NEW SHOWS
RedCape
shows currently in development:
1 Beach Road
A tale of two sisters; an old synchronised swimming double act. Coming to the end of their career they retire to their coastal childhood home, only to find it is the last house left standing.
1, Beach Road is the only house not to have been washed away by the sea. The very sea on which their father sailed away and their mother drowned herself.
Like The Idiot Colony the starting point will be true stories; the stories of the communities that are beginning to disappear from the east coast of England - Britain’s first climate change refugees. 1 Beach Road will explore what it means today to own land and what if the sea puts in a higher offer.
In development 2009. Available for touring Autumn 2010
In early June RedCape went to Happisburgh where Beach Road is falling into the sea. We met a impassioned, battle weary campaign leader, a lighthouse trustee with an vertiginous overview, had a lesson in coastal erosion drawn in the sand, visited the hanging gardens of Clifftops B&B (closed for business) and, as the tide lashed in, walked amongst the disintegrating sea defences. It was a fascinating few days, both very moving and rather bleak at times; fish and chips were consumed. We took a lot of video footage, a barrage of photos, copious notes and recorded hours of interviews.
During our three-week work period in Reading, RedCape are delighted to collaborate again with Andrew Dawson and Sabina Netherclift (The Idiot Colony), and are thrilled to be joined by New York playwright Solveig Holum and designer Tina Bicat (Critics Circle Drama Award for Design). Combining their successful mix of beautiful visual theatre, physical storytelling, new writing and a sense of humour 1 Beach Road will uncover people's stories hidden beneath the statistics and the rubble. What does it mean to lose your home from under your feet?
In Happisburgh, since 2004, 24 metres of land and 26 homes along Beach Road have vanished. 80 year-old Phyllis lost her retirement bungalow. Diana & Gill's B&B's garden disappeared. One family home was re-valued by their bank. It is now worth £1. Government policy means that they will receive no compensation for their losses. Every night as they sleep in their beds residents listen to the crash of the waves and the slow thumps of land falling into the sea.
"I always wanted a sea view - you have to be careful what you wish for round here" Happisburgh Resident
For centuries the low-lying coast of East Anglia has battled with the elements. The church bells of Shipden are rumoured to be heard from under the sea off Cromer; graves at Eccles are sometimes exposed on the beach; the greater part of the once thriving coastal port of Dunwich is now beneath the waves. During the 1953 Norfolk floods, the UK's worst peacetime natural disaster, the sea claimed 300 lives. In response the government built wooden sea defences and a policy to "hold the line". A combination of rising sea levels and economics resulted in Natural England's 2004 declaration that the nine miles of sea defences “unsustainable”. They advised a "managed retreat" to “realign the coast”. This will wipe a large part of Norfolk off the map giving up 600 homes across six villages to the rising seas.
From Newbury With Love
1971, In the depths of the Cold War, the daughter of an imprisoned Soviet dissident received a postcard from across the Iron Curtain that changed her family's life.
Harold & Olive Edwards, antiquarian booksellers in Newbury, wrote to the family of Marina Aidova, aged 8, because her birthday was one day before Harold's. They signed the postcard "From Newbury With Love". The families wrote to each other for the next 16 years. The letters were inspired by an Amnesty letter-writing campaign asking people to support the families of Soviet prisoners of conscience. Marina's father had been sent to the gulag for running an illegal printing press. This remarkable correspondence chronicles a fascinating period of social, political history and the intimate, seldom heard details of daily life in two very different worlds. The letters finish when Harold passes away, aged 90. Marina was 24.
In an our age of emails, texts and SMS, From Newbury With Love reminds us of the simple power of putting pen to paper.
From Newbury With Love is a proposed association between RedCape Theatre and Amnesty International. Dates to be confirmed.
Big Berta
Berta is feeling like she doesn't fit. Literally. Being a teenager in the suburbs is taking it's toll: Mum & Dad are 'having difficulties', school is dull, the netball team is full of bullies and last (but definitely not least) Berta is having a radical growth spurt. When she falls in love with the new paper-boy her increasing size and over-active hormones start affecting the weather with cataclysmic results.
A modern-day Romeo & Juliet in a mundane setting. Big Berta is an elegy for all our troubled teenage years.
Using puppetry, stop-motion animation, a dynamic set, two tall actors, tragedy, comedy and a bit of magic, Big Berta is an absurd, sensory rollercoaster.
Directed by Claire Coaché
Puppetry & Design by Yngvild Aspeli
Written by Melanie Wilson & Lisle Turner
Mentored by Gavin Glover
Berta played by Melanie Wilson
Inspired by the novel 'Berta La Larga' by Cuca Canals.
Big Berta is a proposed collaboration between RedCape Theatre, South Street Arts Centre, Reading and the Berkshire Venues Consortium, Institut Internationale de la Marionette in Charleville-Mezieres, France and Figurteateret i Nordland in Stamsund, Norway. Big Berta was a finalist for the 2008 Samuel Beckett Theatre Award.
Suitable for ages 12+
1 Beach Road
A tale of two sisters; an old synchronised swimming double act. Coming to the end of their career they retire to their coastal childhood home, only to find it is the last house left standing.
1, Beach Road is the only house not to have been washed away by the sea. The very sea on which their father sailed away and their mother drowned herself.
Like The Idiot Colony the starting point will be true stories; the stories of the communities that are beginning to disappear from the east coast of England - Britain’s first climate change refugees. 1 Beach Road will explore what it means today to own land and what if the sea puts in a higher offer.
In development 2009. Available for touring Autumn 2010
In early June RedCape went to Happisburgh where Beach Road is falling into the sea. We met a impassioned, battle weary campaign leader, a lighthouse trustee with an vertiginous overview, had a lesson in coastal erosion drawn in the sand, visited the hanging gardens of Clifftops B&B (closed for business) and, as the tide lashed in, walked amongst the disintegrating sea defences. It was a fascinating few days, both very moving and rather bleak at times; fish and chips were consumed. We took a lot of video footage, a barrage of photos, copious notes and recorded hours of interviews.
During our three-week work period in Reading, RedCape are delighted to collaborate again with Andrew Dawson and Sabina Netherclift (The Idiot Colony), and are thrilled to be joined by New York playwright Solveig Holum and designer Tina Bicat (Critics Circle Drama Award for Design). Combining their successful mix of beautiful visual theatre, physical storytelling, new writing and a sense of humour 1 Beach Road will uncover people's stories hidden beneath the statistics and the rubble. What does it mean to lose your home from under your feet?
In Happisburgh, since 2004, 24 metres of land and 26 homes along Beach Road have vanished. 80 year-old Phyllis lost her retirement bungalow. Diana & Gill's B&B's garden disappeared. One family home was re-valued by their bank. It is now worth £1. Government policy means that they will receive no compensation for their losses. Every night as they sleep in their beds residents listen to the crash of the waves and the slow thumps of land falling into the sea.
"I always wanted a sea view - you have to be careful what you wish for round here" Happisburgh Resident
For centuries the low-lying coast of East Anglia has battled with the elements. The church bells of Shipden are rumoured to be heard from under the sea off Cromer; graves at Eccles are sometimes exposed on the beach; the greater part of the once thriving coastal port of Dunwich is now beneath the waves. During the 1953 Norfolk floods, the UK's worst peacetime natural disaster, the sea claimed 300 lives. In response the government built wooden sea defences and a policy to "hold the line". A combination of rising sea levels and economics resulted in Natural England's 2004 declaration that the nine miles of sea defences “unsustainable”. They advised a "managed retreat" to “realign the coast”. This will wipe a large part of Norfolk off the map giving up 600 homes across six villages to the rising seas.
From Newbury With Love
1971, In the depths of the Cold War, the daughter of an imprisoned Soviet dissident received a postcard from across the Iron Curtain that changed her family's life.
Harold & Olive Edwards, antiquarian booksellers in Newbury, wrote to the family of Marina Aidova, aged 8, because her birthday was one day before Harold's. They signed the postcard "From Newbury With Love". The families wrote to each other for the next 16 years. The letters were inspired by an Amnesty letter-writing campaign asking people to support the families of Soviet prisoners of conscience. Marina's father had been sent to the gulag for running an illegal printing press. This remarkable correspondence chronicles a fascinating period of social, political history and the intimate, seldom heard details of daily life in two very different worlds. The letters finish when Harold passes away, aged 90. Marina was 24.
In an our age of emails, texts and SMS, From Newbury With Love reminds us of the simple power of putting pen to paper.
From Newbury With Love is a proposed association between RedCape Theatre and Amnesty International. Dates to be confirmed.
Big Berta
Berta is feeling like she doesn't fit. Literally. Being a teenager in the suburbs is taking it's toll: Mum & Dad are 'having difficulties', school is dull, the netball team is full of bullies and last (but definitely not least) Berta is having a radical growth spurt. When she falls in love with the new paper-boy her increasing size and over-active hormones start affecting the weather with cataclysmic results.
A modern-day Romeo & Juliet in a mundane setting. Big Berta is an elegy for all our troubled teenage years.
Using puppetry, stop-motion animation, a dynamic set, two tall actors, tragedy, comedy and a bit of magic, Big Berta is an absurd, sensory rollercoaster.
Directed by Claire Coaché
Puppetry & Design by Yngvild Aspeli
Written by Melanie Wilson & Lisle Turner
Mentored by Gavin Glover
Berta played by Melanie Wilson
Inspired by the novel 'Berta La Larga' by Cuca Canals.
Big Berta is a proposed collaboration between RedCape Theatre, South Street Arts Centre, Reading and the Berkshire Venues Consortium, Institut Internationale de la Marionette in Charleville-Mezieres, France and Figurteateret i Nordland in Stamsund, Norway. Big Berta was a finalist for the 2008 Samuel Beckett Theatre Award.
Suitable for ages 12+