Productions
The Vegan Tigress
by Claire Parker
directed by Tracy Collier
Inspired by the life and work of author Mary De Morgan, this light comedy tells the story of a 19th-Century fairytale writer who accidentally summons a ghost: the highly-offended mother of the lover spurned by the writer many years before. The opposing worlds of free spirits and corsets collide in a chaotic bid to understand where stories escape to when they’ve run their course.
‘Fearless theatre in love with storytelling.’
‘The writing is smart, the structure is intricate and clever, the jokes are genuinely funny, the characters are flawed and relatable and irresistible. It’s a ghost story, an adventure story, a fairy story, a love story… it was magical.’ Francesca Brill, Screenwiter/ Director/Novelist
Audience reactions:
‘Wonderful, playful, bitter sweet.’
‘Touching, challenging and edifying.’
‘Exciting, imaginative and illuminating.’
‘Fascinating, energetic, funny.’
‘Extremely entertaining, thoughtful, and thought provoking.’
‘Riveting and entertaining, it’s clever and surprising and very moving.’
‘The performances were magnificent, and the writing sublime.’
‘A wonderful evening, full of surprises, revelation and humour.’
Apples in Winter
by Jennifer Fawcett
directed by Claire Parker
One mother’s love.
One last request.
One Apple pie.
In a prison kitchen a mother is baking an apple pie: her death-row son’s last request. As Miriam shows us how to make the perfect pie, we watch her grapple to understand what happened to her son - and how that night 22 years ago changed everything. The play offers a cathartic journey into the heart of barely resolvable questions about justice, forgiveness and love.
‘beautifully written… Campbell gives an astonishing performance... Directed brilliantly by Claire Parker…with Elisabeth Tooms’ lighting and Andrew Hodson’s bleak set design really enhancing the emotional impact.’ The Family Stage
‘Apples in Winter is really, really good, with an immensely powerful one-woman performance from Edie Campbell that will leave you feeling shaken and devastated and furious. An absolute must-see.’ Theatre Things
‘A moving and delicately crafted piece on the part of the actor, the writer and director Claire Parker… features a beautifully nuanced performance from Edie Campbell.’ 2nd from bottom
Amelia
by George Purefoy Tilson
directed by Claire Parker
‘Lost in the vastness of the sky, I have only myself to confront.’
A fascinating play about the enigmatic 1930’s aviator Amelia Earhart. As well as record-breaking flights – including the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic – she was a pioneering role model. But who was the woman behind the myth?
‘I discovered a means for pulling together all the parts of myself: the scientist, the artist, the adventurer. Flying meant not only freedom, but bringing myself....TO myself.’
Threads of her life from childhood onwards unravel before us, peppered with songs of the period by The Boswell Sisters. Glimpsing the events and relationships that formed her, often in her own words, we watch how her love of flying and adventure grows to the point where she takes off and doesn't look back.
‘…genius…brilliantly encapsulated the force of nature of Amelia Earhart…I would give this play and production 5 stars with no hesitation!’ Jenny Eastop
‘Claire Parker is a writer’s dream producer/ director/risk-taker.’ George Purefoy Tilson
Rotten Perfect
by Claire Parker
directed by Kate Napier
The Lyceum Theatre in 1890s London. Actor Manager Henry Irving is doing everything he can to keep his theatre up and running performing only the classics, and keep his star actress, the famous Ellen Terry, from leaving for good. (Local history buffs will know she was briefly married to GF Watts.) Will she be lured away by the new scripts of Ibsen (touted by the influential Bernard Shaw) and seek new roles elsewhere? And behind the scenes is the costume designer, Alice Comyns Carr, attempting to create that famous beetle-wing dress for Lady Macbeth, and the young actor Sedgwick who tries too hard to get it right. It's all 'rotten perfect' in this delightful new script regarding the famous theatrical partnership during a time of great change in the London theatres.
Rotten Perfect was performed at Watts Gallery near Guildford. It was a new venue for us, and we were very pleased to be able to be a part of the Gallery’s Watts 200 celebrations.
‘I would urge you to try and see this wonderful production wherever it might be performed next.’ **** Essential Surrey
Rotten Perfect has also been performed at the Barn Theatre, Smallhythe Place, Kent, where Ellen lived.
When the Cat’s Away
written and directed by Claire Parker
’That Ragtime Suffragette, Oh she’s no household pet!’
1914. Windows smashed. Women on the run. The militant campaign for the Vote is at its peak.
Helen, a former suffragette, returns to the quiet village of her youth, the family farm and the charms of the Fernstead Players amateur dramatics. But when a charismatic leader of the Actresses’ Franchise League swoops into Fernstead, a plan is hatched to spread the ‘advanced views’ of the ladies. The village – and the lives of its women and men – will be forever changed.
With a world premiere in 2018 to mark the centenary of some women winning the right to the vote, this beguiling comedy drama is inspired by their real-life stories, songs and spirit.
‘When The Cat’s Away is a hugely entertaining show with a profound underlying message about community, progress and the shadow of war. The songs are woven into the narrative with dexterity and underpin the emotional heart of the piece. The story is immediately engaging and the characters radiate warmth, wit and charm. It’s a very great pleasure to spend an evening with them.’ Francesca Brill - Screenwiter/Director/ Novelist
Watch ‘Behind the Curtain: the making of the play’
Illustration by Kate Charlesworth
You Give Me Fever - the Phaedra Cabaret
written and directed by Jack Lynch
It’s one for my baby and one more for the road in this cocktail zinger of jazz standards and storytelling. A new take on an old tragedy, with a twist. With Pippa Winslow as Fey, and James Shannon on jazz guitar.
‘Sultry siren Pippa Winslow is Phaedra, luring us into her tangled mythological web of Greek gods, bull-headed Minotaurs and doomed love affairs as she mixes drinks and sings us jazzy standards.... Fey seduces her enthralled audience in perfect harmony with the sad narrative of her story. [Jazz guitarist] James Shannon’s moody finger-style arrangements breathe even more life into Fey’s songs…What an intelligent antidote to the Jukebox Musical gravy train Jack has written.’ ***** Essential Surrey
‘A stunning Greek musical experience… in the hands of Pippa Winslow the evening quickly becomes a tour de force… Superb accompaniment and Jazz arrangements from James Shannon… not to be missed.’ **** Remote Goat
‘Jack Lynch has written and directed an absolute gem of a show…’ GScene
**** Musical Theatre Review
‘I'd see the Phaedra Cabaret again and again. It’s one of the best things I have seen in years.’ Audience member
Photo credit: Kate Scott Pics
Consider This…
inspired by stories from The Forgiveness Project
conceived and directed by Jack Lynch
original music by Razia Azia
original film by Lloyd Miller
Come and meet Canta Dora, a travelling storyteller who encounters Pews, a stranger running from his past. Through ensemble storytelling, live music, songs, and projected filmed interviews, this theatre event explores the subject of forgiveness as Canta Dora invites Pews to ‘consider this…’.
‘I am Canta, Canta Dora, Collector and teller of stories that need to be heard, that need to be told, by you…’
The Women of Lockerbie
by Deborah Brevoort
directed by Jack Lynch
‘Pan Am 103 was last seen in a fireball over Scotland.’
Inspired by true events and written in the style of Greek Tragedy, this is a fictionalised account of how the women of a small Scottish town take charge of their own grieving. Deborah Brevoort’s finely-tuned play lays bare the range of emotions felt by ordinary people rocked by the disaster.
Through their actions, the women of Lockerbie are determined that love must triumph over hate.
‘…in its tightly controlled depiction of collective sorrow…(Brevoort’s script) it becomes almost unbearably moving.’ The Daily Telegraph
‘Bervoort has a gift for high poetry… (the script is) endowed with character, poetry and a core of touching emotion.’ Time Out
Watch a slideshow of the production
Photo credit: James Davies
I Take Your Hand in Mine
by Carol Rocamora
directed by Edie Campbell
a play suggested by the love letters of Anton Chekhov and Olga Knipper
Russian playwright Anton Chekhov wrote 412 love letters to Olga Knipper, and she as many to him, during their short six-year relationship before Anton died of consumption at the age of 44. With great sensitivity, Chekhovian scholar Carol Rocamora weaves together remnants of these letters into a rich and passionate two-character play of love, longing, rapture and despair, while also giving us a glimpse into the creative minds of the great Moscow Art Theatre.
‘What an unforgettable performance last night by Claire Parker and Ray Murphy. It was gripping and when it had ended, I felt I had been watching Uncle Vanya with Michael Redgrave and Joan Plowright at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. It was quite an adjustment to realise I was in the Petersfield Museum in Hampshire.’
Old Abe
a multi-media staged-reading adapted from the play by Hugh Steadman Williams
directed by Elisabeth Tooms
Employing excerpts from Lincoln’s thoughtful letters, powerful speeches and his witty anecdotes, two actors relate the story of Abraham Lincoln’s political career from his humble beginnings to becoming arguably the greatest US president the world has ever known. In a pseudo-documentary style, the fictional journalist ‘Scribe’ modelled on Emily Briggs, the first female press correspondent to report from the White House, leads us through the tumultuous years surrounding the American Civil War and the emancipation of slaves. A story made all the more poignant with the election of Barack Obama, 200 years after Lincoln’s birth and sworn into office on Lincoln’s Bible.
Cloning Mary Shelley: a fantasia
by Jack Lynch and Edie Campbell
directed by Jack Lynch
Drawing on Mary Shelley’s life and her novel Frankenstein, this solo performance explores reproductive technology, the act of creation in all its dimensions, and the struggle to know who and what one is.
‘This is a work of great empathy and invention, a model for monologists.‘ ***** Edmonton Journal
‘Intellectually rigorous, elegantly written and exquisitely performed.’ **** SEE Magazine
‘Edie Campbell is a spellbinder.’ Edmonton Sun, Canada
Photo credit: Bob Goodfellow
Emily Dickinson & I: the journey of a portrayal
by Edie Campbell and Jack Lynch
directed by Jack Lynch
A play about writing, acting, and getting into Emily Dickinson’s dress.
‘…absolutely flawless. A courageous and very personal look at life and death, commitment to art and love.’ ***** Edmonton Journal, Canada
‘…leaves you with the realization and the belief that in a world scarred by violence and betrayal, extraordinary beauty still abounds.’ ***** SEE Magazine, Canada
‘a production of rare integrity‘ **** Critics’ Choice, The Scotsman
‘Captivating – I recommend it unreservedly.’ Margaret Drabble, Hot Tickets, Evening Standard
‘Possession and Emily Dickinson and I, represent two of the most significant creative responses to Dickinson within England in recent years.’ From the chapter ‘Dickinson in England and Ireland’ in The International Reception of Emily Dickinson. Read the full extract.
Photo credit: Malcolm Crowther