From Devon with Love is a showcase of all kinds of work being made right on our doorstep - two weeks of locally  made theatre featuring dance, epic poems, work-in-progress shows and politically charged pieces.

There will be local food and produce on show in the bar and lots of chances to meet the people who are making Devon such an exciting place to make and see theatre.

Tickets cost £7, £5 concessions for single shows, £10, £7 concessions for two shows.

For further information visit http://www.bikeshedtheatre.co.uk/

Performances:

14 January

Interwoven Theatre: Vega

7.30pm

Vega is a story that skirts the edge of what we know to be real. It allows us to think we have captured the nature of the world then sweeps us up to crystalline skies where all our assumptions are redefined. A spiralling love story in word and movement.

Interwoven Theatre, an Exeter-based artistic collaboration, presents a piece of physical theatre; a crystalline exploration of what is real. Essentially a love story, Vega nurtures our suspicion that the celestial skies hold an intense truth that is too beautiful for us to hold. Yet we can feel it, we know it when we look to the heavens and give ourselves up to the night sky. Through the melding of word and sound and body and movement this ethereal moment is captured.

Written by JoJo Spinks, a Devon-born writer, deeply in love with her landscape and her life and who probably spends too many hours gazing at the night sky. Danced by Kayleigh Anne Crook, an extraordinary dance talent recently returned from a secondment with the Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts in Bangalore. Vega is Directed by Alistair Ganley who has been teaching the dramatic arts in Devon for 20 years and the team is delighted to welcome Sam Burns on board, his voice bringing the story alive. If you’ve ever loved the stars then you will love Vega.  Followed by a performance of Somewhere Between My Broken Seams. Pay what you can after seeing the show.

SourDough Theatre: The Ice Maiden

8.30pm

“She, the murderess, the destroyer, is half a child of air and half the powerful ruler of the streams”.

 SourDough Theatre present Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ice Maiden, the dark tale of a young man called Rudy, whose life is beset by an evil being - the queen of the glaciers, a force of icy rage from the natural world, the titular Ice Maiden. After escaping her when he was young he must now do everything in his power to resist the lure of the Ice Maiden and escape her frosty grasps.
Working from Andersen’s original text, SourDough have devised their own version, merging the old story with their new interpretation. Here they unveil the first act of their latest production as part of a work-in-progress piece, a morbid fairy-tale, exploring a world that is both beautiful and grotesque. The story is illustrated with many of the company’s favourite devices; shadows, projection and live music. As the first performance of this new project SourDough are experimenting with bringing together a range of visual and technical elements, to create a distinctive storytelling experience.

15 January

Scarborough

7.30pm

Step into a faded hotel room where two people are having an illicit weekend away. Amidst the peeling wallpaper, they laugh, quarrel and make love, but they don’t dare go out.

Scarborough is an hour-long piece that shows a couple having a romantic weekend away but what is unusual about this couple is that it is a 29-year-old teacher and their 15-year-old student. The first half of the play shows Lauren as the teacher and Daz as her student. Halfway through, the genders of the couple change, with Aiden becoming the teacher and Bethany being the young student. It challenges our ideas of what is classed as more acceptable, if acceptable at all, and how something as simple as gender can change our perception completely, despite the use of the same dialogue.

Debuting at the Royal Court in 2008, this new play by Fiona Evans forces us to confront ideas on how society views teacher student relationships, and the risks in taking what you want.

16 January

Substance & Shadow: Skin Deep

7.30pm

The year is 1980. Born out of the cultural melting pot of Jamaica, London and Coventry, Ska and Two Tone music is sweeping the nation and has arrived in Exeter! These are troubled political times and Skinheads are on the March.

Four lives are touched and entwined forever by the music, fashion and culture of the day but friendships are stretched to the limit and bonds tested when Jem suddenly returns ‘home’ from London, bringing with him a new identity.

Secrets and jealousies from the past bubble to the surface, but why has Jem decided to return and what made him leave all those years ago?

Exploring themes of cultural identity, working class values, race and sexuality in a Devon City through the eyes of four young characters set against the volatile backdrop of Thatcher’s Britain, Substance & Shadow Theatre are proud to present, Skin Deep.

17 January

Peter Oswald: Weyland

7.30pm

Weyland is a long poem based on the Norse myth of Weyland the Smith. Weyland is captured by the insane King Nud, crippled, and imprisoned in a pitch black cell. There he struggles alone as he feels himself being dragged into the same nihilistic madness that imprisoned him. As the king's insanity deepens, he locks his own daughter in the same cell as Weyland, where they fall in love. Eventually Weyland is able to escape using his own craft, the key to the door of madness.

Peter Oswald is a playwright, poet and performer. He was Writer-in-Residence at Shakespeare's Globe from 1998 to 2005. His plays in prose and verse have been performed at the Globe, the National Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway and all over the world. He has performed his long narrative poems - including WEYLAND - at the Globe, the Rose Theatre, the Ledbury Festival, Ways With Words, York Minster, the Red Tent Festival and many other places. With his theatre company THE ABYSS, (formerly Attention Seekers,) he has performed at the Bike Shed, Soho Theatre, and the English Theatre Berlin among other places.

18 January

Crave

7.30pm

Exeter's international performance troupe Baram Theatre have created “a psychophysical opera without music”: a performance of Sarah Kane’s Crave. This postdramatic, poetic, performative text consists of four personas named simply as A, B, C and M. They are united by a common sense of "crave", yet each persona has its own particular desire. "We have approached this piece as an ensemble through our common psychophysical performer training. Lacking a clear narrative or linear structure, we seek to give the audience a powerful theatrical experience through highly energised and psychophysically dynamic performance rather than through the chronological portrayal of a story. We embellish this with the rhythmical, musical nature of the text. By applying techniques from traditional bel canto opera training, we seek to deliver a highly performative, dynamic and energised physical and vocal piece of theatre. Our aim is to create a visceral, exciting, sensual and moving piece of theatre, while performing Sarah Kane in a unique and innovative way."
The staging is simple. Each character has an “aisle”, created by a spotlight, in which she/he spends a large proportion of the performance. Each performer has his/her own psychophysical score, which is always in relationship and dynamics with that performer’s own persona and all the other performers-as-persona.

Baram Theatre: 4 wALLs

8.30pm

Under the direction of Conor O’Grady, Baram Theatre presents 4wALLs: a raw piece of theatre both written and performed by in residence writer and actor, Laura Height. The two focal strands of the piece is our approach to post-dramatic theatre and tackling a response to alcoholism. The piece has recently been performed at The Bikeshed Theatre as part of SCRATCH and will continue to develop as a consequence of feedback given during that event. The show investigates an innovative approach to post-dramatic theatre, and involves the actor blurring moments of comedy and tragedy through a clear contrast between performing as a stand-up comic and performance poetry. The main focus of the piece theatrically is the dehumanization of the voice and what happens when that is contrasted so evidently with the poise and clarity demanded by a comic vocally. The overall aim of the production revolves around the ideology behind the accessibility of post-dramatic theatre as a genre through the direct use of comedy. The physicality so far is minimum and the staging simple. The plan over the next few months is to develop the voice through intense daily training at a more in depth level, with the additional development regarding several areas such as dynamic, space and audience.

19 January

Parapet Theatre: Contractions

7.30pm

How far would you go to keep your job?

Parapet Theatre is passionate about telling good stories. Using stylised movement, the company seeks to unearth the reality in this story by juxtaposing the painfully banal with the absurdly physical to compliment the realism of Mike Barrlett's script. 'Contractions' marks the first show for the company.

Bartlett skilfully begins this tale by enticing you into the world of business. Appearing banal and normal at first, as you begin to explore the working life of Emma and her relationship with her Manager, it becomes clear that everything is not what it seems. Everyone is monitored and life choices aren't for her to decide anymore. Throughout the narrative, this show will pose questions: what's more important, your happiness or your wage? Your boss's piece of mind or yours? Touchingly poignant, yet frightening real, this is a piece that will leave you with questions to ask long after you leave the theatre...

Mike Bartlett is a leading, award-winning British playwright. Having first produced this play as a radio play entitled 'Love Contract', it was quickly transferred to the Royal Court with its new name, 'Contractions' in 2008. "Bartlett...takes a plausible premise to a lethal conclusion" (The Guardian 2008). Directed by Harry Williams.

21 January

Another Story: Set You Free

7.30pm

Sisters Tasha, Ellie and Kate are brought together by the sudden death of their mother in a car accident. Kate, the youngest is determined to pursue a career as a professional dancer. However, she still has her final terms of college to complete and auditions to pass, and now she might have to face the prospect of losing her home. Ellie, the middle daughter is preparing for her wedding to Pete in a matter of months. However, the fact that he has chosen to go off on his 'stag do' rather than attend the funeral infuriates Tasha and Kate. Tasha, is the eldest, and has just had to say goodbye to her husband, Tim, as he sets off for Afghanistan. Separated from both Tim, and their young son Nathan who is staying with his paternal grandparents, Tasha feels incredibly isolated. As all three sisters attempt to deal with what is happening, a visitor from Ellie's past arrives, who plunges her into deeper turmoil. As if things weren't difficult enough, the night before the funeral a shocking secret is revealed that threatens to rip the family apart...

22 January

April

7.30pm

"I’m kind of ticking along okay with you, and I guess we’re having the kind of conversations that friends have, and then I see you on webcam. And that’s bizarre. It messes with my head. Seeing you is like being scared, or pushed, or woken up really suddenly."

A new, one-act duologue which explores the distant yet intimate relationship between two people who speak to each other, but never meet. With his personal life in turmoil, lonely actor Will seeks out his online fan base. He starts a conversation with a young woman, April, who will only identify herself as ‘Lily’, and who seems to spend most of her free time drawing portraits of him. As the two become increasingly dependent upon each other, Will’s growing honesty and April’s little white lies take their relationship to breaking point. A brutal little play which examines the complicated power dynamic between two vulnerable people. If we can follow our heroes on Twitter, is it okay for them to follow us back?

Chatroom

9pm

In cyberspace six 15-year-olds type and chat. A chilling and powerful tale of manipulation and the ultimate act of teenage rebellion. Highly topical, the play addresses serious issues faced daily by teenagers across the real- and virtual- world.

'A 60 minute masterpiece, a computer-age Lord of the Flies. The writing is taut, vivid, cool, scary and often funny.' The Times.

23 January

Fell In Love Again Today by James Tapp

7.30pm

A play about love and existentialism written by James Tapp. Two men explore human relationships from contrasting viewpoints ; one is older and bitter whilst the other is young and optimistic. Ultimately both men personify the inner thoughts of one person, voicing the inner battle we all have with our thoughts as we try to make sense of our relationships. Inspired by Beckett and Pinter, Fell in Love Today deals with the concept of love and how it affects us in different ways.

Rain

8.30pm

Nestled in the bosom of Albion, there is a boy followed perpetually by his own tiny personal cloud. As he fights with growing up and travels from the soggy fields of Devon to the tattered spires of London, Cloudy lingers over him, capturing his memories and telling him tales of the coming flood. Rap storyteller Jack Dean uses hip hop poetics,self-aware humour and a bucket of pathetic fallacy to explore two great British institutions: clinical depression and talking about the weather.

With Rain, Jack looks at sadness, both as a concept and as a force that has affected him personally. Different cultures treat it differently. The Japanese have mono no aware or “the ah-ness of things”. The Portugese have saudade, a melancholic nostalgia for an indefinable object. In the western world, it is often categorized as depression and treated in a medical fashion. With the piece he tries to look at the validity of these opposing concepts, with weather as an overarching and very English metaphor running throughout.

24 January

Tumbling Hat: The 100m Sprint

7.30pm

Tumbling Hat are an up and coming theatre company who specialise in contemporary devised performances. The current piece ‘The 100m Sprint’ is an aptly relevant piece of comedic theatrical entertainment. The piece explores the memories of three sporting elites (Rachel Gibbens, Jessamy Lambert and Louise White), delving into the sparks that set their sporting ambitions in motion, what strives them to suceed and what pitfalls and humiliations have challenged them along the way. It is a collaboratively devised autobiographical performance and explores the triumphs and hardships of sporting endeavours and the feelings of elation, embarrassment, and disappointment that accompany them. Experimentation with genuine exertion and exhaustion plays a huge role in the production, exposing the performers’ ability to sustain their roles while combating physical deterioration. ‘The 100m Sprint’ is an engaging show that is suitable for audiences of all ages.

Pretentious

8.30pm

Our identity, our purpose, our place in life. We strive eternally to find the meaning of our existence, to answer the unanswerable questions. We endeavour to carve our niche into the world, and leave our mark for future generations. But what happens when all we’re faced with is an empty void of personality, a chasm of nothingness? One man sets out on a journey of self-discovery, armed solely with a leotard and a tutu, pushing the barriers of what the human mind can comprehend, in order to find out all the answers for himself. Casualties will be encountered, many will perish, and sanities will be tested, all in the name of proving our worth in the universe. Battling existential anxiety through the medium of voice, dance, and soliloquy, one man shall ultimately encounter his greatest demon...himself. Step up to the metaphysical mirror and search for the true meaning of identity. Disclaimer: May not be 100% sincere.