Puppetry for Skillinge Teater, Sweden
For Skillinge Teater´s 2021 summer production of Hamlet I created a larger-than-life puppet of the villain Claudius as well as three smaller puppets. Apart from designing and making I also provided puppetry training and direction to the production.
EDGELANDS BY THEATRE FOR PIGEONS
Theatre for Pigeons was formed in 2018 on the Advanced Theatre Practice MA at RCSSD in London.
When we first encounter death, we must learn to make sense of absence. If our loved ones are no longer present in human form, where have they gone? Edgelands explores the liminal spaces between life and death, the human and the animal, the mundane and the mythological. As we unravel the mysteries of our own mortality and peer into the empty space beyond, we spin stories that transcend the bounds of ordinary life. When death turns our world inside-out, we must undergo a mythic transformation in order to survive. We hope to emerge from the edgelands anew (and relatively unscathed), leaving behind only a trail of dead pigeons – not to mention feathers, breadcrumbs, and rags – in our wake.
Devised and performed by: Claudia Heinrichs, Nicola Farr, Madeleine Lewis, Ada Mukhina, Nadine Passley, Evan Silver, Hao-yeh Wang
BODIES, OF WATER BY THEATRE FOR PIGEONS
Bodies, of Water is a kaleidoscopic meditation on the cycles of the universe. This new devised performance explores the ecology of absence, the rhythm of rivers, the orbits within abdomens, and the circles in the sky. As we walk across landscapes (de)composed of human bodies, we (re)collect rain in the smalls of our backs.
We, like pigeons, approach our work from marginal vantage points, and at oblique angles. We celebrate the mundane, the uncanny, and the surreal. We wander in the liminal spaces between architectures and ecologies. We divine our own maps and myths to navigate the vast uncharted ocean.
Devised and performed by: Nicola Farr, Claudia Heinrichs, Madeleine Lewis, Nadine Passley, Evan Silver, Hao-yeh Wang, Simona Hughes
DUST
Dust is about how we encounter death slightly differently every time it comes around and how our understanding of time shifts when we repetitively misremember. It is a show about lungs, memories, impending loss and the point of no return. I perform a series of duets with a snail. The audience is guided to co-inhabit the performance space as we immerse ourselves in the sensory experience of handling soil centred around visual imagery, slow choreography, and a live soundscape. The aim of the performance is to reveal where time and loss sit in our bodies and how preparing oneself for final goodbyes from a loved person changes our relationship to time.
ADRIFT ARRIVAL
A one-on-one experience in the outdoors about getting lost, loss, and finding solace in the Wilderness
​
"Adrift was a genuinely magical experience. I say magical because magic is supposed to make you rethink what is real and what is possible. In a friendly, non-assuming way, Adrift made me see what was around me anew. As I walked, I felt the tingly excitement of exploration but, as the curiosity started to merge inner and outer worlds, the experience deepened. I felt drifting in memories past and present, but not lost. I felt connected to my surroundings, the other navigator that accompanied me through the delicate radio signal, and myself. It expended my vision through all of these lenses in a way that is hard to forget. I would also add that the whole experience was truly gentle. It never pushed me beyond what I wanted to do and yet it had an impact. That’s so rare to experience - it was a true gem."
- Aida Rocci-Ruiz, MA ATP, London 2019
​
I approached the piece as a deliberate act of giving time (to the task of wandering, as a gift to my audience-member) and as a deliberate act of taking time.
SNAIL BALLET
The audience is set around a circular performance area in which I perform a repetitive and careful series of movements, travelling in circles around the space whilst five snails are gradually transferred onto my feet as I move through the sequence.
Over time, the snails move up my feet and ankles requiring me to adjust my movements and balance to avoid crushing them or letting them slip off my body.
I thus establish a relationship of care between me and the snails. In adopting the slow, sustained, circular movement of the creatures I force my own pace and rhythm to slow down to meet the pace of my non-human co-performers.
"It is wonderful to feel fully immersed in a piece like this, and that you have an active part in creating the world you are exploring. It felt like a breath of fresh air, and I was able to rediscover an area I thought I knew quite well already in a totally new and exciting context." - Isabella Routley, MA ATP, London 2019
"My experience with Adrift Arrival was a revelation of calm and curiosity. I experienced the Heath from a new perspective, whereby every little creature and plant in the Heath was a part of my unique story and experience." - Talia Kracauer, MFA ATP, London 2019
BOTTLED
A collaborative Theatre for Young Audiences show set around an old oak. We devised this performance with over 100 recycled bottles, giving new purpose and life to our daily debris. By creating a magical world in the outdoors with peculiar characters who are at times overwhelmed by it, but also revere their found objects as purposeful treasures, we explore the interrelationship of the natural world and the human-made world of plastics.
Devised and performed by: Eleanor Kettleton, Lizzy Fretwell, Clement Jones, Claudia Heinrichs, Timothy Barker
OBJECTIVE
Forgotten in a dark room, something comes alive.Â
It is a creature of necessity, of want, of hope, of determination.
What do they need to cope with the void inside their body? Does the absence of need equal liberation?
Three puppeteers take us on a journey inside a lost soul.
IN THE ATTIC BY MISHMASHED
As company member of MishMashed, a TYA company of Royal Holloway graduates, I devised and performed in this object theatre show for young audiences about loneliness. We follow the daydreams of an old lady in an attic as she knits in her rocking chair amidst her fellow forgotten objects. When the mnemonics of her past come alive, a singing, rhyming, dancing journey through her memories ensues.
Devised and performed by: the 2017 Final Year Project TYA company of Royal Holloway´s Drama, Theatre and Dance Department
