Royal Court Theatre Announces Temporary Theatre Space, The Site, Created By Designer Chloe Lamford

Tickets go on sale today for The Royal Court Theatre's temporary theatre space The Site curated by Royal Court Associate Designer Chloe Lamford.

The programme includes new work from writers EV Crowe, Stacey Gregg, Theresa Ikoko, Nathaniel Martello-White and Deborah Pearson. With Creative Direction by both Chloe Lamford and Royal Court Associate Director Lucy Morrison.

The Site is a workshop and rehearsal space situated next door to the Royal Court and rented from Transport for London. Chloe is transforming the space and is offering audiences an invitation; an experiment in design, collaboration and process. She has designed a space where language, form, the body and instructions are the materials and where both artists and audiences are invited to rethink how we create, present, and watch plays.

This series of works is an experiment, exploring performance through language, physicality and the power of the imagination, created by five playwrights in response to Chloe Lamford's provocation.

As well as being a leading theatre designer of her generation Chloe is now well known for her extraordinary collaborations with leading European artists such as Lies Pauwels, Katie Mitchell and most recently Wanda on a pop gig. She has collaborated with the Tate Modern and as Associate Designer at the Royal Court is in a constant conversation with the writers to help them challenge form and question the image-based and visual dramaturgy of their work. It is in this spirit that she is leading this project.

Chloe Lamford Royal Court Associate Designed comments in the below video;

"The usual roles in theatre are quite clearly defined; the writer writes a play, a director would then take the play on and then a theatre designer would visualise and create the play from that series of conversations. This time around we're making a space and then we're having conversations with five writers in response to this space that we're making. Each writer is responding to the space in a different way."

Watch the full video here of Chloe Lamford discussing the concept of The Site https://youtu.be/8XRMUuRkS8k

Tickets will be £12 and go on sale today. To increase accessibility to the work there will be a second release of tickets online on Tuesday 2 May at midday plus an allocation of tickets that can be purchased in person, on the door at every performance.

The work:

LIGHTS OUT by Stacey Gregg

In 2017 Gregg began to examine strategies used to bridge the gap between socio-economic backgrounds.

The project takes place in the context of Lights-Out manufacturing, which refers to factories that are fully automated and require no human workers, thus no need for light.

It's All Made Up by Deborah Pearson

Deborah Pearson isn't very comfortable writing fiction. To her, it feels like lying. As a result, she's made her career in theatre by telling real stories about her life or her performers' lives. Chloe has challenged Deborah not to do that. Deborah has been asked to write a made-up story that takes place in a real life place - The Site.

Deborah will only start making up the story as soon as she first walks into the Site, always writing from and in The Site. She hopes that what ends up being performed is a string of pathological lies and made-up magic.

A new work by Nathaniel Martello-White

A provocation

What happened.

Did we see what we think we saw?

What are the facts?

Is a square really a square? Or a triangle posing as one?

Or has our capacity to discern a square perished

Truth is in the eye of the beholder

So it's beauty

So is murder

Or maybe it isn't

Did we just have that conversation?

In this new unknown space, Nathaniel Martello-White explores the post-truth era where facts have become irrelevant and we are forced to question the 'reality' that surrounds us.

The Unknown by EV Crowe

There are four basic principles:

1) They are not willed by the individual self

2) They reflect social reality

3) They are public rhetoric

4) They are collectively interpretable

EV Crowe's real life dreams will be shared as a play and interpreted by an audience.

Quote source: Nocturnal Omissions: Steps Toward a Sociology of Dreams (pages 95-104). Gary Alan Fine and Laura Fischer Leighton

A new work by Theresa Ikoko

"From creators Chloe Lamford and Theresa Ikoko comes The Site, the brand new, state-of-the art venue of The Space Between.

Welcome, the 107,683,902,202nd contestant will join us shortly.

I will be your host. Life points are under your seat. Feel free to use them today. Or save them for your turn. Maybe soon...

To book tickets visit https://royalcourttheatre.com/