_outsideinside-out
_unscene199
The show, The Candidate, examined and subverted the concept of ‘the family’. This concept was derived from the Langham Club, which for many years has functioned as a communal, intergenerational living room, with all the love and fall-outs, gossip and giggles, fond memories and baggage you’d find in any tight-knit community with a lot of history. The show involved about 25 performers, aged 21–84, five live musicians and several designers. A couple of the club’s long-standing members performed in the show too, including the bingo lady, who starred as herself. The club was open to members during show nights, so the audience were never quite sure who was a performer and who was a punter, or what was spontaneous and what was rehearsed.
The Candidate was a site-specific, immersive theatre piece that was devised and staged by Persona Collective in 2019 at The Langham Club; a traditional working mens club on Green Lanes, near where we all live in Haringey, north London. The club has existed for over 100 years but its numbers are really declining. We became members and spent several months hanging out there, getting to know the regulars and attending bingo nights before developing the show.
The Candidate is the first and last piece of a perpetual cycle. It is a surreal exploration of the family concept, where characters act as family members to fabricate a false reality.
The story is a metaphor for a failed socio-political and financial system in which the role of the family is to prepare themselves to form part of an absurd and competitive system, with no way out. Here, the strange pathologies of human behaviour are dissected and the characters find themselves falling down a symbolic rabbit hole, slowly losing control of events and culminating in an intoxicated awakening that is a celebration of human affairs and rituals.
The Candidate was a site-specific, immersive theatre piece that was devised and staged by Persona Collective in 2019 at The Langham Club; a traditional working mens club on Green Lanes, near where we all live in Haringey, north London. The club has existed for over 100 years but its numbers are really declining. We became members and spent several months hanging out there, getting to know the regulars and attending bingo nights before developing the show.
The Candidate is the first and last piece of a perpetual cycle. It is a surreal exploration of the family concept, where characters act as family members to fabricate a false reality.
The story is a metaphor for a failed socio-political and financial system in which the role of the family is to prepare themselves to form part of an absurd and competitive system, with no way out. Here, the strange pathologies of human behaviour are dissected and the characters find themselves falling down a symbolic rabbit hole, slowly losing control of events and culminating in an intoxicated awakening that is a celebration of human affairs and rituals.
The Candidate was a site-specific, immersive theatre piece that was devised and staged by Persona Collective in 2019 at The Langham Club; a traditional working mens club on Green Lanes, near where we all live in Haringey, north London. The club has existed for over 100 years but its numbers are really declining. We became members and spent several months hanging out there, getting to know the regulars and attending bingo nights before developing the show.
The Candidate is the first and last piece of a perpetual cycle. It is a surreal exploration of the family concept, where characters act as family members to fabricate a false reality.
The story is a metaphor for a failed socio-political and financial system in which the role of the family is to prepare themselves to form part of an absurd and competitive system, with no way out. Here, the strange pathologies of human behaviour are dissected and the characters find themselves falling down a symbolic rabbit hole, slowly losing control of events and culminating in an intoxicated awakening that is a celebration of human affairs and rituals.
The Candidate was a site-specific, immersive theatre piece that was devised and staged by Persona Collective in 2019 at The Langham Club; a traditional working mens club on Green Lanes, near where we all live in Haringey, north London. The club has existed for over 100 years but its numbers are really declining. We became members and spent several months hanging out there, getting to know the regulars and attending bingo nights before developing the show.
The Candidate is the first and last piece of a perpetual cycle. It is a surreal exploration of the family concept, where characters act as family members to fabricate a false reality.
The story is a metaphor for a failed socio-political and financial system in which the role of the family is to prepare themselves to form part of an absurd and competitive system, with no way out. Here, the strange pathologies of human behaviour are dissected and the characters find themselves falling down a symbolic rabbit hole, slowly losing control of events and culminating in an intoxicated awakening that is a celebration of human affairs and rituals.
> the halfway house / behind the scenes
> the halfway house / behind the scenes
_unscene199
The Unscene 199 was site-specific month theatre and arts festival produced by Ellis Gardiner and Rocio Ayllon in association with New River Studios, during 2016, in the artist warehouse community in North London
Performances occured all around the Manor House warehouse district, where converted industrial sites were available to artists to host their work in unique environments and allow the audience an opportunity to experience the wilder side of live acts. During the festival local, regional, national and international artists staged work in a variety of styles, disciplines and subject matter including theatre, dance, music, workshops, visual art, film and more. Acts took place in a black box theatre; a converted parcel depot; an open plan event space, bars, coffee shops, and a number of unconventional locations in the neighbourhood
The Festival was a collaborative organization striving to provide opportunities and exposure to artists who are willing to take a risk and push the boundaries of the “norm” through experimentation with style and content. Unscene 199 hosted both small and large-scale productions, work in progress, dress rehearsals, experiments, micro-scenes, new writing, readings and workshops
An ambition of the festival was to foster creativity and collaboration between the various departments in theatre creation, promoting the festival as a meeting place where artist individually have the chance to show installations, visual media, soundscapes, or audio techniques, lighting design, dance, theatre, film, costume design and other disciplines within the field of scenography and theatre technology.'
Unscene 199 Festival
Producers
Ellis Gardiner
Rocio Ayllon
Assistant producer
Sarah France
New River Studios team
Marion Andrau, Sam Mathys, Caroline Landry,
Thomas Blackburn, Joachim Merabet,
Francesco Vanni, Dan, Charly Blackburn,
Thomas Heydecker.
Web design Rocio Ayllon
Unscene Logo Jack Wates
Special thanks to Charlotte Colbert for 'Home',
main image of Unscene 199.
Theatre companies
Not the Thing by Crakan Theatre
Stuck in the Middle by Bill Aitchinson
On this Day by Elena Morgana
Fangirls by Kristina Hopkin
The Lonely Room by HOAX
Cansancio Tears by Mariana Aristizabal
Pandora by Etch
Twelfth Night by Oliver Stephens
Dolly Would by Shit Theatre
Act Natural by Jon Pointing
Exit by James Farrington
Trapped by Inda Pereda
Stuck by Hoax
Moonface by Gutternipe Theatre
Cain by Blue Guitar
Monsieur Mu By Mark Duncan
The Last Curiosity by Jamie D. Huxley
MorbidAbnormalMe by Shea Wojtus & Nora Smith
Attempts on her life by Tandem Theatre
Waiting for it by Wild Dandelions
One Man Two Ghosts by Farce Forward
PlayGround 199 - Performance Art night
Ahh...Shit! by Emma Dinnage
Tactile Members by Derek Szeto & Alice White
Interactive Test 002 by Edmund Fraser & Tom Blackburn
Act Balance by Tuli Litvak
Rocking Horse by Sofia Figueredo & Cos Chapman.
In the Memory of Leaves by Natasha Landgridge
Bird House by Christine Bach
The Tragedy of Theresa May by Lisa Jeschke & Lucy Beymon
A sea of Sheets by Risja Steeghs
Market Stall Theatre - Festival closure night
JohnSmith by Johnsmith
Blood Lips formed Marion Andrau, Waxcaps &MadkidLibrary
My Name is Thomas by Kerem Asfuroglu, Ruth Fitzsimons
Satu Streatfield and Harry Wills
Work Ethic by Cut Tongues.
Cheap Gala by Katie Mulligan.
Enter Void Jack Wates.
Captain Wap Dj - Universe of Tang
Space Exposure by Tom Lewis Russel
Figs in Wigs - Live music