Wardrobe Ensemble Premieres SOUTH WESTERN

Following a sold out run earlier this year at Bristol Old Vic with Education, Education, Education, The Wardrobe Ensemble return to Bristol with the world premiere of South Western, a spaghetti western set in the South West which interrogates ideas of heritage and mythology.

Mae Trembles is on a mission. With a shotgun in one hand, a packet of pickled onion Monster Munch in the other, and an expired 16-25 railcard in her back pocket, she picks her way through her past in search of answers. En route she meets An Gough, a maverick drifter, and together they wend their way through wind and rain to reach the final frontier of the South West: the Wayfarer's Arms.

Notorious villains, uneasy alliances, doomed love affairs and thigh-slapping folk music combine in this odyssey of revenge. It's an epic tale of blood, guts and cider; a spaghetti western with Cornish pasties.

Produced in association with Tobacco Factory Theatres, South Western will receive its world premiere in Bristol this July. Alongside the production, The Wardrobe Ensemble have curated a programme of music from the South West which will play before each performance. The Frontier Sessions will feature musicians including Sam Brookes, Jamie Cruickshank and Circe's Diner.

The Wardrobe Ensemble use irreverent humour and inventive theatricality to confront issues that are pertinent to the 21st century experience. Their previous shows RIOT, 33 and 1972: The Future of Sex, have played to Tobacco Factory Theatres's audiences before, but this is the first time the company have made a show for the Factory Theatre.

The Wardrobe Ensemble is a Bristol-based group of theatre artists working together to make and tour new plays that dissect the twenty-first century experience. Formed in 2011, the company consists of nine core members, one producer and a constantly growing community of associate artists. Dedicated to finding the place where the intellectual and the emotional collide, they explore the big ideas of our time through intimate human stories and bold imagery.

Their ensemble practice and politics inform the work which they make and the stories they tell. The Wardrobe Ensemble work as a democratic devising ensemble wherein every member contributes to the research, writing, structuring, and performing of a show, creating a unique shared theatrical language and aesthetic from show to show. They create work in dialogue with each other and then continue that conversation with the audience.

Formed in 2011, the company have made four full company shows and eight shows for families and young audiences. Their younger years show The Star Seekers will play for three weeks at the National Theatre this summer.

The Wardrobe Ensemble are Associate Artists of Complicite, The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol and Shoreditch Town Hall.

Tobacco Factory Theatres produces and presents excellent theatre in its iconic building in Bristol, offsite in the South West and on tour nationally and internationally. It presents a jam-packed programme of diverse and exciting shows, workshops and events, from international comedy acts to opera, family shows to modern classics and timeless masterpieces. It also runs an expansive programme of engagement, participation and development opportunities for young people, artists and audiences.

The redevelopment of Tobacco Factory Theatres sees it building the brand new 84-seat Spielman Theatre, refurbishing backstage areas and improving front of house areas by October 2018.

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