East End Review

Tag: Babylon

  • New season of drama at Hackney Downs Studios

    Flyer for Baby/Lon, now showing at Hackney Downs Studios
    Flyer for Baby/Lon, now showing at Hackney Downs Studios

    Hackney Downs Studios announces a season of new drama. A triptych of hard-hitting, daring and evocative theatre.

    Season One presents theatrical work on an epic scale 

    The season promises three promenade productions of exceptional quality and provocative content, each exploring the vulnerability of the human condition. The season takes its audience on a journey, a life-cycle of pregnancy, birth, displacement and death, concluding with a tale of astonishing rebirth and renewal.

    Hackney Downs Studios is working with The Big House (theatre company in residence), Renato Rocha for LIFT festival and Living Structures, all innovative theatre companies who believe that theatre and art can transform lives.

    BABY/LON

    Apr 14th – May 3rd Written by Andy Day Directed By Maggie Norris

    Press Night and Season One Launch Thurs 17 April, for tickets email lou@creativenetworkpartners.com

    Dear Daughter, If you never meet me…I want you to know that my first thoughts of you were full of hope. As you grew inside me, I knew nothing about you, and I was still so deeply in love with you that I could hardly think.

    Inspired by the real-life stories and experiences of a care-leaving cast, The Big House return with their second show exploring the harsh realities of having a child taken into care.

    Press Release | bighousetheatre.org.uk

    TURFED

    Jun 9th – 21st

    Directed By Renato Rocha
    Press Night Wed 11th June, for tickets email lou@creativenetworkpartners.com

    Inspired by the ‘beautiful game’, Rocha and an international team of young artists use spoken word, sharp choreography and stunning visuals to explore experiences of homelessness in London and across the world in a production that will make you see your home, family and friends in surprising new ways.

    Created in partnership with Street Child World Cup and part of the 20th LIFT festival.

    LIFT 2014 Press Release | liftfestival.com

    LEVIATHAN

    Jul 5th – 26th
    An homage to Herman Melville’s Moby Dick Created by Living Structures

    Press Night Wed 16th July, for tickets email lou@creativenetworkpartners.com

    A stunning reimagining of Captain Ahab’s relentless pursuit of the great white whale, Leviathan is imbued with the monochrome colours, geometric shapes and functionality of Russian Constructivism. Pioneers of immersive theatre – Living Structures – take its audience through an adventurous journey of stunning landscapes, choruses of singers, giant objects, sailor aerialists and hauntingly beautiful songs that fill you with wonder and break your heart.

    Press Release | livingstructures.co.uk
    Tickets from £5 at hackneydownsstudios.com | @HackneyDStudios | #SeasonOne

  • Baby/Lon review – ‘This is not just about entertainment’

    Tough times: in Baby/Lon
    Hard hitting: Baby/Lon. Photograph: George Ramsay

    The Big House brings another gut wrenching production to Hackney Downs Studios with Baby/Lon, based on the lives of the young cast who have all recently left care.

    In the Big House’s favoured promenade delivery, the visceral story is played out in an emotional dance which tears at your senses, while a barrage of visual and audio projection create an unsettling backdrop.

    The show expertly tackles a myriad of issues affecting some children brought up by the government without their families, spanning from gang affiliation and teenage sex to mental health and homelessness.

    In a world of entwined tragedies where almost everyone seems stuck in a hopeless cycle, the main character, Madeline, feels abandoned in life and paranoia is enveloping her.

    Constant analysis and labels assigned by social workers and mental health professionals ricochet through her dreams and enhance her self-hate in an echoing cacophony of judgement.

    And with a lack of role models and a deep seated mistrust of social services, danger is her destination.

    Floating between groups with her desperate need for love translating into promiscuity, she claws for attention from empty connections and is left pregnant.

    With a desire to protect her baby conflicting with past failings and parallels of rejection, Madeline isolates herself more and more.

    And although some of the strongest characters eventually succumb to their assumed predestinations, Madeline’s one true friend, the enduring voice of reason, Estelle, offers an alternative ending.

    The tense, violent finale at the rear of the theatre opens into the real world, heightening the fact that these heart breaking situations have actually happened to the actors and this is not just about entertainment.

    Echoing the Big House’s success in helping the most marginalised young people, one actress, Zoe Finlay, 18, says: “This is my first big showcase performance and it has been a life changing experience. There are pieces in the show which are close to home and some nights I’ve just sat behind the stage and cried. But it is a good way to deal with things – now we have a voice and people are listening.”

    Baby/Lon is at Hackney Downs Studios, 17 Amhurst Road, E8 2BT until 3 May.