ELEVATE FESTIVAL returns to the Theatre Royal Bath championing new work made by local talent with more than 100 participants at The Egg Theatre
Theatre Royal Bath’s Elevate Festival returns from Monday 2nd to Saturday 7th September with a packed programme of events presented by the local creative community at The Egg.
With more than 100 adult participants from 23 theatre companies showcasing live performances, the Elevate Festival welcomes and connects theatre companies, performers and audiences from across the region including Bath, Bristol, Somerset and Wiltshire. The week-long programme, featuring four different events daily, promises a wonderful breadth of work from local companies, including comedy, drama, scratch performances and theatre for a family audience.
Katherine Lazare, Head of Community Engagement at the Theatre Royal Bath, said: “We received a huge response of outstanding submissions to the call out this year, and I’m delighted to present such a breadth of work in this eclectic and exciting line-up. It’s like having a slice of Edinburgh Fringe at Theatre Royal Bath for a week! Kicking off the week of shows, renowned local theatre company New Old Friends are running a free Industry Session, sharing tips on setting up a theatre company and how to get your show on the road. The beauty of Elevate is not only does it provide a professional platform for local theatre companies to showcase work, it also connects local theatre companies, performers and audiences. Celebrating grass roots theatre in this way also supports and builds the local cultural ecology.
From dance theatre and poetry to new writing and comedy, Elevate celebrates our local, vibrant, theatre scene, and it’s a joy to be a part of it.”
Elevate Festival continues the Theatre Royal’s ongoing work in the community, building on the success of the Engage programme for adults, which is generously supported by the Beryl Billings Charitable Trust, and the Theatre Royal’s numerous initiatives at The Egg for young people and families.
Elevate Festival opens on Monday 2nd September with an Elevate Industry Session at 11am, a free event, led by New Old Friends Co-Artistic Director Feargus Dunlop-Woods exploring how he set up New Old Friends theatre company, navigating funding and tour booking, avoiding the pitfalls and celebrating the successes of running a theatre company. On Monday at 5.30pm, Richard Ingham’s Poems of Life and Love brings poetry that touches on the challenges, pleasures and laughter of everyday life in a show that promises a warm and illuminating experience. At 6pm, For Hearts Sake brings a piece based on the relationship between the painter and printmaker Edward Hopper and his wife the American painter Josephine Nivison, with each scene based around a Hopper painting which the audience will see come to life. At 7.30pm, Emerge Introduces sees Bath Spa University’s graduate studio present an evening of Bath’s up-and-coming professional performers, writers and musicians, showing new work, in progress and rehearsed readings in a night of comedy, dance, music, thrills and powerful storytelling.
On Tuesday 3rd September at 5.30pm, Green Man, written and performed by Tom Mackean, brings a fast-paced and dark story following a sixth former living in the West Country. Exploring growing up queer in rural England, playing guitar in your bedroom and the stories we tell ourselves to get by, Green Man shows the dark folklore lying just under the surface of things. At 6pm, As We Know It, showcases a new play centring around four teenagers and their weed dealer waiting for their final night on earth to end. Dark and humorous, the play explores how Gen Z would handle the end of the world. At 7.30pm in the Roper Room, One Foot in the Dark features a double bill with a solo piece by Divija Melally, and an interdisciplinary duet between Divija Melally and Saili Katebe, in an exploration of our known and unknown experiences of identity, culture and change through text and movement; examining what it means to connect to each other as human beings, and how we can always find these connections no matter where in the world we have come from. Appearing at 8pm, Beneath The Camouflage Tree is a two-hander play which introduces fictional characters Jack and Tony, inspired by a composite of many real women soldiers. Against the backdrop of an observation post in World War One, this play examines the complexity of relationships, identity, and grief.
On Wednesday 4th September at 5.30pm, Jordan Cottle weaves a tale of adventure with The Old Pier in the Roper Room,for audiences8 years and over. With the arrival of a ghostly steamship in his bedroom, George is taken on a musical journey full of live music and poetry as he explores forgotten memories and the magic that can be found on your doorstep. At 6pm in the Egg auditorium, Tale Blazers create an irreverent but affectionate reimagining of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers as Rosaline and Juliet, for audiences aged 14 years andover. This drama explores what might have happened to Juliet Capulet with the support of a female friend, in a celebration of flawed female characters. At 7.30pm in the Roper Room, Mia Borthwick takesaudiences on a journey in a musical comedy about failure, growth and not having a clue what algebra is. I Don’t Have A Maths GCSE explores insecurities and low self-esteem after being diagnosed with Dyscalculia, for audiences aged 16 years and over. At 8pm in the Egg Auditorium,Invulnerable Nothingsstage a loving, live recreation of the weird and wonderful 1921 film, Hamlet: The Drama of Vengeance in their new performance, Asta Nielsen’s Hamlet: A Green Screen Séance. This live multi-media work restages, shot for shot, Danish film star Asta Nielsen’s remarkable turn as Hamlet reviving a landmark re-gendered adaptation.
On Thursday 5th September at 10am in the Egg auditorium, live-action storytelling game, Red Planet: Revolution places the power to shape society in the hands of the audience in a new performance for those aged 12 years and over. Set in 2224, this performance comes from critically acclaimed Upstart Theatre, who were awarded four stars from London Theatre Reviews and nominated for a VAULT Festival Innovation award. At 11.30am in the Roper Room, Atomic Rhubarbpresent Period Drama for audiences 9 years and over. Going beyond the biological, the performance supported by Arts Council England, uses comedy and music to unpack the stigmas surrounding periods. At 3pm, SQUELCH!, in the Egg auditorium is an adventure into the world inside your toilet, following two brothers on a journey to rescue their lost goldfish. Full of puppets and slapstick comedy, this performance for audiences aged 4 years and over, explores family, responsibility and growing up. At 4.30pm in the Roper Room, Riding Waves Theatre presents an extract from a work-in-progress, Bittersweet. This performance for audiences aged 7 years and over tells a tale of childhood, sweets and how we remember, followingtwo children, two communities at war and one quest to find the best sweets in the world.
On Friday 6th September at 5.30pm, audiences aged 14 years and over can enjoy Shufflin’ Along in the Roper Room. This performance inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet, imagines Hamlet’s father in the afterlife as he reminisces on past events and questions what took place. At 6pm, one-man show RESET! takes audiences aged12 years and over behind the scenes on stage in The Egg auditorium, in a unique look at theatre making and the unsung heroes that make theatre happen. This show is produced and directed by Theatre Royal Bath Front of House team members, Paddy King and András Gönczöl. At 7.30pm, comedy sketch show Traffic Light Boys explores the wacky characters in a community centre and promises to be a rollercoaster of fun for audiences aged 16 years and over, staged in the Roper Room. At 8pm, Ant Lightfoot and Raina Greifer present a new double bill of new work exploring mental health and queerness for audiences aged 18 years and over in The Egg auditorium.
On Saturday 7th September at 5.30pm in the Roper Room, FAITH,presented by Uncaged Theatre follows a group of four people who, friends for more than a decade, grapple with what it means to live in a world where violence against women and girls is so prevalent. Recommended for audiences aged 16 years, the show asks the question: if nothing ever changes, can there ever really be a happy ending? At 6pm in the Egg auditorium, Gareth Rodd presents How Lovely for ages 13 years and over, telling the story of five strangers who don’t know each other, but trapped in one room come to understand that the only way out means one of them will have to die. At 7.30pm in the Roper Room, Montague Terrace, the penultimate performance of the Festival, is a tale spanning two timelines. Following four lives displaced by extraordinary circumstances and facing adversity, the characters ask the audience, aged 15 years and over, to consider what it takes to find our way. Really Truly Theatre Company presents the final performance of the Festival as Mind Set concludes the billing on the Egg auditorium stage at 8pm. A funny and touching new play by Polly Lamb, for audiences aged 14 years and over,
Mind Set dives into conspiracy theory, following Stella who is seeking answers, asking how do we hold on in a changing world?
For further details about each of the shows, age guidance and ticket prices for every performance during the festival, visit theatreroyal.org.uk
Tickets for Elevate Festival at the Theatre Royal Bath can be purchased from the Box Office on 01225 448844 and online at theatreroyal.org.uk