WHO WE ARE

Their stories are rooted by an in-depth research process, drawing upon collaborations with leading experts in fields as diverse as histopathology, neuroscience and social science.

The company is led by Artistic Directors Liam Jarvis and Hannah Barker, in collaboration with Producer Ric Watts. Their associates and collaborators come from a range of disciplines, from writing and directing to puppetry and computer game design. Company members have worked and trained with the likes of Theatre-Rites, Chris Goode, Suspect Culture, Gecko, and Punchdrunk.

www.analoguetheatre.co.uk

He has shown and developed new work in the UK and internationally at places like Battersea Arts Centre, Bristol Old Vic Ferment, MC (Amsterdam), Orchard Project (New York), MAKE (Ireland), Bios (Athens), LAX Festival (Los Angeles), Ovalhouse, Mayfest, Shoreditch Town Hall, Forest Fringe and The Yard, where he is also an Artistic Associate.

His most recent critically acclaimed solo performance, The Ted Bundy Project, has toured nationally and internationally. In 2014 he was shortlisted for a Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Fringe for Hurtling, an outdoor performance for one.

www.gregwohead.com

His other recent work includes Assassins (Menier Chocolate Factory; Evening Standard Award nomination for Best Director); Urinetown (St James & Apollo); The Commitments (Palace Theatre); Cyrano de Bergerac (Roundabout Theatre Company; American Airlines Theatre, Broadway); The Duchess of Malfi (Old Vic); She Stoops to Conquer (National Theatre); The Faith Machine and the Olivier Award-winning The Pride (Royal Court); Inadmissible Evidence, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the Evening Standard Award-winning Passion and Polar Bears (Donmar Warehouse); Piaf (Donmar Warehouse, Vaudeville Theatre, Teatro Liceo in Buenos Aires & Nuevo Teatro Alcala in Madrid; Olivier Award nomination for Best Musical Revival, Hugo Award for Best Director, Clarin Award for Best Musical Production, ADEET Award for Best Production); The Little Dog Laughed (Garrick); Three Days of Rain (Apollo; Olivier & WhatsOnStage Award nominations for Best Revival); The Lover and The Collection (Comedy Theatre); Elegies: A Song Cycle (Arts); The School for Scandal (Theatre Royal, Bath); Salome (Headlong); Eric’s (Liverpool Everyman), and The Caretaker (Sheffield Crucible & Tricycle). For radio, he directed and co-adapted Orson Welles’ Heart of Darkness (BBC Radio 4).

He has also directed work as a part of the Old Vic’s 24 Hour Plays and Musicals and at the Royal Court International Residencies, and was on the panel for the 2015 Kevin Spacey Foundation Theatre Awards. He was Associate Director of the Donmar Warehouse from 2008 to 2011 and a former Associate Artist of Headlong. Jamie was a Macgeorge Fellow with the University of Melbourne in 2016

There are 6 full time members of simple8 - Mat Wandless, Emily Pennant-Rea, Christopher Doyle, Sebastian Armesto, Dudley Hinton and Hannah Emanuel - as well as a number of associates who work alongside them.

The company was formed in London in 2004 to create the kind of work they love – work focused on simplicity, the collective and the story. Using a variety of techniques – poor theatre, mime, live music and song, puppetry and magic – simple8 aim to put on new plays that are fun, inventive, original and daring.

simple8 believe they define a style of theatre that is unique in this country: large ensemble-casts creating new writing through extensive research and development, inspired by material that is rarely explored.
 
simple8 want to produce simple stories, simply told.

www.simple8.co.uk

Their aim is to make work that inspires, moves and challenges both themselves and the audience. They look at the world and try to present it in unexpected and revealing ways. Their work constantly comes back to the dilemmas of ordinary people in extra-ordinary situations, using humour and playfulness to tell stories that can also be dark and bleak.

Theatre O look for a visual poetry that highlights something essential behind human relationships and behaviour.

Theatre O create strong, imaginative theatrical worlds in which to tell stories and they look for surprising and unexpectedly appropriate languages to express those stories. Their interest lies in creating an interactive relationship with the audience who, in return, have to engage with what’s unfolding before them, not just sit back and watch.

They aim to create work that could not be done in any other medium, that makes sense only as theatre.

www.theatreo.co.uk

Since 2008, they’ve worked with some of the country’s most exciting, engaged playwrights to make work about everything from the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes (Oh Well Never Mind Bye) to the financial meltdown of 2007-8 (The Maddening Rain) and the erosion of human liberty that happens when artist’s imaginations are enclosed (Silent Planet).

In 2011 artistic director Tom Mansfield and associate director James Blakey co-founded Oscar Mike, which aimed to make theatre for audiences who want to play. Following their collaboration on The Situation Room and A Day In The Life Of Someone Else, they’ve decided to merge the two companies, bringing together everything that excites them about the new writing and interactive strands of their theatre making.

They are going to be making theatre which is playful, political and provocative - and which places you, the audience, in the heart of the show.

www.analoguetheatre.co.uk

Flashy, rough, silly and serious, they explore the big ideas of our time through intimate human stories. They are usually energetic, often irreverent and dedicated to finding the place where the intellectual and the emotional collide.

The company’s first two shows RIOT and 33 have toured nationally and internationally to venues including BAC, Salisbury Playhouse, Northern Stage and Jack, Brooklyn, NY. In 2013 RIOT was part of the Limited Editions season at The Shed at the NT, alongside artists Dan Canham and Little Bulb.

The company are an Associate of the Bike Shed Theatre, Exeter, where they have made three Christmas shows; Eliza and the Wild Swans and Edgar and the Land of Lost, and Eloise and the Curse of the Golden Whisk. Also in their repertoire is a show for ages 3-8, The Star Seekers, a co-production with The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol.

Their third full company show 1972: The Future of Sex was commissioned by Shoreditch Town Hall and played Latitude, Bestival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where it received 4 and 5 star reviews in local and national press. The company also won a Stage Award and a Mervyn Stutter Pick of the Fringe Award.

www.thewardrobeensemble.com