The End
A performance piece by Michael Pinchbeck, co-devised and performed by Ollie Smith and Mole Wetherell.
“We didn’t want it to end this way. We wanted you to remember. When the curtain falls it will be over. There will be no encore. There will be no curtain call. There will be no flowers at our feet, no standing ovations. This is our swansong, our finale, our farewell tour. These are our last words. The End.”
Inspired by the stage direction from The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare, “Exit pursued by a bear”, The End explores endings and exits and continues Michael’s interest in the re-enactment of real life events to investigate absence and loss.
A delicate and poetic series of endings exploring how everything ends
A performance piece by Michael Pinchbeck, co-devised and performed by Ollie Smith and Mole Wetherell.
“We didn’t want it to end this way. We wanted you to remember. When the curtain falls it will be over. There will be no encore. There will be no curtain call. There will be no flowers at our feet, no standing ovations. This is our swansong, our finale, our farewell tour. These are our last words. The End.”
Inspired by the stage direction from The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare, “Exit pursued by a bear”, The End explores endings and exits and continues Michael’s interest in the re-enactment of real life events to investigate absence and loss.
Do Not Enter: Performance in Progress
Commissioned by Theatre Writing Partnership for the Momentum New Writing Festival at Curve, Leicester. In partnership with Talking Birds Theatre Company.
Two ushers stand outside a performance space. They explain to the audience that the show has already started and unfortunately they are too late to be admitted into the auditorium. The ushers then take it upon themselves to keep the audience ‘up to speed’ by describing the thoroughly implausible plot of the show being missed, increasingly tying themselves in knots and spiralling into confusion about whether or not they themselves are acting within a piece of theatre.
A short scripted ‘play’ which mischievously pokes at the theoretical over-analysing of performance, as well as a good-humoured homage to Beckett, Stoppard, et al.
A postmodern(ish) psuedo-existentialist farce
Commissioned by Theatre Writing Partnership for the Momentum New Writing Festival at Curve, Leicester. In partnership with Talking Birds Theatre Company.
Two ushers stand outside a performance space. They explain to the audience that the show has already started and unfortunately they are too late to be admitted into the auditorium. The ushers then take it upon themselves to keep the audience ‘up to speed’ by describing the thoroughly implausible plot of the show being missed, increasingly tying themselves in knots and spiralling into confusion about whether or not they themselves are acting within a piece of theatre.
A short scripted ‘play’ which mischievously pokes at the theoretical over-analysing of performance, as well as a good-humoured homage to Beckett, Stoppard, et al.
Non sequitur: a series of stalled tales
A solitary performer reads extracts from 10 famous and infamous novels in a fractured yet relentless six-hour story-telling epic. Reminiscent of episodic dramas and mindless TV channel-hopping, sections of text are chosen at random by spectators who then illustrate the scenarios to which they're listening. These illustrations are displayed as visual documentation of a collective imagination: the loose thread unifying the texts.
The durational Non sequitur – literally translated as ‘it does not follow’ – challenges spectators to reflect on their own disjointed narratives, which when woven together, make up their lives.
Story-time for the grown-up Jackanory generation
A solitary performer reads extracts from 10 famous and infamous novels in a fractured yet relentless six-hour story-telling epic. Reminiscent of episodic dramas and mindless TV channel-hopping, sections of text are chosen at random by spectators who then illustrate the scenarios to which they're listening. These illustrations are displayed as visual documentation of a collective imagination: the loose thread unifying the texts.
The durational Non sequitur – literally translated as ‘it does not follow’ – challenges spectators to reflect on their own disjointed narratives, which when woven together, make up their lives.
Dressing The Part: A Durational Performance
A collaboration with Ellie Harrison. Commissioned by greenroom, Manchester.
Dressing The Part: A Durational Performance examines self-presentation, fashion fads and looking good naked, in a dress-up and dress-down performance piece where all the people we are, were, and ever could be, are laid bare in front of an event-controlling audience.
Two performers take turns to perform the audience’s dressing-up requests, one performing whilst the other gets changed, in a four-hour frenzied assault on the mind, body and wardrobe.
Part photographic installation, part tag-team dressing-up marathon
A collaboration with Ellie Harrison. Commissioned by greenroom, Manchester.
Dressing The Part: A Durational Performance examines self-presentation, fashion fads and looking good naked, in a dress-up and dress-down performance piece where all the people we are, were, and ever could be, are laid bare in front of an event-controlling audience.
Two performers take turns to perform the audience’s dressing-up requests, one performing whilst the other gets changed, in a four-hour frenzied assault on the mind, body and wardrobe.
Alone Time
A collaboration with Phoebe Walsh.
Alone Time is an often overlooked necessity. Sometimes it’s a quiet period of reflection, sometimes an occasion to let your hair down. Chances are, it involves doing something embarrassing.
Often we feel most alone when in a room full of people – whether caught in a crowd, or at a party, or on a stage.
This intimate, stripped-back performance piece playfully explores varying states of loneliness whilst probing the amusing miscommunication that occurs when a performer is supposedly unaware he's being watched.
An insular confessional presentation of all the things we think and do when we’re on our own
A collaboration with Phoebe Walsh.
Alone Time is an often overlooked necessity. Sometimes it’s a quiet period of reflection, sometimes an occasion to let your hair down. Chances are, it involves doing something embarrassing.
Often we feel most alone when in a room full of people – whether caught in a crowd, or at a party, or on a stage.
This intimate, stripped-back performance piece playfully explores varying states of loneliness whilst probing the amusing miscommunication that occurs when a performer is supposedly unaware he's being watched.
Help Yourself
A collaboration with Phoebe Walsh. Commissioned by greenroom, Manchester.
Armed with little more than a library of self-help books, two performers face up to their worst personality traits and, with the audience as their witness, try to do something about it. Insular confessional to ironic audience sing-along within the hour.
Audience comments include: “Ollie and Phoebe made me feel better about the world!” and “It's always fun watching a geek dance”.
A live attempt by two performers to become better and happier people.
A collaboration with Phoebe Walsh. Commissioned by greenroom, Manchester.
Armed with little more than a library of self-help books, two performers face up to their worst personality traits and, with the audience as their witness, try to do something about it. Insular confessional to ironic audience sing-along within the hour.
Audience comments include: “Ollie and Phoebe made me feel better about the world!” and “It's always fun watching a geek dance”.
Vodka Revolution
A collaboration with Ellie Harrison. Commissioned by Hatch, Nottingham.
Made specifically for the Revolution vodka bar in Nottingham’s Broad Street a Vodka Revolution is staged against pretence, deception and make-believe. The illusion of Chekhovian Russia is repeatedly punctuated by a poor performer who can’t stay in character because he’s playing himself. The performance disintegrates before morphing into a pseudo-revolutionary movement rebelling against the script.
A humorous take on deconstruction laced with history and pop.
A site-specific performance where ‘high art’ takes on ‘low art’ and Chekhov takes on The Beatles
A collaboration with Ellie Harrison. Commissioned by Hatch, Nottingham.
Made specifically for the Revolution vodka bar in Nottingham’s Broad Street a Vodka Revolution is staged against pretence, deception and make-believe. The illusion of Chekhovian Russia is repeatedly punctuated by a poor performer who can’t stay in character because he’s playing himself. The performance disintegrates before morphing into a pseudo-revolutionary movement rebelling against the script.
A humorous take on deconstruction laced with history and pop.
Santa's Grotto
Concept and direction by Meg Tait. Commissioned by Hatch, Nottingham.
A seasonal six-hour durational event which sees a production line of Santas frenetically assembling as many useless Christmas gifts as possible.
A sardonic comment on the commercialisation and wastefulness of the festive season.
A durational sweatshop of festive tat
Concept and direction by Meg Tait. Commissioned by Hatch, Nottingham.
A seasonal six-hour durational event which sees a production line of Santas frenetically assembling as many useless Christmas gifts as possible.
A sardonic comment on the commercialisation and wastefulness of the festive season.