Underdog: The Other Other Brontë

For University of Birmingham's Department of Drama & Theatre Arts

An irreverent retelling of the Brontë story by Sarah Gordon. Charlotte Brontë has a confession about how one sister became an idol, and the other became known as the third sister. You know the one. No, not that one. The other, other one… Anne. This is not a story about well-behaved women. This is a story about the power of words.

How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found

Little Earthquake's eighth production as Associate Theatre Company in Residence at the University of Birmingham's Department of Drama & Theatre Arts

A fast-paced, cinematic and unsettling version of Fin Kennedy's award-winning play. It takes more than a new identity to escape the reality of who you are inside.

The Bluebeard Trilogy

Little Earthquake's seventh production as Associate Theatre Company in Residence at the University of Birmingham's Department of Drama & Theatre Arts

Three contemporary responses to the Bluebeard myth, rehearsed and performed entirely via Zoom during the Covid-19 pandemic. A group meet online to process the news that one of their mates is a serial killer in Caryl Churchill’s Bluebeard’s Friends. A panicked curator tries to wrangle the monstrous egos of conceptual artists in Philip Holyman's Bluebeard’s Art Club. A frazzled director grapples with #MeToo in Philip Holyman's Bluebeard’s On The Radio.

Oedipus

Little Earthquake's sixth production as Associate Theatre Company in Residence at the University of Birmingham's Department of Drama & Theatre Arts

Created, rehearsed and performed entirely via Zoom during the Covid-19 pandemic, live TV news kept the cameras rolling in real time as the tragedy of Oedipus became eerily intertwined with the chaos of our own global crisis.

Behind The Screams — Jurassic Park Edition

For Little Earthquake, in collaboration with Zoë Roberts

Behind The Screams lifted the lid on the making of Jurassic Park with an exclusive audio commentary from the movie’s scene-stealing scaly star: none other than T-Rex herself!

Available to stream whilst watching the movie at home during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, listeners were able to join our TALON-ted actor for the scandal-filled and tofu-fuelled story of how she stomped, chomped and romped her way to international fame through one of the most iconic roles in cinematic history.

Animal Farm

Little Earthquake's fifth production as Associate Theatre Company in Residence at the University of Birmingham's Department of Drama & Theatre Arts

Two bites of the Orwell apple, one scuppered by Covid in Tech Week and one marking a defiant post-lockdown return to live performance. Same set, different ensemble, eighteen months apart.

A permanently timely tale of who and what is considered expendable as the Manor Farm pigs make their unstoppable shift to the far right.

Grimm Tales Retold

Little Earthquake's fourth production as Associate Theatre Company in Residence at the University of Birmingham's Department of Drama & Theatre Arts

Jacob and Wilhelm’s famous fairy stories get a Little Earthquake-over, with four new adaptations showing familiar characters in a dark new light. Spiked with black humour and sprinkled with gore, these tales are decidedly Grimm and deliciously unexpected.

Orlando

Little Earthquake's third production as Associate Theatre Company in Residence at the University of Birmingham's Department of Drama & Theatre Arts

With the help of a band of biographers, Orlando re-tells, re-lives and re-edits their five-century search for the perfect partner and the perfect poem. A lively, witty and fast-paced version of Virginia Woolf’s gender-bending novel, adapted for the stage by Sarah Ruhl.

The Good Sisters

Little Earthquake's second production as Associate Theatre Company in Residence at the University of Birmingham's Department of Drama & Theatre Arts

Friendships and family ties soon come under strain when a million Green Shield stamps and a limitless world of free prizes are at stake. A rowdy and raucous production of Michel Tremblay’s masterpiece Les Belles-Soeurs in a Northern dialect version by Noël Greig.

The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant

Little Earthquake's first production as Associate Theatre Company in Residence at the University of Birmingham's Department of Drama & Theatre Arts

Marking the 70th anniversary of Fassbinder’s birth, home truths flowed faster than the gin and tonics in this classic melodrama from the boozed-up bisexual bad boy of German cinema, all set to a sizzling soundtrack of German kitsch pop classics.

Visiting Director & Tutor — University of Birmingham

For eight years, Little Earthquake was Associate Theatre Company in Residence at the University of Birmingham's Department of Drama & Theatre Arts, working across many aspects of the BA (Hons) Drama & Theatre Arts course.

Work included: directing eight final-year productions; co-leading the Contemporary Practice module; re-developing and leading the Directing for Theatre module; creating and facilitating multiple workshops, including sessions on acting technique, devising, audition technique and improvisation.

The Boy Who Became A Beetle

For Little Earthquake as part of Young Producers
Commissioned by Black Country Touring

With live music, a sprinkling of songs, riotous action and thrilling transformations, The Boy Who Became A Beetle was a funny, messy and moving new show for everyone who knows what it’s like to feel different.

For ages 5+ and their adults. Loosely based on Franz Kafka’s  Metamorphosis. Created in collaboration with 100 primary school children as part of Little Earthquake and Black Country Touring's Young Producers project.

Visiting Director & Tutor – Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Working with under-graduate and post-graduate students across several degree courses.

Work included: developing and leading Ensemble Practice, Improvisation, Storytelling, and Research Methodologies modules for the MA and MFA Acting courses; co-developing and co-leading the Collaborations Module for the BA Applied Performance course; co-developing and co-leading the Event Creation Module for the BA Stage Management course.

Professor Harry Hackett and his Box of Treats

For Little Earthquake
Commissioned by Birmingham REP and Flatpack

A theatrical treasure hunt — complete with clues hidden in bags of popcorn and candyfloss, and a secret coded message on a flock of Hook-A-Ducks — climaxing in an exclusive vaudeville show from Professor Harry Hackett and Miss Tuppence Change.

The Tell-Tale Heart

For Little Earthquake

Edgar Allan Poe’s story of murder in the dark transformed into a thrilling live Foley experience. Featuring a wordless and entirely bloodless eight-minute dismemberment sequence conjured up with mime, manipulated sound and a whole greengrocery’s worth of fruit and vegetables.

It’s Only A Paper Moon

For Little Earthquake

A fantastic voyage which spanned three continents, four hundred years and half a million miles. Mixing multimedia and multiple languages, It's Only A Paper Moon entwined four stories about lunar landings and lycanthropy, the birth of cinema and the miracle of conception. The show offered new insights into the pock-marked sphere of stone hovering up in the night sky and a new appreciation of how extraordinary the world is down here.

The Year Is Twenty-One

For Little Earthquake
Commissioned by Pilot Nights

A 21st birthday party for a man coming of age to fulfil his diabolical destiny. Rosemary’s Baby repackaged as a cupcake-fuelled intervention, offering a chance for Andy and his audience to take charge of their own fate.

The Premature Burial

For Little Earthquake

Obsessed by Edgar Allan Poe’s stories of untimely interment, our lonely hero lives in mounting terror of being buried alive. When his waking hours become a living nightmare, he resorts to increasingly desperate measures in his battle against a fate worse than death.

Written by Philip Holyman.

Madman

For Little Earthquake

Little Earthquake's very first production — an inventive, highly-charged version of Nikolai Gogol’s gripping short story Diary of A Madman. Reason and order fall spectacularly apart when Poprishchin falls truly, deeply… and madly in love.