Carriageworks Theatre Presents EDEN, Sept. 26

Seven years ago Jennifer Nevin struck up a conversation with a Big Issue seller outside West Yorkshire Playhouse for a character study for drama school. This conversation over a coffee was the first step in the long journey towards Eden, a brilliant new show about social exclusion. Years later Jen and Mike were further inspired after working in Thailand, where they ran creative workshops for vulnerable communities on the Thai/ Myanmar border.

Eden is born out of a strong ethos to produce intimate work that uses narrative, music and movement aimed at challenging social injustices. Displace Yourself Theatre reach out to margins of society and offer a voice to communities that are often underrepresented, striving to raise awareness, ask questions and present alternative perceptions making them an exciting young company with a genuinely unique voice.

Eden's first outing was at West Yorkshire Playhouse's Summer Sublets. Since then it has been developed over a series of residencies at ARC, Stockton Arts Centre, Slung Low's HUB and Theatre in the Mill. As part of these residencies Displace Yourself Theatre invited local groups working with vulnerable adults to participate in workshops. The workshops were a significant part of the artistic process, growing the work from the community. The creative workshops used theatre and movement exercises to explore the themes of the show along with discussions of the issues surrounding homelessness.

Participants from Yorkshire's homeless Theatre Company Urban Sprawl who took part in the workshop at Slung Low's HUB said that, "Mike and Jen were really generous in their whole approach, providing everyone with the physical and mental space with which to best express them-selves, and in so doing we were able to share in a really revealing and insightful discussion which saw deeply personal perspectives shared in a way which was equally poignant and liberating."

Now, after a year in development this thrilling piece of physical theatre has its first public performances at Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds on Friday 26 & Saturday 27 September, 7.45pm

Tickets for all Carriageworks Theatre productions can be booked on 0113 224 3801, online through the website atwww.carriageworkstheatre.org.uk or in person at the Carriageworks Theatre Box Office, Millennium Square, Leeds, LS2 3AD.

The Carriageworks Theatre is a modern venue located in the Electric Press on Millennium Square programming a wide variety of theatre and film and events for the whole family. We are the proud home of the Leeds Civic Arts Guild, the Carriageworks Young Theatre Makers and a wide range of weekly classes open to the Leeds community.