We are celebrating our first birthday and taking a small offline holiday in August – we’ll be back with exciting developments in September. Whilst we are away, our theatre recommendations are…

·         A Season In The Congo

·         Biped’s Monitor

·         Home Theatre (UK)

With the majority of theatrical hype concentrated on Edinburgh this month, it is easy to forget that there are fully functional theatres operating alive and well in the capital. 

A Season In The Congo, Until 24th August, A Young Vic: This production is impossible to ignore, if purely for the big names at its core: Joe Wright (director of film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, Atonement and Anna Karenina) collaborates with acclaimed choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui on the UK premiere of this 1966 decolonisation drama, by Martinican poet, playwright and politician Aimé Césaire's starring Olivier Award winning Chiwetel Ejiofo. Pause for breath!

Personally, I have an inherit distrust of Wright who has tampered with some of my favourite literature, opting for style over substance, yet the reviews of A Season In The Congo have made me desperate to see this play that appears to triumph in both simultaneously. Capturing, as Dominic Cavendish puts it in the Telegraph, “a glimmer of hope” in the Congo’s blood stained and traumatic history, the play is an ambitious political portrait of a man who tried to bring democracy and freedom to an ill-fated nation. Set in 1960, between independence and the notorious dictatorship of Mobuto, it follows the democratically elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba through his one year in power, to his grisly end. Praise for Chiwetel Ejiofo’s subtle yet magnificent performance has been universal making this positively un-missable. It is also interesting that the play manages to balance its sharp satirical eye with flamboyant set-design, dance and neo-naturalist motifs, to create something that is both entertaining and hard-hitting.

Biped’s Monitor, Until August 4th, Nunhead Cemetery: Arbonauts are based in the artistically fecund Nunhead/Peckham area and their latest production re-imagines and fragments Italo Calvino’s magical folktale The Baron In the Trees.  They describe their practice as follows… “[we] create theatre that is inspired by unusual narratives and places”. We were intrigued by what this means in practise so asked Helen Galliano, director and co-founder of the company (with Dimitri Launder), to tell us more…

“The aesthetic and abundant nature of Nunhead Cemetery [ one of the Magnificent Seven Cemeteries of London] was a huge influence on this performance, in particular the idea of a kind of 'battle' between nature and structure. As our work is highly visual and physical, the features of the site are crucial - they inform the way the performers move, relate to themselves and each other and also the overall aesthetic and structure of the piece.

In terms of surreal narratives - this is where we distort Calvino's original tale. I haven't returned to read the book for a year now, which is actually a really good place for me to be in! It means I'm not bogged down in the detail and instead I can focus on what I would call the poetry of the novel - certain physical and emotional elements of characters, the sense of determination that overcomes Cosimo, the loss that the ground-based family feel and the final, joyful abandon into nature. We only use a very small amount of text, and for this I've blended Calvino's writings with Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Blake. That's why the performance is 'inspired by' and not 'based on' the novel.

Home Theatre (UK), Deadline for submissions 23rd of August, Stratford East Theatre: Whilst we are on the subject of theatrical space let’s move from ‘unusual’ to ‘familiar’ locations - our last recommendation is a bit of a wildcard. Site-specific theatre is one thing, but how about hosting a performance in your own home?

Home Theatre (UK) is a collaborative endeavour between Festival Internacional de Cenas em Casa in Brazil and Theatre Royal Stratford East – artistic director Kerry Michael and the project’s creator Marcus Vinicius Faustini, directed nine plays for residents of favelas north of Rio de Janeiro. The UK festival feeds from this and is a genuine community effort, aiming to increase access to performance and link the theatre’s resident borough of Newham with the rest of London. At the same time the enterprise will explore interesting questions about the nature of audience, home and performative space.

So how can you get involved? Stratford East Theatre are looking for 30 hosts to partake. If you are selected then artists will tailor a bespoke performance to both your home and the story you would like to see told. This will then be performed by an actor on the 26th of October to an audience of your family and friends, and broadcast live in the theatre. Interested? Submit an application here.

Posted by Kate.