Who's There?

30 June 2012

Performance Time: 19:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre

Eight new short plays on time and memory from a stellar line-up of LiFTs Department writers including Jonathan Lichtenstein, Glyn Maxwell, Adrian May, Rebecca Prichard, Paul Sirett, Phil Terry, Marina Warner and a specially selected work by one LiFTs student.

See the pre-show discussion Playwrighting Today with speakers Chris Campbell of Royal Court Theatre and Nick Hern of Nick Hern Books.

 Tickets: Book Tickets

Writing the Self

Thursday 21 June, 10am & 1.30pm 

Venue: Art Exchange

A writing workshop aimed at enabling you to navigate the fascinating relationship between writing and the self. Led by professional writers Andrew Burton and Nicola Werenowska. 

Book Online

Contested Games: Mexico 68’s Olympic design revolution

11 June 2012 - 14 July 2012

Venue: Art Exchange

1968: a year of worldwide social unrest, upheaval and protest was also the year of Olympic Games in Mexico. The first ‘nonwestern’ country ever to host the Olympics, Lance Wyman’s landmark designs for Mexico 68 have since entered the history books.
Contested Games will examine how even at the time the Mexico 68 design did not go unnoticed by students protesting for change. Their appropriation of the Olympic design is one of the most fascinating but underexplored aspects of the Mexico 68 legacy.
By exploring both official and student design, this exhibition reveals what is at stake when a country hosts the Olympics, and what happens in the gap between the universal values that the Games represents and the local realities faced in the host country.

Camellia and the Rabbit

07 June 2012

Performance Time: 16:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre Box Office Cafe

It is the elixir of the Gods. It has stirred wars, created vast fortunes and advanced medical science. It is at its prime in the afternoon. It has infused women's liberation. And it can always be relied upon in a crisis. It is Camellia Sinensis and it has rescued a rabbit, charmed a magician and saved Rachel's life.
A riot of colour and vim, Rififi Theatre Company invites you to tea at 4o’clock and offer to spin you a true story seen through the gauze of an Assam tea bag, that most reliable of teas.

Tickets: Book Tickets

Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard

04 June 2012

Performance Time: 20:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre

One of the most interesting bands New York has to offer, Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard bring their melodic, uplifting and articulate music to Lakeside Theatre for a Bank Holiday special, fresh from supporting British legends Pulp.
Ranging between contemplative folk and distortion-fuelled garage rock, their music perfectly underpins the wonderfully sung stories of inspired frontman Lewis, whose artworks and low budget films accompany the show.
Watch Jeffrey Lewis and Junkyard on Youtube
1) Cult Boyfriend
2) Don't Be Upset
3) Jeffrey Lewis Documentary
Support comes from Wivenhoe based musician Lou Terry.
“…his evocative, heartfelt, pin-sharp lines hit compelling grooves, all twists and turns, grin-inducing couplets and weirdness” BBC Music
Tickets: Book Tickets

Fluid Images: Óscar Muñoz

17 May 2012

Time: 18:30
Venue: Art Exchange

Images in the work of Colombian artist Óscar Muñoz are not fixed but fluid, such as his beautifully simple film Línea del destino /Line of Destiny in which Muñoz captures his own reflection on the surface of water that fills his cupped hands.
In this talk Rebecca Breen engages with themes of disintegration and frustration in Muñoz’s image-making, and his elaboration of a portraiture which implicates the viewer, exhorting him or her to “take away an idea of [the] image, […] an idea full of variations and changes” (Muñoz, 2004)

Admission Free, Booking Required:  Book Tickets

A Midsummer Night's Dream

17 May 2012 - 18 May 2012

Performance Time: 19:30
Venue: Outdoors in Wivenhoe Park. Arrive at Lakeside Theatre. 

Set in a secluded glade in idyllic Wivenhoe Park; see Shakespeare’s popular romantic comedy performed at sunset in a perfect natural environment.
The show is just 3 minutes from Lakeside Theatre so bring your cushion, relax on the grass and let our host of timeless characters weave their magic amongst the beautiful scenery and resident wildlife.
Made possible by a generous donation from the Essex Fund at the University of Essex.

Tickets: Book Tickets

We Hope That You're Happy (Why Would We Lie?)

12 May 2012

Performance Time: 19:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre



Hear from Made In China about their exciting show...

Jess is stuck. Her lifelong friend, Chris, can’t help. The others are out getting wasted. And the world is falling apart. Luckily they have a cooler full of beer, a goofy rapport and a sincere desire to make you, the audience, happy.

A flat-out and unhinged performance about trying to connect to each other, We Hope That You’re Happy (Why Would We Lie?) is a hilarious examination of tuned-in delusional consumers in a hyper-communicative world.

Tickets: Book Tickets

MADE IN CHINA

SUMMER BROCHURE SNEAK PREVIEW

We Hope That You're Happy (Why Would We Lie?) - Lakeside Theatre, May 12

Made In China is the collaborative work of Tim Cowbury and Jessica Latowicki. We make visceral shows at the juncture of playwriting and live art, for audiences who are fans of neither and both.

www.madeinchinatheatre.com

TAS Review

The Theatre Arts Society presents a week long performance showcase of work around themes including Shakespeare, Political Theatre and Original Writing.

Always exciting and unique theatre makers, TAS return after the huge success of their original pantomime last year.

Monday 19th March
Lakeside Theatre Studio - 'pub quiz' and raffle, 
Doors at 7.00pm, show at 7.30pm

Tuesday 20th March
Main house - comedy panel game show 'Alt, Ctl, Del' at 7.30pm, interval at 8.15pm (approx), original play 'Paradise City' at 8.30pm, musical solo at 9pm

Comedy Central Live!

Friday 16 March 2012
Performance Time: 8:30pm
Venue: Lakeside Theatre
Tonight's Comedy Central Live! features:

Tom Wrigglesworth
Making his return is the inimitable and brilliant Tom Wrigglesworth. After winning the prestigious newcomer award ‘So You Think You’re Funny,’ Tom was nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy award 2009 for his dry and surreally funny material.

“The ultimate crowd pleaser” The Guardian
Joe Wells
Comedy Central Live's Funniest Student Award winner 2012 Joe Wells has been on the stand up circuit for 3 years now. His act is a dry take on political issues mixed with some of the finest giggle inducing gags you'll ever hear!
Rich Morton
Stand up comedian, singer, songwriter and winner of the Time Out Comedy Award, Richard Morton is tonight's MC extraordinaire!

Tickets Online Now: Book Tickets

Koyaanisqatsi

Monday 12 March 2012

Performance Time: 19:30

Venue: Lakeside Theatre

 Meaning ‘Unbalanced life’ in Hopi, Koyaanisqatsi is a haunting and hypnotic tone poem set to the music of Phillip Glass that juxtaposes images of
technology and scientific progress to make a deeply affecting parable of life in post industrial society.

France/Godfrey Reggio/1982/86 mins/Cert U
Book Online Now: Book Tickets

Simon Armitage and Glyn Maxwell

11 March 2012

Performance Time: 19:00
Venue: Lakeside Theatre

An evening of readings from two of Britain’s foremost poets. Simon Armitage is one of the UK’s widest read and best loved writers. His trademark
dry humour lends his poetry an accessible and realist style which has won him many notable awards including a CBE in 2010.

Glyn Maxwell is a poet, dramatist and librettist and winner of an E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as many other prestigious accolades including the 2004 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Glyn is part of the Creative Writing teaching team in the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex.

Book Tickets Online: Book Tickets

Luke Wright and Ross Sutherland

Saturday 10 March 2012

Performance Time: 19:30

Venue: Lakeside Theatre

An unmissable blast of performance poetry from two of Britain’s hardest working, fastest rising talents. 4 Talent award winner Luke Wright has launched his own curve-ball bid to become Poet Laureate, programmed and hosted Latitude’s poetry arena and has become a poet-in-residence on BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live.

Ross Sutherland was included in The Times’ list of Top Ten Literary Stars. He has written three poetry collections and a one-man show, titled The Three Stigmata Of Pacman and is a member, along with Luke, of poetry collective Aisle 16.

PLUS Join Luke and Ross for a free poetry workshop earlier in the day!

Book Tickets Online Now ! Book Tickets

Extracting Images Workshop with Laurence Owen ** Cancelled **

Saturday 10 March
Venue: Art Exchange
Time: 11.00 – 4.00pm

**Workshop Cancelled**


Artist Laurence Owen leads an all-day workshop that explores the wide variety of images that surround us and the meanings we construct for them. Join us for this artist-led workshop that focuses on the miraculous in the everyday.

This is Spinal Tap

Monday 05 March 2012

Performance Time: 19:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre

Spinal Tap, the world’s loudest band, is chronicled on what proves to be a fateful tour in this classic rock ‘n’ roll comedy. Regularly cited as one of the funniest movies ever made, This Is Spinal Tap set the standard for the ‘mockumentary’ genre of filmmaking and contains some of the most memorable rock ‘n’ roll performance ever put to film. Satirising everything from lewd showmanship and excessive lifestyle to badly conceived stagecraft, This Is Spinal Tap revels in the decadence of classic stadium rock performance.
USA/Rob Reiner/1984/82 minutes/Cert 15

Tickets:Book Online Now!

Laurence Owen: The Elemental Dynamic

27 February 2012 - 24 March 2012

Venue: Art Exchange

Taking the constrictions implicit in the supposedly childish medium of felt tips to see what might emerge with their garish tones, Laurence Owen makes a series of images which are both disturbing and familiar. He presents us with a skewed rendition of the everyday, appropriating the language of advertising, photographs and holiday brochures to his own ends. Owen calls his felt tip drawings ‘a newsreel of everyday life’, resulting in images that lie somewhere between the fantastical and the mundane.

Polar Bear

25 February 2012

Performance Time: 20:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre

 

Making a welcome return to Lakeside Theatre, Polar Bear are a London-based avant-garde jazz combo led from the back by BBC award winning drummer Seb Rochford. Pioneering a new form of British jazz, Polar Bear’s pulsating electronic soundscapes, dance friendly beats and catchy sax melodies lend their music wide appeal to audiences from traditionalists to people who don’t normally do jazz.

“The big-hitters of the current new wave” Independent on Sunday

Tickets: Book Ticket Now!

Curator’s Lunchtime Tour

Wednesday 22 February
Venue: Art Exchange
Time: 1 – 1.30pm
 
Admission free, booking essential - Email arts@essex.ac.uk Come along and find out more about the extraordinary work of artist Laure Prouvost. Join curator Jess Kenny for a tour of The Wanderer (Betty Drunk).

1 Beach Road

24 February 2012

Performance Time: 19:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre

A tale of friendship, defiance, a shrinking island, synchronized swimming and trying to turn back the tide. 1 Beach Road explores the metaphorical connections between Alzheimer’s disease and coastal erosion and asks “what is it like to lose everything – your home and your memories?”Returning after the huge success of The Idiot Colony, award winning company Red Cape bring us their unique visual, physical storytelling, sense of humour and original writing.“a thoughtful, unsettling and beautifully
conceived show” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

Tickets: Book Tickets Now! 

The John Law Trio

17 February 2012

Performance Time: 20:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre

Sensational pianist John Law leads his highly acclaimed ensemble in an evening of breathtaking original and popular jazz. Playing the best material from his acclaimed Art of Sound trio as well as ingenious reworkings of tunes from the standard jazz repertoire, John Law’s highly accomplished trio features Yuri Goloubev on bass and percussionist Asaf Sirkis.

“sheer technical brilliance” The Telegraph
Tickets: Book Tickets

Scenes From Communal Living

09 February 2012

Performance Time: 19:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre

Performed by an ensemble of the UK’s hottest improvisers, Scenes from
Communal Living uses audience suggestions to create a unique night of
entertainment.
Completely new combinations of characters and stories are invented in
each scene, all set in the rooms of shared accommodation. Witness the strangest characters who ever argued over a gas bill or taped a vaguely threatening note to the fridge in this show of fast paced invention!
“Very funny, fresh and endlessly creative...Two thumbs up!” Time Out London

Book Tickets

Comedy Central Live with Sean Hughes

04 February 2012

Performance Time: 20:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre

Tonight's Comedy Central Live! The updated line up features:
Sean Hughes
Stand Up Comedy legend and star of Never Mind The Buzzcocks Sean Hughes joins us to headline tonight.

"One of the best stand ups of his generation" The Daily Telegraph

Matt Forde
A sharp brain and an infectious laugh are the hallmarks of Matt Forde. A regular host and contributor to BBC radio, Forde is a keen eyed satirist who has written for Mock the Week and 8 Out of 10 Cats and received high acclaim for his 2011 Edinburgh show Dishonourable Member.

MC Jimmie McGhie
A highly regarded young stand-up and comic performer, Jimmy performs on the UK and international comedy circuit to great acclaim.

Head over to our facebook group for up to the minute updates.
Tickets: Book Tickets

Lucinda Belle Orchestra

05 February 2012

Performance Time: 20:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre

Singer, songwriter and jazz harpist Lucinda Belle is a rising star of the British music scene. Having played alongside Rufus Wainwright and Robbie Williams she is now building a reputation with Lucinda Belle Orchestra.
Belle’s soft toned melodies ring out over the cafe jazz of her versatile orchestra whose tunes effortlessly reference 1920’s Parisian gypsy cool and pop icons such as Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse.
Playing music from her 2010 debut album My Voice and My 45 Strings, don’t miss the incredible Lucinda Belle Orchestra. 

Tickets Online Now!  Book Tickets

Dianna's Last / My Last

02 February 2012 - 03 February 2012

Performance Time: 19:30

Venue: Lakeside Theatre Studio

 A kidnapping and the tense relationships that follow are the subject of a play and film by Troy Balmayer.
Exploring the process of cross medium adaptation, witness two versions of one thriller in Dianna’s Last/My Last, viewed sequentially in the Lakeside Theatre’s studio then main house.

Working in collaboration with the University of Essex Centre for Theatre Studies, Lakeside Theatre presents this Independent Practical Production third year Drama student Troy Balmayer.
 

Tickets: Book Tickets

Video Archive

Image Archive

Way Out West

26 January 2012

Performance Time: 19:30

Venue: Lakeside Theatre

Two men walk into a pub - and then it stops being normal. As the beer flows their conversation spans the creation of the universe, bar snacks, the meaning of happiness and a bizarre shared dream in which they’ve met Laurel and Hardy, and each other, before. An unnerving philosophical and spiritual world opens before them: has that great cinematic comedy duo returned? Way out West is a funny, tender and melancholic new play from the writer of Meeting Joe Strummer and Don’t Shoot the Clowns.
 

Tickets: Full £10, Concs £7, UoE £5
Book Now Online >

 

Laure Prouvost: The Wanderer (Betty Drunk)

18 Jan 2012 - 23 February 2012

Venue: Art Exchange
 

Art Exchange presents Laure Prouvost’s The Wanderer (Betty Drunk), a newly commissioned film and installation.  Based on a script by artist Rory Macbeth, who without knowledge of German translated Kafka’s The Metamorphosis into English, Betty Drunk follows characters as they undergo a series of increasingly bizarre experiences, navigating a path through situations in which reality becomes increasingly uncertain.

Laure Prouvost is winner of the Max Mara Art Prize 2011.

Events:

Find me out in the country
Saturday 28 January
Venue: Art Exchange and Company Shed Mersea
Time: 1 – 6.30pm
Ticket prices: £5 Concs: £3. Bookings go live Monday 9 Jan 2012.
Lunch not included in price.

Join artist Laure Prouvost for a trip to Mersea’s famous Company Shed for lunch, followed by an afternoon talk and reception to celebrate The Wanderer (Betty Drunk) coming to Art Exchange.
A minibus will take us to Mersea, collecting from Art Exchange and Colchester.

Artist’s Film Choice: L’humanité
France/Benoit Dumont/1999/148 mins/Cert 18
Monday 13 February
Doors: 7.00pm Screening: 7.30pm
Venue: Lakeside Theatre
Ticket Prices: Full £5, Concs £3. Bookings go live Monday 9 Jan 2012.
When a girl is brutally raped and murdered in a quiet French village, a police detective who has forgotten how to feel emotions investigates the crime, which asks more questions than it answers.

Laure Prouvost in Context
Wednesday 15 February
Venue: Art Exchange
Time: 6.30 – 7.30pm
Admission free, booking essential. Bookings go live Monday 9 Jan 2012.
A chance to watch a selection of Laure Prouvost’s films that brought her to international attention. Stay on for a discussion of this up-and-coming artist over a glass of wine.

Curator’s Lunchtime Tour
Wednesday 22 February
Venue: Art Exchange
Time: 1 – 1.30pm
Admission free, booking essential. Bookings go live Monday 9 Jan 2012.
Come along and find out more about the extraordinary work of artist Laure
Prouvost. Join curator Jess Kenny for a tour of The Wanderer (Betty Drunk).