Three generations of gutsy circus women recast their narrative. This multi award-winning show is feminist and funny. The three women cast off the stereotypes that bind them while performing some downright dangerous acrobatics, talking politics as they balance precariously and support one another.
Three generations of gutsy circus women recast their narrative. This multi award-winning show is feminist and funny. The three women cast off the stereotypes that bind them while performing some downright dangerous acrobatics, talking politics as they balance precariously and support one another.
It’s a sticky situation. A kaleidoscope of circus, acrobatics, dance and live music combine to tell the story of Queen Bee and Worker Bee who must work together to rebuild their hive after being destroyed by a bushfire. But things never quite go to plan. Join the bees in their buzzy adventure.
Suitable for ages 3+
Performances at 11am & 2pm
Inspired by aerial rope artist Heather Parkin’s recovery from a car crash and traumatic brain injury, Epic Minds is a hilarious and disturbing romp through the world of psychosis, mental health diagnosis and recovery, combining aerial rope, juggling, song, dance and physical theatre.
Inspired by aerial rope artist Heather Parkin’s recovery from a car crash and traumatic brain injury, Epic Minds is a hilarious and disturbing romp through the world of psychosis, mental health diagnosis and recovery, combining aerial rope, juggling, song, dance and physical theatre.
A secret organisation known as the Ancient Guild of TaleTenders are on a mission to save stories – and they need your help. Develop creative and literacy skills through performance, games, and creative play, while exploring Roald Dahl’s extraordinary stories, including The BFG and The Twits along the way.
Suitable for ages 5+
Performances at 11am & 2pm
Alces Productions presents
The Lady With A Dog
The Chekhov story that the writer Vladimir Nabokov called ‘one of the greatest stories ever written’ returns to the UK stage in a full-length bittersweet romantic comedy transported to Jazz Age Britain.
Damian Granville is a banker and devoted family man with an unconventional way of taking his summer holidays: he travels alone and looks for a woman to seduce. This particular year he spots a beautiful young lady walking a white Pomeranian dog. How can he resist? He’s a skillful player and sure of success. Except Anne Dennis isn’t quite what he bargains for.
★★★★★ “Mark Giesser… recognises the responsibilities of taking on Chekhov demands and, with a dancer’s grace, solves them perfectly.” – Broadway World.
Previous shows by Alces Productions at Upstairs at the Gatehouse: Sirens of the Silver Screen; Strike Up the Band; Once Upon a Mattress; Call Me Madam; Luck Be a Lady; How To Build a Better Tulip.
Written and Directed by Mark Giesser
Choreographer: Xena Gusthart
Running Time: 2 hours (TBC)
AIM Theatre presents
Just Barking
by Joe Wiltshire Smith
Performed in rep with That Day on the 18th & 20th October
Stumbling back into her flat drunk at 10:30am, Tammy, a trainee nurse, decides to confess EVERYTHING to camera. To confront some demons, co-workers, postmen… this could take a while… You think you know her, but maybe you don’t know half of it.
Tammy’s life is a frantic mess of drink, insomnia and patient drama, with the usual hangover worse than death the next day – ’til one night, coming home from work, she get’s some self-help advice from the most unlikely of gurus… in fact, he’s a Chihuahua.
A richly black comedy, this one-woman, drastic reimagining of Gogol’s ‘Diary of a Madman’ investigates the strain on healthcare, the toxic cycle of hustle culture, the deafening toll on mental health and the rediscovery of the self.
Running Time: TBC (One act with no interval)
Alces Productions presents
The Lady With A Dog
The Chekhov story that the writer Vladimir Nabokov called ‘one of the greatest stories ever written’ returns to the UK stage in a full-length bittersweet romantic comedy transported to Jazz Age Britain.
Damian Granville is a banker and devoted family man with an unconventional way of taking his summer holidays: he travels alone and looks for a woman to seduce. This particular year he spots a beautiful young lady walking a white Pomeranian dog. How can he resist? He’s a skillful player and sure of success. Except Anne Dennis isn’t quite what he bargains for.
★★★★★ “Mark Giesser… recognises the responsibilities of taking on Chekhov demands and, with a dancer’s grace, solves them perfectly.” – Broadway World.
Previous shows by Alces Productions at Upstairs at the Gatehouse: Sirens of the Silver Screen; Strike Up the Band; Once Upon a Mattress; Call Me Madam; Luck Be a Lady; How To Build a Better Tulip.
Written and Directed by Mark Giesser
Choreographer: Xena Gusthart
Running Time: 2 hours (TBC)
High Steaks is a show about labia-shaming and body lovin’. Through live conversations with her mum and recorded interviews with labia-owners, High Steaks is a call for increased visibility of varied vulvas and a celebration of vulvas of all shapes and sizes.
Suitable for ages 18+
High Steaks is a show about labia-shaming and body lovin’. Through live conversations with her mum and recorded interviews with labia-owners, High Steaks is a call for increased visibility of varied vulvas and a celebration of vulvas of all shapes and sizes.
Suitable for ages 18+
Meet the unlikely duckling hero, and hear the story of a duck who was different! This much-loved classic tale has been adapted by Sandal Sticks Theatre into an interactive storytelling performance, featuring song and puppetry. A heart-warming tale for all the family.
Suitable for ages 3+
Performances at 11am & 2:30pm
Alces Productions presents
The Lady With A Dog
The Chekhov story that the writer Vladimir Nabokov called ‘one of the greatest stories ever written’ returns to the UK stage in a full-length bittersweet romantic comedy transported to Jazz Age Britain.
Damian Granville is a banker and devoted family man with an unconventional way of taking his summer holidays: he travels alone and looks for a woman to seduce. This particular year he spots a beautiful young lady walking a white Pomeranian dog. How can he resist? He’s a skillful player and sure of success. Except Anne Dennis isn’t quite what he bargains for.
★★★★★ “Mark Giesser… recognises the responsibilities of taking on Chekhov demands and, with a dancer’s grace, solves them perfectly.” – Broadway World.
Previous shows by Alces Productions at Upstairs at the Gatehouse: Sirens of the Silver Screen; Strike Up the Band; Once Upon a Mattress; Call Me Madam; Luck Be a Lady; How To Build a Better Tulip.
Written and Directed by Mark Giesser
Choreographer: Xena Gusthart
Running Time: 2 hours (TBC)
A double bill of contradictions. First an acrobatic presentation, complete with graphs, about the state of the world in 60% Banana, followed by a mime and acrobat duo, life-long friends who are polar opposites but joined in their need to be ready for anything.
Craftsmanship meets circus in a spellbinding exploration of the human desire to create. On a custom-built stage, obsessed characters discover and transform their space and themselves as they take the audience into a unique DIY experience. Silly, surreal and completely captivating.
In this capricious game between two acrobats, nothing is fixed. Feel welcome to take a seat on one of the rolling stools and be an actor in this moving composition. The performance invites to make contact, to touch, to be part of and to influence. Or none of this, you can stay invisible in the group.
Performances at 11am, 1pm & 3pm.
Alces Productions presents
The Lady With A Dog
The Chekhov story that the writer Vladimir Nabokov called ‘one of the greatest stories ever written’ returns to the UK stage in a full-length bittersweet romantic comedy transported to Jazz Age Britain.
Damian Granville is a banker and devoted family man with an unconventional way of taking his summer holidays: he travels alone and looks for a woman to seduce. This particular year he spots a beautiful young lady walking a white Pomeranian dog. How can he resist? He’s a skillful player and sure of success. Except Anne Dennis isn’t quite what he bargains for.
★★★★★ “Mark Giesser… recognises the responsibilities of taking on Chekhov demands and, with a dancer’s grace, solves them perfectly.” – Broadway World.
Previous shows by Alces Productions at Upstairs at the Gatehouse: Sirens of the Silver Screen; Strike Up the Band; Once Upon a Mattress; Call Me Madam; Luck Be a Lady; How To Build a Better Tulip.
Written and Directed by Mark Giesser
Choreographer: Xena Gusthart
Running Time: 2 hours (TBC)
The stage is a mess. Laundry spans floor to ceiling. Out of the chaos rises the aerial silk. In this highly physical solo show about motherhood, circus, theatre and spoken word combine to unravel the mysteries of the mother trees which hold the forest together.
Anything is possible with the incredible power of the collective. Build a human tower, catch one another with precision and perform jaw-dropping acrobatics, all accompanied by original music performed live on stage. Teamwork makes light work of the most challenging feats.
Garden Suburb Theatre presents
Murder With Ghosts
12 – 15 October
A spine tingling, rollercoaster of suspense, spooks and laughter as eerie encounters unfold at Quittendon Manor in this hilarious murder mystery spoof.
A killer is on the loose at Lady Cholmondley’s weekend house party and only the spirits can save her in this ghastly ghostly comedy. …You’ll die laughing!
Running Time: TBC
Garden Suburb Theatre presents
Murder With Ghosts
12 – 15 October
A spine tingling, rollercoaster of suspense, spooks and laughter as eerie encounters unfold at Quittendon Manor in this hilarious murder mystery spoof.
A killer is on the loose at Lady Cholmondley’s weekend house party and only the spirits can save her in this ghastly ghostly comedy. …You’ll die laughing!
Running Time: TBC
Garden Suburb Theatre presents
Murder With Ghosts
12 – 15 October
A spine tingling, rollercoaster of suspense, spooks and laughter as eerie encounters unfold at Quittendon Manor in this hilarious murder mystery spoof.
A killer is on the loose at Lady Cholmondley’s weekend house party and only the spirits can save her in this ghastly ghostly comedy. …You’ll die laughing!
Running Time: TBC
Garden Suburb Theatre presents
Murder With Ghosts
12 – 15 October
A spine tingling, rollercoaster of suspense, spooks and laughter as eerie encounters unfold at Quittendon Manor in this hilarious murder mystery spoof.
A killer is on the loose at Lady Cholmondley’s weekend house party and only the spirits can save her in this ghastly ghostly comedy. …You’ll die laughing!
Running Time: TBC
Constrained to one square metre of space, follow Matt Pasquet’s struggle from birth to consciousness through a maze of shape shifting surroundings to the edge and beyond. With an immersive foley soundscape, a dash of acrobatics, a sprinkle of clown and a fist full of Kung Fu.
A fun interactive family concert of songs from hit musicals and films featuring West End singers. Sing and dance along to songs from shows like Mary Poppins, Mamma Mia, The Little Mermaid, Frozen, while enjoying bubbles, puppets and fun dance moves.
Open to all ages.
Performances at 11am & 2pm
Garden Suburb Theatre presents
Murder With Ghosts
12 – 15 October
A spine tingling, rollercoaster of suspense, spooks and laughter as eerie encounters unfold at Quittendon Manor in this hilarious murder mystery spoof.
A killer is on the loose at Lady Cholmondley’s weekend house party and only the spirits can save her in this ghastly ghostly comedy. …You’ll die laughing!
Running Time: TBC
Garden Suburb Theatre presents
Murder With Ghosts
12 – 15 October
A spine tingling, rollercoaster of suspense, spooks and laughter as eerie encounters unfold at Quittendon Manor in this hilarious murder mystery spoof.
A killer is on the loose at Lady Cholmondley’s weekend house party and only the spirits can save her in this ghastly ghostly comedy. …You’ll die laughing!
Running Time: TBC
The Brownings Through Casa Guidi Windows
by Harry Meacher
A Fundraiser in Aid of Upstairs at the Gatehouse
Venice – 12th December 1889.
The great English poet Robert Browning is dying. In his last hours he summons the spirit of his beloved wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning (“Ba”).
Together they explore their lives in Casa Guidi. the apartment they shared in Florence.
Judi Bowker (Elizabeth Barrett Browning) and Harry Meacher (Robert Browning) star in an intimate portrayal of one of the most poignant love stories of all time.
This performance is kindly presented as a fundraiser for Upstairs at the Gatehouse. All proceeds go towards the theatre’s maintenance and upgrades.
AIM Theatre presents
That Day
by Ben Hannigan
Performed in rep with Just Barking on the 19th & 21st October
A confused introvert trying to write a song. A dream-like girl that appears out of nowhere and a very stern mother that only wants what’s best for her son. This gripping yet hilarious play that touches on isolation, mental health, family life in unprecedented times, and very entertaining life experiences
Running Time: TBC (One act with no interval)
AIM Theatre presents
Just Barking
by Joe Wiltshire Smith
Performed in rep with That Day on the 18th & 20th October
Stumbling back into her flat drunk at 10:30am, Tammy, a trainee nurse, decides to confess EVERYTHING to camera. To confront some demons, co-workers, postmen… this could take a while… You think you know her, but maybe you don’t know half of it.
Tammy’s life is a frantic mess of drink, insomnia and patient drama, with the usual hangover worse than death the next day – ’til one night, coming home from work, she get’s some self-help advice from the most unlikely of gurus… in fact, he’s a Chihuahua.
A richly black comedy, this one-woman, drastic reimagining of Gogol’s ‘Diary of a Madman’ investigates the strain on healthcare, the toxic cycle of hustle culture, the deafening toll on mental health and the rediscovery of the self.
Running Time: TBC (One act with no interval)
AIM Theatre presents
That Day
by Ben Hannigan
Performed in rep with Just Barking on the 19th & 21st October
A confused introvert trying to write a song. A dream-like girl that appears out of nowhere and a very stern mother that only wants what’s best for her son. This gripping yet hilarious play that touches on isolation, mental health, family life in unprecedented times, and very entertaining life experiences
Running Time: TBC (One act with no interval)
Welcome to Cirque Taboo, the sexiest circus in town. Out of the woodwork creeps the naughtiest bunch of beautiful freaks. They guarantee to delight your night with a cabaret jam packed with cheeky circus acts, delicious drag, bizarre burlesque and even a little bit of shocking sideshow.
Suitable for ages 18+
Using puppetry, imaginative design and music, audiences are invited to join Nora as she explores the garden, discovering dragonflies as big as her head, plants that can eat you (and your toy giraffe) whole, a polar bear that likes fishing and maybe, just maybe, a tiger in the garden.
Suitable for ages 3+
Performances at 11am & 2pm
Using puppetry, imaginative design and music, audiences are invited to join Nora as she explores the garden, discovering dragonflies as big as her head, plants that can eat you (and your toy giraffe) whole, a polar bear that likes fishing and maybe, just maybe, a tiger in the garden.
Suitable for ages 3+
Performances at 11am & 2pm
Escape Artists Theatre Company presents
Bess – The Other Houdini
The startling true story of Harry Houdini’s beloved wife and her breakdown in the aftermath of his death. The world knew Bess as Houdini’s loyal partner, both on and off stage, his inspiration, his guiding star – Or was their perfect marriage their greatest illusion?
It is 1929, the height of the Spiritualist frenzy. Houdini, the world’s first Superstar, has been dead two years and all attempts to contact him have failed. Yet surely if anyone can break through from the Other Side, it’s Harry.
Meanwhile his widow, Bess, his beloved partner both offstage and on, is alone and lost, her fragile health already stretched thin by years of living in daily fear as her husband was buried alive, flung manacled into icy rivers and dangled upside down ten stories high in a strait jacket. Now she is deeply in debt, struggling with addiction and desperate to stay in the public eye.
When she is accused of rigging a séance, and with the press hounding her as a fraud, she is forced to flee to a private sanitarium. Does she truly believe her husband has reached out to her from the Beyond? Or, haunted as she is by her own memories and hallucinations, can she even tell the difference? Her doctor is up-to-date with the latest treatments but neither he, nor her celebrity-obsessed nurse, nor her hovering family, can make the slightest dent in her despair.
As she battles with her own demons, she stumbles upon devastating clues about Houdini’s secret life, leading to the revelation that their perfect marriage may have been the greatest illusion of them all. But if everything she built her life upon was only for show, how will she be able to survive Life after Harry?
Running Time: TBC
Using puppetry, imaginative design and music, audiences are invited to join Nora as she explores the garden, discovering dragonflies as big as her head, plants that can eat you (and your toy giraffe) whole, a polar bear that likes fishing and maybe, just maybe, a tiger in the garden.
Suitable for ages 3+
Performances at 11am & 2pm
Escape Artists Theatre Company presents
Bess – The Other Houdini
The startling true story of Harry Houdini’s beloved wife and her breakdown in the aftermath of his death. The world knew Bess as Houdini’s loyal partner, both on and off stage, his inspiration, his guiding star – Or was their perfect marriage their greatest illusion?
It is 1929, the height of the Spiritualist frenzy. Houdini, the world’s first Superstar, has been dead two years and all attempts to contact him have failed. Yet surely if anyone can break through from the Other Side, it’s Harry.
Meanwhile his widow, Bess, his beloved partner both offstage and on, is alone and lost, her fragile health already stretched thin by years of living in daily fear as her husband was buried alive, flung manacled into icy rivers and dangled upside down ten stories high in a strait jacket. Now she is deeply in debt, struggling with addiction and desperate to stay in the public eye.
When she is accused of rigging a séance, and with the press hounding her as a fraud, she is forced to flee to a private sanitarium. Does she truly believe her husband has reached out to her from the Beyond? Or, haunted as she is by her own memories and hallucinations, can she even tell the difference? Her doctor is up-to-date with the latest treatments but neither he, nor her celebrity-obsessed nurse, nor her hovering family, can make the slightest dent in her despair.
As she battles with her own demons, she stumbles upon devastating clues about Houdini’s secret life, leading to the revelation that their perfect marriage may have been the greatest illusion of them all. But if everything she built her life upon was only for show, how will she be able to survive Life after Harry?
Running Time: TBC
Using puppetry, imaginative design and music, audiences are invited to join Nora as she explores the garden, discovering dragonflies as big as her head, plants that can eat you (and your toy giraffe) whole, a polar bear that likes fishing and maybe, just maybe, a tiger in the garden.
Suitable for ages 3+
Performances at 11am & 2pm
Escape Artists Theatre Company presents
Bess – The Other Houdini
The startling true story of Harry Houdini’s beloved wife and her breakdown in the aftermath of his death. The world knew Bess as Houdini’s loyal partner, both on and off stage, his inspiration, his guiding star – Or was their perfect marriage their greatest illusion?
It is 1929, the height of the Spiritualist frenzy. Houdini, the world’s first Superstar, has been dead two years and all attempts to contact him have failed. Yet surely if anyone can break through from the Other Side, it’s Harry.
Meanwhile his widow, Bess, his beloved partner both offstage and on, is alone and lost, her fragile health already stretched thin by years of living in daily fear as her husband was buried alive, flung manacled into icy rivers and dangled upside down ten stories high in a strait jacket. Now she is deeply in debt, struggling with addiction and desperate to stay in the public eye.
When she is accused of rigging a séance, and with the press hounding her as a fraud, she is forced to flee to a private sanitarium. Does she truly believe her husband has reached out to her from the Beyond? Or, haunted as she is by her own memories and hallucinations, can she even tell the difference? Her doctor is up-to-date with the latest treatments but neither he, nor her celebrity-obsessed nurse, nor her hovering family, can make the slightest dent in her despair.
As she battles with her own demons, she stumbles upon devastating clues about Houdini’s secret life, leading to the revelation that their perfect marriage may have been the greatest illusion of them all. But if everything she built her life upon was only for show, how will she be able to survive Life after Harry?
Running Time: TBC
Using puppetry, imaginative design and music, audiences are invited to join Nora as she explores the garden, discovering dragonflies as big as her head, plants that can eat you (and your toy giraffe) whole, a polar bear that likes fishing and maybe, just maybe, a tiger in the garden.
Suitable for ages 3+
Performances at 11am & 2pm