Unlimited Theatre

<2008-2010>
mixtape

Songs with action set to them by a range of companies, writers, directors, comedians - some of whom you'll have heard of, some of whom you won't, some of whom you'll like and some of whom you might not.

Anyone who's ever made one knows the care and love that goes into the process. Choosing songs that you think the person you're going to give the tape to will really love. Or that they should love. Because you always have. Or because they make you cry. Or you heard it for the first time together. Or the lyrics communicate something to that person that you simply couldn't. Or just because they make me want to dance like no other song can! And ordering them. Making a random collection of songs into some sort of a cohesive whole that takes the listener on a journey that inspires, thrills, moves them.

So it's a simple premise, really. We're working with some of our favourite writers, directors and theatre companies. Each contributing artist will choose a song that they hope you'll love as much as they do. And then they'll set action to it.

Where possible artists also filmed a version of each track, some of which are available for viewing on the internet:

Action Hero
North Star
Phil Kay
Stan's Cafe
Third Angel

Jon also made one with Ben Pacey which was filmed by Chris Cottam and will be available for viewing sometime in early 2012. If it's mid 2012 or later when yuo're reading this, then mail us and DEMAND that we sort that out.

Funded/supported by by: Arts Council of England, Unlimited, Forest Fringe, Bristol MayFest, BAC

<2007>
THE SWING LEFT

written by Steven Dykes
from a devising process with Unlimited Theatre

premiered at The North Wall, Oxford in July 07

It’s a long time ago now, but some of us still remember…

A landslide victory in the general election. Promises of a bright, new future. Jobs and houses for all. Things can only get better……

London, 1946. Dancefloor. Swing. Lights fade up. Music builds. Three couples jitterbug.
photos: Andy Fleming

Imagine me. Roy. Coming back from somewhere and nowhere. Hoping to meet you. The girl of my dreams.

Imagine me. Kay. Aroused with opportunity and alive with the freedom of girls in boy’s boots. Hoping that I meet you. The heroes of our times.

I'll Lindy Hop you round every dancehall in town and we'll live a bright new future full of hope built on Labour party promises.

"I thought we won, but the country looks shit. Like everything's falling apart."

Over the course of one long weekend in early 1946, The Swing Left tells the story of six people finding their way in a radically changed world. Set against the political backdrop of a massive landslide victory for Labour in the general election and filled with the swing music and dance of its time, The Swing Left paints a vivid picture of England in the immediate aftermath of the 2nd World War.

We don’t remember the war. But we do remember what hope is. We remember feeling like the country had finally been given back to us. We remember believing that things can only get better.

We're enormously proud to have been commissioned by the North Wall to launch this brilliant new venue in Oxford that's been designed by Young Vic and Royal Court architect Steve Tompkins.

The North Wall is the brainchild of leading film composer George Fenton (Gandhi, Fight Club, The Wind That Shakes the Barley) and has the most excellent ambition of building a national network of young people through a shared passion for the arts.

Welcome to the show. We hope you can make it.

Directed by Steven Dykes and Jon Spooner
Cast: Sarah Belcher, Clare Duffy, Lucy Ellinson, Gareth Kieran Jones, Jon Spooner and Chris Thorpe.
Lighting design by Ric Mountjoy
Sound Design by Gareth Fry
Associate Artist (design) Emma Williams
Stage Management: Jodi Brooke Woolhouse

A co-production with The North Wall
Additional support from Sheffield Theatres, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Harrogate Theatre
Also funded by Arts Council England.

<2007>
The Ethics of Progress

ongoing: details here

REVIEWS...

• THE SCOTSMAN - 24/08/07
• Culture Wars - 24/08/07
• FEST Magazine - 22/08/07
• THE GUARDIAN - 21/08/07
• BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE - 21/08/07
• EdFringe.com- 20/08/07
• DAILY INFO, Oxford - 16/11/07

<2006/08>
TANGLE

a co-production with The Corn Exchange, Newbury
"The excellent Unlimited Theatre.... A show that creates a sense of wonder at the idea we are all part of each other." The Guardian

TANGLE was first performed in September 2006 and was the fourteenth new show that we have made together. It is now in bed.

click here for (now completed) Tour Dates
and here for the rather smart e-flyer

In an underground research facility on Wimbledon Common two scientists are on the verge of an incredible breakthrough.....

TANGLE is a sci-detective story that mixes Albert Einstein with Great Uncle Bulgaria and quantum physics with urban myth to tell the story of four people who are all looking for something - a lost brother, a missing uncle, a dead wife and an untraceable atom.

It's a bit like Doctor Who meets Moonlighting.....

"Unlimited ventures boldly into areas where pretentiousness awaits the unwary traveller (surrealism, the ethics of science, appearance and reality) and emerges totally unscathed. Instead there’s a sense of intellectual fun, mixed in with farce, philosophy and oddly compassionate observation.... In a play that is all about probabilities, the only certainty is that it is consistently entertaining, frequently thought provoking and always physically and verbally dextrous - the whole thing being carried off with a kind of casual precision." What's On Stage dot com

And we teleported an orange. No really, we did. Teleport an orange.

Welcome to the show. We hope you were able to make it.

Click here for comments by people who've already seen TANGLE.

Tangle from Unlimited on Vimeo.
pics by Ed Collier

REVIEWS...

• WHAT'S ON STAGE dot com - October 06
• GUARDIAN - October 06
• INSTITUTE of PHYSICS - October 06
• THE STAGE - October 06
• SCIENCE, PEOPLE, POLITICS December 06
• RED BRICK December 06 (Birmingham Uni student paper)

Cast: Gemma Brockis, Lucy Ellinson, Jon Spooner, Chris Thorpe
Directed by Jon Spooner
Stage Design by Alexander Kelly
Lighting Design by Colin Grenfell
Sound Design by Gareth Fry
Production Photographs by Marilyn Kingwill and Ed Collier

Associate Artists:
A Smith, Steven Dykes, Bryony Lavery, Tim Skelly, Professor Vlatko Vedral, Amy Hodge

Outreach programme on tour supported by
The Institute of Physics
and Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society

<2004>
Zero Degrees & Drifting

written by Clare Duffy, Liz Margree, Jon Spooner and Chris Thorpe.

Presented by Unlimited Theatre and Sheffield Theatres
with additional support from the Corn Exchange, Newbury.

Toured UK Autumn 2004 (click for tour schedule)

"Astonishingly Rich" The Scotsman
"Stunningly Brilliant Stuff" Yorkshire Evening Post
Nominated as Best Production for the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards.

Set on the eroding cliff edge of a remote English coastal town that's crumbling into the sea "Zero Degrees & Drifting" is about love, refuge and the benefits of having a toy monkey as your only friend.

It's the story of a young couple in a lighthouse measuring weather and conserving fish, a pirate DJ on a boat broadcasting missing person adverts 24/7 and a broken, bruised, beautiful stranger washed up on a beach.

Zero Degress and Drifting' was our eleventh new show and our third collaboration with our co-producers Sheffield Theatres. The production received additional support from The Corn Exchange, Newbury.

REVIEWS...

• BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE - 14/11/04
• THE SCOTSMAN - 12/11/04
• THE HERALD - 11/11/04
• edinburghguide.com - 10/11/04
• MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS - 27/10/04
• BBC Online Manchester- 26/10/04
• THE INDEPENDENT - 26/10/04
• YORKSHIRE EVENING POST - 21/10/04

Written by Clare Duffy, Liz Margree, Jon Spooner and Chris Thorpe

Directed by Jon Spooner
Assistant Director Oliver Emanuel
Designed by David Farley
Lighting Design by Guy Hoare
Sound Design by Gareth Fry
Artistic Associate Chris Goode
ORIGINAL CAST: Elizabeth Besbrode, Sarah Belcher, Nathan Rimmel, Theron Schmidt, Chris Thorpe

<2003>
COULD IT BE MAGIC?

@ The Crucible Studio, Sheffield May 2003

In February 2002, in a flat in Plymouth overlooking the sea, this show began as a discussion about English identity and history. In September that year we were in Uley talking about family trees and looking for lighthouses on the Welsh coast and by Christmas we were in Camden, in the rain, thinking about what we trusted and why we
need something to believe in. Finally, one Monday morning, we found ourselves scribbling on the Crucible Studio floor, chalking out a map. This show came from that map and our attempt to answer, genuinely and in its many guises, the question we posed ourselves...could it be magic?pic: Manuel Harlan

Once again working in collaboration with Chris Goode and produced for Sheffield Theatres as part of their Sheffield Firsts season of new plays, it opened at the Crucible alongside Steve Waters' "World Music".

MAGIC? was about being English, being a weather girl, being a stranger and being unable to tell people that you love them.

• review in METRO - May 03

And here's a response received via email from a (French) audience member based in the UK:

"Dear Unlimited People,

I attended "Could It Be Magic?" last night and feel quite rewarded for having 'tasted' a new work of drama,
having trusted a good review about it and having waited overnight to tell you about it.

"Could It Be Magic?" was unusual and unlimited for sure but it was particularly difficult to fall under the spell at once. It feels so rich, intelligent, creative and modern. In your language is a faith that encompasses the present, giving it,and us, a future.

Throughout the performance there were times when I was not all grasped by it, when pauses and profusion of words left me out of it yet at the end it was like thinking these moments had not been wasted for I knew it had collided with the rest to build a theatrical ambience and tale out of the ordinary, completely out of what has been seen and heard before, and yes it made me pleased I could have made it to your show.

Finally, once back home I had a drink in the coolness of that wonderful evening and thought "Damn, I wish I had paid them a drink and have a chat with them, but it's important to reflect (It wouldn't have been possible to say all these things last night) and good to feel what Theatre does...let IT be injected into your veins and flow like a drug mixed in with your bright red blood, alive."

Lovely.

This show was further developed and transformed into our 2004 show "Zero Degrees & Drifting"
pic: Manuel Harlan

<2002>
SAFETY

Urgent, awkward, funny, moving, timely SAFETY premiered at the Traverse Theatre for the 2002 Edinburgh Festival.

Presented in association with Sheffield Theatres SAFETY toured throughout the UK during February, March and April 2003. Among others we visited The Royal Exchange in Manchester, The Drum at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth and the Studio at The Crucible in Sheffield.

"This is an honest, serious and intelligent play." The Sunday Times

pic: Simon Allen

SAFETY is the story of Michael, a war photographer who is celebrated as producing some of the most iconic images of conflict from the late 20th century. Now in his mid 40's and on the eve of a major retrospective of his work, Michael is being forced to reconsider his roles as a reporter, a husband who's never there and a father who hesitated when his daughter needed him most.

"It's amazing how you can tell it's blood, even in black and white. It looks sort of thick, doesn't it?"

"You can tell it's blood because it's coming out of a person. Buckets of it. And she's got a massive hole in her chest."

review from edinburghguide.com

Safety is a harrowing, powerful and funny piece about the very difficult relationship that a celebrated war photographer has with his work and how that affects his relationship with his family and with himself. How can a person spend his working life documenting death, and continue to live a normal and unaffected life elsewhere? Statements are made about modern western journalism, it's connection with news - does it document it objectively, or does it actually bring it about - and about art. The age old question of what art is. Photographs are beautiful, powerful images, but are they works of Art?

These very interesting topics are given a superb and thoughtful context in this play. It moves at great speed, with frequent simple scene changes, and dialogue which is both snappy and reflective. The acting is largely faultless. For a while, the central character of Michael (Steven Dykes) is irritating, and at first I blamed the actor. However, it becomes apparent that the character can only work if he is flawed in this way. The point is that however his life has been affected by his job, he isn't the real war victim. His wife's opening monologue was the highlight for me. Bridget Escolm plays Susan with a remarkable sense of comic timing, brushed with the sarcasm and bitterness of the long suffering and depressed spouse. Tanya (Louisa Ashley), Michael's loveless fling, is played with just the right amount of sass for a Sunday Supplement, hangover hack and Sean (Chris Thorpe), the young lad who, despite his obvious modesty, is essential to the narrative, is played by the writer with the utmost honesty and a feeling of someone wise before their years.

The set works very well within the dialogue. A white constructed archway surrounds the action and lighting is used to change the colour of this, affecting the whole look of the stage, and feel of the drama. The look of the piece is minimal, but with cluttered sound and visual effects that upset the audience when necessary. Safety is a play which deals with serious ideas without being self-conscious or remotely pretentious.

SAFETY was published by Nick Hern Books

Written by Chris Thorpe
Directed by Jon Spooner

Original Cast:
Steven Dykes, Louisa Ashley, Bridget Escolme and Chris Thorpe

Stage Design by Barney George
Lighting Design by Tim Skelly
Original sound/music by Chris Goode
Video/Projection by William Rose

<2001>
NEUTRINO

The smallest amount of reality ever imagined by a human being.
Devised by Unlimited Theatre in collaboration with Chris Goode

"Cooly stylish...Scared of neither the intellectual nor the emotional. Its confidence is rare and not at all misplaced."
The Guardian

Written and devised in collaboration with Chris Goode, NEUTRINO won us our second consecutive Fringe First for "innovation in theatre and an outstanding production" at the 2001 Edinburgh Festival.

"That rare thing, a show that manages to be both hard hitting and lyrical. On the cutting edge and beautiful."
The Scotsman

NEUTRINO takes its name from a sub-atomic particle that is so small it is almost impossible to detect. Described as a cross between When Harry Met Sally and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy this show is an hilarious, intelligent and uplifting exploration of the nature of coincidence.

"It takes a certain bravery to link spoof particle physics with the chaotic patterns of love and relationships in the 21st century. Yet Unlimited has created a small jewel for the modern mind."
London Evening Standard

A chance meeting on a train between a wannabe stand-up comedian and a manic-depressive librarian develops alongside the story of a gay woman bringing her girlfriend home to meet-the-parents. Intercut with this series of short scenes is an increasingly fantastical lecture on particle physics delivered by a crazed lecturer whose ideas - and accompanying slides - become ever more bizarre, florid, poetic and mystical as his lecture proceeds.

"Uniquely compelling... A Chris Morris take on physics...a production that proves that, like neutrinos, Unlimited are a force to be reckoned with" The Independent

"Needle-sharp and tightly woven, this study of coincidence ingeniously intertwines a scientific lecture, a tentative pair of lesbians, a mobile phone and a librarian joke."
The Observer

Neutrino has toured extensively throughout the UK including a run at the Soho Theatre in London and internationally to Germany and Ukraine. The show received its American premiere at the Skirball Centre In Los Angeles (USA).

"Bursting with hope....calls to mind such hits as Tom Stoppards 'Arcadia', Michael Fryan's 'Copenhagen' or Steve Martin's 'Picasso at the Lapin Agile' "
LA Times

Welcome to the show. We hope you were able to make it.....

Original Cast: Louisa Ashley, Clare Duffy, Liz Margree, Jon Spooner, Chris Thorpe

Script by Chris Thorpe (lectures) and Chris Goode (dialogue)
Directed by Jon Spooner
Stage Design by Alexander Kelly
Lighting Design by Tim Skelly

REVIEWS...

• LA TIMES review - 11/02/05
• LA TIMES article - 10/02/05
• GUARDIAN
• THE INDEPENDENT
• THE SCOTSMAN
• METRO
• TIME OUT
• THE STAGE
• THE LIST
• LONDON EVENING STANDARD

<1999>
STATIC

written by Chris Thorpe.

The point at which war in (seemingly) far away places meets post-atrocity television

“A searing production…performances beyond praise…
achingly vital and a must see event.”
Los Angeles Times (2006)

Written in response to the conflict in Kosovo in 1999, STATIC was awarded a Fringe First for innovation in theatre and an oustanding production at the Edinburgh Festival 2000. It has subsequently toured throughout the UK, been recorded and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and has toured internationally to Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Zimbabwe, the USA, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

"Static is a formidable reminder that what for us often constitutes inconsequential words and images on television are live action snapshots of others' horrific experiences.... Terrifying, tender and compelling"
The List

"Chris Thorpe's two-hander is a very promising, very controlled piece of new writing about how TV news coverage brings tragedy and atrocity straight into our living rooms and how we dismiss it so easily. This beautifully acted production is as sharp and as clean as the writing."
The Guardian

"Both Thorpe's script and the uncluttered staging confront a complex issue with confidence and impressive restraint. Simply done to startling effect, this is a show that demonstrates with real elegance how less, in theatre terms, can be more."
The Scotsman

"Goal of the Month... STATIC won a Fringe First and it's easy to see why. This is a show that offers genuine, concerned commentary on the world. Lucid, powerful, direct."
The Independent

"The script's keen intelligence makes for pulse-quickening listening... perfectly controlled simplicity... this is theatre that sticks in your throat"
The Times

Staring into the gap between real-life experience and the media's representation of death in a small-scale, very European war, STATIC is a moving, witty and timely reminder that the blood on TV isn't always make-up and that there's more to life, and death, than processed cheese and public transport.