movement performed in real time. Game for Four and Double Bass marks the second stage in Freefall's work on body and sound.

Conceived and directed by Tania Alexio de Matos

Text and dramaturgy by Andrew Eglinton

Music by Jerelle Jacob

Performed by Andrew Eglinton, Arabella Stanger, Filipa Tomas, Hariklia Voutsa 

4th - The Pounders' Slot presents Sleight of Mind (Reprise)

Under the direction of Dave Wybrow.
 

 5 DECEMBER 2006 

 14 NOVEMBER 2006 

1st - Errol Baptiste presents 90 Days

The introduction of 90 Days detention without trial based on the human rights issues related on the State of Emergency in Apartheid South Africa[1960s-1990],sus law on stop and search in Britain[affected the ethnic minority communities of 1970s].The recent police raid in Forest Gate, East London and the Extradition of the Nat West 3 to the US also the government is attempting to pass the 90 days detention without trial.

myspace.com/errol1964

2nd - Skating With Fish presents Le Cacatoes

This is the third production by Skating with Fish, the first being Brief Encounters, which was also performed at the Cockpit. Le Cacatoès is a work in progress, taken from a full length play due to be performed in 2007. It might be the story of the first day in a French Gîte. It might involve French people and English guests, possibly a parrot. It is definitely not a story about chickens.

3rd - Motormouse Productions presents Rough Trade
Karen is a primarily a comic writer and performer. She's had success in Edinburgh, featured on TV and received glowing reviews most notably from  Mariella Frostrup. Karen's company 'Motormouse Productions' performs for corporate clients, festivals and theatres and they are showcasing their new show early January 07. Further details can be found at motormouseuk.com

INTERVAL

4th - Motormouse Productions presents Funbee Travel

A second short monologue from Karen Bartholomew

5th - Hand To Mouth presents Product 1

A glance into Hand to Mouths exploration into social conditioning, social responsibility and change through action and articulation via art.

6th - Zoo Theatre presents Stork Bite

Julie is a working-class woman from Hackney. She is a damaged but likeable mother, recovering from an attempted suicide on a cruise ship bound for Australia with a bunch of old letters that date from her father's time there. She thinks the letters might contain the secret of her adoption and how her father came to bring her back to Hackney...and hence her own mother's indifference towards her. Was she really given to her father as a baby by a mysterious girl in a long green dress? The piece is beautifully written, moving and humorous, firmly grounded in family relationships.

 10 OCTOBER 2006 

1st - Yellow Jacket presents The Rations Brigade

In 1939 the Second World War broke out across Europe , and ordinary people with ordinary lives suddenly found themselves in extraordinary situations. A few years later in 1944, Kitty Woodall a local do-gooder from North London , has decided to take over the running of a local WVS group. After placing an ad in a local post-office asking for female volunteers, she hopes many women will arrive. When four local misfits turn up, Kitty panics that she has made a big mistake.

The Rations Brigade is a new play written by Danielle Fenemore and explores the camaraderie that people experience when placed in situations that test their insecurities and fears. The War forces Kitty and the other women to get on with each other, for they all have one thing in common, the need to survive. Suddenly out of what seems like an endless and hopeless situation, new and strong friendships are born, secrets are revealed, and lies uncovered.

Written by  Danielle Fenemore

Cast: Hamble Padden, Emma Carroll, Lindsay McGill, Danielle Fenemore, Rebecca Ashwood

2nd - Paul Jayson presents In Pursuit of the Wild Bean Café

Driven by financial desperation and about to loose his home, Paul Jayson takes a job as a security driver for an escort agency, driving sex workers in and around London . This is a story based around his real-life experiences and actual verbatim conversations with the women he worked with. It introduces us to some of the characters in the industry and gives the audience an authentic insight into the reality of the job Paul did for six months of his life.

Written and performed by Paul Jayson

INTERVAL

3rd - The Crown Jules presents Poetry Emotion

This is a one girl show where a women talks to the audience revisiting aspects of her life. Each aspect will lead me into a poem through the eyes of this young woman who is reminiscing about her past, her dreams and aspirations for the future, as well as the harsh reality of her daily life.

Written and performed by Julie Isaac

4th - The Pounders’ Slot presents Deference 2

Two actors drawn from across the Pound community meet for the first time onstage.  They've each got their own script but not the other's.  How does this affect the performance dynamic?  Will they cooperate or compete?  Will the stories sync or sink? What's going to happen?  We simply don't know...

Written by Chris Lincé

Performed by Fiona Knight & Michael O'Kelly

5th - Random Cactus presents Lie Detector

Isn't the truth the truth?  Probably not when the State only hears what it wants to hear.  Marie Bobin's chilling production raises all kinds of questions about the government's apparently unstoppable quest to overhaul civil liberties.

Written by Peter Yates

Directed by Marie Bobin

Cast: Thorpe - James Flynn, Beaulieu - Jennifer Taylor

----------2005-2006 Season----------

 3 MAY 2006 

1st - Vanilla Visions

Delta and Selwyn have the normal struggles of a young black couple trying to carve out an identity in contemporary London .  She is a deputy assistant but should be running a corporation.  He is studying banking in between being a fulltime security guard.  Getting the qualification has been hard enough, but when will he start the career?  Both are obsessed with success'. Then one day, into their on/off relationship, into their most intimate space, Delta introduces a bit of bondage and a flogger learnt from one of her fetish friends.  Can their relationship ever be the same again?

Written and directed by Carol Sidney

Produced by Melanie Bewers

Performers: "Delta" played by Dionne Neish & "Selwyn" played by Stevie Cox.

2nd - Ten In A Bed Theatre Company The Citadel

A walled city is overtaken by a powerful Baron, in a landscape deserted and torn apart by war. Into this chaotic arena, two lost soldiers find themselves choosing between honour and revolution, friendship and survival.

A powerful and challenging work-in-progress, Ten In a Bed Theatre Company presents scenes from the latest work by Matthew Bartlett (Dirty Underwear).

Directed by Matthew Bartlett and Ben Skinner.

Written by Matthew Bartlett - Additional Direction by Joan Davison. Performed by Matthew Bartlett, Martin Scorer, Mike Shephard, Ben Skinner, Joanna Frawley, Liz Montgomery, Veronica Humphris & Jon Baldwin

INTERVAL

3rd - Skating With Fish Brief Encounters

8 monologues are woven together to create a patchwork of stories, faces and experiences. Through song, movement and alphabet soup Skating with Fish explore isolation and the ever present sense of solitude in a city of 7 million.

Directed by Honour Bayes  - Devised by the Company

Performed by Ben Tunningley, Bonnie Adair, Michelle Wormleighton, Peter Mckinney, Aglaia Mora, Fran Smyth & Peggy Denimal.

4th - Fuse presents Arms Control Arms Control Arms

Arms Control Arms Control Arms is the working title for the World's first Fuse Short. We are in the process of creating a selection of pocket- sized performances around five minutes long.  Fuse Shorts will be just like the world and the inside of our heads: messy, confused, struggling and with too little time to sort it all out.  Risky, accessible and comic theatre in less than 500 heart beats.

If you want to sign up to the Arms Trade Treaty petition, go to www.controlarms.org, or text your name and the word FACE to 84118.

Directed by Chris Gage

Created by Fuse

Performed by Ben Neale & Chris Gage

Other company members: Olly Langdon, Chris Lincé

Creative Producer: Lydia Spry

INTERVAL

5th - An unnamed collective Kind Eyes See so Far

"This tale is not for the telling, nor are these horns for honking."

In this original production, three performers simply called Perpetrator, Victim, and Bystander create a multimedia performance with tense choreography amongst a landscape of boomboxes that weave together music by John Cage, Laurie Anderson, and Calla.

Written and Directed by Jeremey Catterton

Three: Peter Henderson  -  Two First: Joanna Betts

One: Caleb Marshall  -  Two Second: Anna Andresen

6th - SweetShop RevolutionDulce et Decorum

Looking at war, examining the conflict at the heart of the individual and how this translates to a larger arena. It is a look at Britishness, the humour and contradictions of human nature in relation to conflict, our anaesthetised reality and what it takes to puncture the veneer of the polite.  We look at suffering as entertainment and suffering as a ‘reaching out’ and thus a lessoning of our isolation.

(p.s Dulce et Decorum translates as Sweet and Honourable…………it is to die for one’s country.)

Directed: Sally Marie - Music: Karl Lutchmayer

Performers: Meline Danieiewicz, Kath Duggan, Wendy Hesketh

This research was supported by The Arts Council, The Cockpit Theatre, The Place and The Park and Dare Theatre.

INTERVAL

7th - Easy Tiger Productions present Fortinbras Forensics

Set in a High Security Forensics Laboratory it is up to the forensics scientists and audience participants to piece together this innovative, fast paced and intelligent contemporary revision of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’.

Fortinbras Forensics creates and attributes new meanings to Hamlet. It challenges traditional thoughts of interpretation, and compels its audience to explore and discover the essence of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ for themselves.

Directed, designed and written by Annika Cox

Lighting Design by Keith Jones

Sound Design by Mona Sweeny

Stage Management by Sarah Houston

Performed by Marc Talucher, Jay Talucher,  Dave Cox, Laura Bruce, Annika Cox, Sarah Munnery & Chan Vi

 5 APRIL 2006 

1st - The Yellowchair Performance Experience (TYPE) presents
The Source Of All The Evil 

Adapted from Chicken, the autobiography of 1970s sex worker David Sterry.

See davidhenrysterry.com 

Directed by Hugh Allison.

Performed by Joe Cronin, Nigel de Sousa, Manolis Emannoeul, Jean Martinez, John Pope-de-Locksley.

2nd - Lollipop Productions presents Congratulations It's A Girl!
Post-natal depression is a condition which affects hundred of women from all backgrounds.  In this instance we see the condition from the point of view of a Nigerian mother and how culture and upbringing affect her.

                           Written and Performed by Lola Adedeji.

INTERVAL - with jazzy tinklings in the foyer from Alex Windsor.

3rd - The Rooftop Theatre presents Cold Turkey
Christmas day in the pub, and it's not just the mulled wine that's getting heated.  'Cold Turkey' consists of bragging, boasting and long running family feuds.  Samantha's sowing seeds of discontent with her acid tongue, though the cocaine going up her nose is more likely the catalyst.  Jane won't be put in her place that easily though, her son's making a mint and everyone's going to hear about it.  With friends like these, who needs enemies?

                           Written by Hugh Jordan    Directed by Gary Brashier

                        Performed by Alistair Cope, Archie Whyld, Caroline Norton, Gary Brashier, Holly Clarke

4th - Shinything Productions presents Deborah's Interview
Deborah is on her way the most important interview of her life.  Problem is, she has phobias of just about everything.  Will she get there or will wasps and pigeons get her first?  A bittersweet comedy set on a train carriage.

                           Written and performed by Sharon Cannings

5th - Plan B presents The Plan B Show 
Could be described as monologue fragments of post-ironic dystopic rage.  But it really isn’t.  It’s a non-stop comedy show with sharp dialogue, unpredictable set ups, clever twists and musical tangents.

Written and produced by Simeon Goulden and Thomas Nelstrop.

Performed by (in order of height): Thomas Nelstrop, Phil Ormerod, Pia de Keyser, Andy Spiers and Eve Webster. For more info, see thomasnelstrop.com

INTERVAL - with jazzy tinklings in the foyer from Alex Windsor.

6th - Flynn Ink presents The Girls
Russia , 1942.  As Hitler's grip on the Eastern Front tightens, five schoolgirls try to cover up a murder.  A KGB man waits outside in the snow.  By the end, one of the girls will be executed.

                        Written by Peter Flynn.  Cast names not known at time of press.

7th - Little d-fects presents You Are Here
Little d-fects return to the Cockpit with stories of escapism, travelling, unusual directions and longing for home; all told with their unique mix of music, dance and theatre.

                        Written by Jo Fletcher-Cross.  Directed and Performed by the company.

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 1 MARCH 2006 

1st - Creation 3 presents The Daysleeper's Yarn

Based on excerpts from Dylan Thomas' 'Under Milkwood'. This piece is a culmination of a 6 week research period exploring the idea of character, or more accurately extremes of character, and what differing performative elements create individuality within a sole actor.

Performed by Oliver Bedford and Catherine Rhian James.

Directed by Simon Magnus.

2nd - Oval Productions presents Out & Out: a closet drama

Elton’s had to cancel last minute due to a honeymoon hangover so Nathan Kiley and Laura Barrie will be standing in to give you a taste of “Out and Out: A closet Drama”. Leaving not a mothball unturned, if you’ll come out, they promise you a thoroughly gay evening!

Performed by Nathan Kiley and Laura Barrie.  Written by Nathan Kiley.

INTERVAL - with jazzy tinklings in the foyer from Alex Windsor

3rd - Fried Fish Theatre Company Partners

A twisted tale of a daughter’s revenge on an abusive father:  a complete 20 minute play about love, incest, murder, marital breakdown and misunderstanding.

Performed by Frank Gordon, Caitlin Levene, Jose Pecino, Maureen Reeves and Rosie Waters.  Original music by Frank Gordon.

Directed by Rosie Waters and Caitlin Levene. 

4th - Faked Theatre presents Kaboom!

A short adventure in burlesque and clowning.

Devised and performed by Felicia Johansson  

Production Assistant: Jeremey Catterton

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 8 FEBRUARY 2006 

1st - Secret Centre Theatre presents

                    If My Heart Were A Camera I'd Shoot True Love
What happens when your art is too dangerous to share?  The madness and the ecstasy of photography have caught up with Alice Farnell as she returns from the recent war with her eagerly awaited pictures.

Written and Directed by Dan Horrigan.  Performed by: Elizabeth Elstub - 'Alice Farnell', Christopher Terry - 'Pieter Rapinsky', Catherine Houston Eyers - 'Sarah Pins'

2nd - Nancy & Mary presents Savour
A lone performer re-creates memories and evokes the existence of others in order to come as close as she can to the real thing.

                        Devised by Nancy & Mary.  Performed by Mary.

INTERVAL - with jazzy tinklings in the foyer from Alex Windsor

3rd - Milk Bottle presents Blind Spots
A blind man waits in the desert, he is older than he looks and wise beyond his years.  He is Teiresias, one of the last survivors of the city that burns nearby.  Waiting to die he is interrupted by a young girl who calls him Mother.

                            Written & Directed by Robert Crighton.  Performed by Robert Crighton and Ailsa Ilott.

4th - Les Landscapes Theatre Co presents Domestic Acrobatics
Taking food and eating as a language which speaks of human behaviour, Les Landscapes Theatre Co. explores one moment at the Table in the relationship between two human with their growing appetite for a game.

Directed and performed by Uma Busaraphorn Tongman & Jonathan Fitchett Stage Management by Chris Ankrit Chuer-Am

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 18 JANUARY 2006 

1st - The El Lupo Theatre Company presents

                    'Catskills II - Angles With Dirty Faces'                   

'Angles With Dirty Faces'  The second of the Catskills trilogy, the follow up to an earlier 2005 Theatre In The £ piece.  The complete trilogy is being staged at the White Bear Theatre, the last week in February. In this comedic piece, our Deep South American friends, Hank and Betsy have been arrested for the alleged murder of Hank’s mother, Mamma.  Under intense interrogation by the rather inept Sheriff Hootkins and Deputy Duane Hank and Betsy reveal the truth of what actually happened that fateful night.  But a mixture of a phone call and the appearance of a mysterious stranger might leave everyone’s truth in tatters.

Written and Directed by Dean M Drinkel.  Hank – Ed Ward.  Betsy – Laura Melclon.  Sheriff Hootkins – Tucker Stevens.  Deputy Chambers – Graham Townsend

2nd - Reginald Ofodile presents 'Expressive Verses'
Poetic muses on humanity's pleasantness and foibles performed with creative vocality and physicality .

                        Written and performed by Reginald Ofodile

INTERVAL - with jazzy tinklings in the foyer from Alex Windsor

3rd - The Yellowchair Performance Experience (TYPE) presents

                    'Appropriate Attire'
A satire on workplace fashion. Directed and adapted by Hugh Allison (‘Pretty Boy’/’Rosalind & The Bear’ - *****  What’s On. ‘Taj’ - "Funny, real, compelling, touching" - Gyles Brandreth)