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STORM - a new theatre and music production
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest is the departure point for STORM, an original devised work with new writing.
Charged with lightning and magic, a stellar multi-disciplinary cast weave together original live music, singing, theatre, acrobatics and movement to capture the wild battle between humanity and nature. Travel into the not-so-distant future, where audiences are immersed in a world of fantasy, spectacle and haunting beauty – balancing the ageless work of Shakespeare with the climatic dilemmas that face our global family today.
In a remote island bunker sheltered from the chaos of the outside world, exiled geo-engineer Prospero furiously works to control the elements and pave the way for a new world of calm and sustainable prosperity. Poised on the brink of her own coming-of-age, his daughter Miranda uncovers an earthshaking truth: the Storm lives within us all.
Directed by Anna-Helena McLean
Produced by Arden Entertainment and Juju's Bar & Stage
Devised by the company
ACT ensemble include George Bellamy, Alana Bloom, Emily Jane Grant, Chris-Gerard Heyward, Ezra Faroque Khan and Anirudh Nair
Collaborating ensembles include Walkabout Theater Company Chicago, foolsFURY San Francisco and Sean Palmer's Gre Badanie Experimental Choir Poland
Funded with support from Arts Council England, the MacArthur Foundation and Culture.PL
We continue to reach out to producing partners in festivals, educational institutions and immersive sites (i.e warehouse, abandoned building, underground vault, versatile theatres) in a locality where the company can be resident for between 10 days and a month offering open workshops and engagement with the international company. Contact us for more details.
Charged with lightning and magic, a stellar multi-disciplinary cast weave together original live music, singing, theatre, acrobatics and movement to capture the wild battle between humanity and nature. Travel into the not-so-distant future, where audiences are immersed in a world of fantasy, spectacle and haunting beauty – balancing the ageless work of Shakespeare with the climatic dilemmas that face our global family today.
In a remote island bunker sheltered from the chaos of the outside world, exiled geo-engineer Prospero furiously works to control the elements and pave the way for a new world of calm and sustainable prosperity. Poised on the brink of her own coming-of-age, his daughter Miranda uncovers an earthshaking truth: the Storm lives within us all.
Directed by Anna-Helena McLean
Produced by Arden Entertainment and Juju's Bar & Stage
Devised by the company
ACT ensemble include George Bellamy, Alana Bloom, Emily Jane Grant, Chris-Gerard Heyward, Ezra Faroque Khan and Anirudh Nair
Collaborating ensembles include Walkabout Theater Company Chicago, foolsFURY San Francisco and Sean Palmer's Gre Badanie Experimental Choir Poland
Funded with support from Arts Council England, the MacArthur Foundation and Culture.PL
We continue to reach out to producing partners in festivals, educational institutions and immersive sites (i.e warehouse, abandoned building, underground vault, versatile theatres) in a locality where the company can be resident for between 10 days and a month offering open workshops and engagement with the international company. Contact us for more details.
"Anna-Helena McLean is a world class theatre creator/director. She has an uncanny ability to synthesize her music and physical actor training into full out, glorious, lush production. She is a provocateur…….. a provocateur who is also able to deliver a rich, nuanced, meaningful story for a live audience. That is rare". Founding Artistic Director Walkabout Theater, Chicago
"There were elements of generosity, intelligence and freedom in your performance which I’ve found missing in many very high-profile productions and it made me want to see more of your work in the future". Publisher, Routledge Theatre & Performance Studies
“sophisticated yet feral... ensemble work at its very best” Kevin Greene New City Stage
“a good piece to engage your attention and critical thinking... fascinating”
Kerstin Broockmann Chicago Standard
“truly remarkable – sometimes even triggering the entire audience to uniformly gasp and hold their breath... Committed story-telling... sheer entertainment” Bobby Arnold Buzz on Stage
open workshops run regularly in london building the act ensemble and chorus for upcoming productions. To enrol Contact us for more details.
Titania - a solo cabaret
TITANIA is an innovative re-imagining of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In this engaging, funny and participatory production, our much-loved Queen of the night plays out events from her past, hosting nightly revels in an attempt to woo audiences off the path and back into the woods. A heady fusion of original music and vocal acrobatics, TITANIA is the Queen of the Faeries’ tale with an amplified twist.
recently showed at edinburgh fringe festival at leading venue summerhall to critical acclaim
"Totally ABSORBING to watch and MARVELLOUS to hear. SPECTACULAR. Gives you tingles” BROADWAYBABY ★★★★
"SHAKESPEARE BY WAY OF FIONA APPLE, and the format beautifully HIGHLIGHTS THE MUSICALITY ALREADY PRESENT in the play" THE SKINNY★★★★
"one-woman TOUR-DE-FORCE. Truly accomplished and ENTERTAINING" TOTAL THEATRE
“WILD AND THRILLING” British Theatre Guide★★★★
“McLean has comedic timing, can play the Cello, perform UNBELIEVABLE vocal acrobatics, tell a story and move gracefully. IMPRESSIVE" TVBOMB
“Soars in GLORIOUS aural technicolour. Her musicality is MAGICAL” THE HERALD
"INTOXICATING. Total immersion. Genuinely OTHERWORLDLY. Not for the faint-hearted" THE TIMES
"THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY FRINGE. Taking one of Shakespeare's most over familiar plays and rip it up, pluck out the sex war, and RESCUE TITANIA FROM BEING A BIT-PLAYER IN HER OWN DRAMA" THE LIST
Created and performed by Anna-Helena McLean
Associate direction by Rosanna Lowe and Sophie Bortolussi
Produced by Trestle Touring Theatre
Moon Fool's first national tour took place with ill met by moonlight in Spring 2010 produced by Trestle Touring. The piece went on to be revamped as a solo, touring to Chicago and New York and playing to arts and music audiences at prestigious venues including The Rockwood Music Hall
Associate direction by Rosanna Lowe and Sophie Bortolussi
Produced by Trestle Touring Theatre
Moon Fool's first national tour took place with ill met by moonlight in Spring 2010 produced by Trestle Touring. The piece went on to be revamped as a solo, touring to Chicago and New York and playing to arts and music audiences at prestigious venues including The Rockwood Music Hall
Agent contact helena@richardsonprm.com to book / request a production pack
TESTIMONIALS
"slightly sinister and wholly elfish... the sounds are as haunting as the words and gestures" **** whatsonstage
"very entertaining... dark, sexy piece" The Oxford Times
“Titania is the most exciting adaptation of a Shakespearean play that I've ever seen. It had all the power and drama of a 20-person production, but it was as cool and charming as watching my favourite musician at a jazz club... Electrifying” Artistic Director, Walkabout Theater, Chicago
“exotic, delightful and brilliant... akin to a renegade reeling out of Anna-Helena’s own Midrash of the Shakespearean Torah... the evening gave way to abundant laughter and occasional tears...” Lecturer in Shakespeare/Acting, Yale School of Drama
"A wonderful contribution to Listening Mind, Moving Voice at Giving Voice 13. A Compelling, virtuoso performer- musician. The performance was a treat: witty, constantly surprising and a very great success". Festival Director Joan Mills
"A treat for the ear - witty - emotionally charged, sweet and wild". Artistic Director of the Centre for Performance Research Richard Gough
PERSEPHONE - AN IMMERSIVE RECITAL
A middle eastern myth seeking its vengeance on a corrupt western appropriation
Producer and Dramaturg Lia Ikkos
Director and Composer Anna-Helena McLean
Work in progress concert of songs
September 2017
London Fashion Week
Amid an apocalyptic landscape where technology illuminates only to drown out humanity, senses intuit otherly realms. This concert showcases mans pursuit of the sixth sense. Half man half beast, calls upon the ancient and obscured myth of Persephone to reveal a Boschian universe of the future. MoFo (Anna-Helena McLean) is working with Opera Viscera's Lia Ikkos mapping the songlines of spine, body and breath; composed along pythagorean scales and caught as echoes from ancient Egyptian ruins. An urban ritual becomes portal to our reality anew. Generated by a live choir of kinetic actors - vocals, bodies, hands and feet thread their harmonics in an aurora of sound beyond words.
"Soars in glorious aural technicolour" The Herald
"Totally absorbing to watch and marvelous to hear" Broadway Baby
Producer and Dramaturg Lia Ikkos
Director and Composer Anna-Helena McLean
Work in progress concert of songs
September 2017
London Fashion Week
Amid an apocalyptic landscape where technology illuminates only to drown out humanity, senses intuit otherly realms. This concert showcases mans pursuit of the sixth sense. Half man half beast, calls upon the ancient and obscured myth of Persephone to reveal a Boschian universe of the future. MoFo (Anna-Helena McLean) is working with Opera Viscera's Lia Ikkos mapping the songlines of spine, body and breath; composed along pythagorean scales and caught as echoes from ancient Egyptian ruins. An urban ritual becomes portal to our reality anew. Generated by a live choir of kinetic actors - vocals, bodies, hands and feet thread their harmonics in an aurora of sound beyond words.
"Soars in glorious aural technicolour" The Herald
"Totally absorbing to watch and marvelous to hear" Broadway Baby
