Broken Glass: Projects

'We lived in a house with an expanding ribcage, where jars of formalin pressed against the walls. A house with its eyes put out...'

An original story of censorship, repression, and the difficulty of remembering the past.

In the midst of violent revolution two brothers retreat to their childhood home, a now derelict house where jars of pickled objects press against the walls. Whilst the brothers await the coming of the grey men, the merciless agents of progress, their world abounds with paranoia and conspiracy theories, and Paul McCartney – and the music they can no longer hear - becomes a symbol of everything that is lost.

Told from the perspective of Libby, the sole survivor of the tale, and the recordings she pieces together to create a version of their history, the truth becomes an unstable position, and a conversation with the dead.

Theatre, live music, and immersive set-design combine to create a sinister world where music is forbidden but sound is the only key to understanding the past.

By Vicky Flood. Directed by Alex Buckingham. Music by Tom Ward and Alex Buckingham, performed by Tom Ward. Set design by Andrew Buckingham. Lighting design by Anna Sbokou and Sarah Crocker. Assistant director Vicky Flood. Production photography Sam Dub. Unit 2 box office managed by Anna Rapp.

Cast: Louisa Coward, Imogen Goodman, Steve King, Luke Surl, Miriam Sully, Matthew Bunn and Liz Jardine Smith.

'Summer in the city is always surprising when it arrives, even if we have lived here all our lives'

Taking you on a magical and surreal journey Scenes from the City follows a shifting perspective of everyday life, turning the mundane and the prosaic into something extraordinary. From exhibitionists on the underground to lost loves and fading starlets, illustration meets narrative in a series of unexpected encounters and daily collisions.

Scenes from the City is based on an online collaboration between illustrator Ben Lambert and writer Vicky Flood exploring a continuous and evolving relationship between visual and literary storytelling. The exhibition housed the illustrations alongside the text, re-ordered and re-connected, accompanied by a radio adaptation of the narrative performed by the company and set to stills of the illustrations. The exhibition also featured original photography by Laura Scott.

Click here to see the online Scenes from the City project...

...to see a sample of Ben's illustrations and Laura's photography click here .

The Scenes from the City radio play was adapted from the original text by Vicky Flood, directed by Alex Buckingham and Vicky Flood, and produced by Tom Ward.
Featuring Iain Blackwell, Daniel Binham, Alex Buckingham, Louisa Coward, Imogen Goodman, Steve King and Tom Ward.

This Easter we joined forces with award-nominated music website Muso's Guide to bring an all-day programme to The Camden Head on Sunday 4th April from 3pm-late, showcasing award-winning poetry, cutting-edge theatre, short film, found-sound DJing, dark theatre cabaret and acclaimed folk-noir. The day's programme - hand-picked by ourselves and Muso's Guide - was representative of our shared ambition to bridge the gap between different types of performance and open up new audiences to an array of diverse talent.

Featured acts included performances from Marcus Orlandi and Lisa Wells-Turner, exhibition of Scenes from the City, poetry from Helen Mort, film by Shorts Amorpha, found-sound DJ-ing by Thom Ashworth from Our Lost Infantry, cabaret by Ruby Corset, and music from Robin James and The Peryls.

To see photos of the day click here .

'This is more than a tale of clay made flesh; it is the history of human bodies who lived and died; it awakens sleeping ghosts. Above all it is a dangerous story and it is not to be told lightly. It is written on the walls of the houses and the stones of the street; it is written on our bones, and in our blood.'

A new adaptation by Vicky Flood of Gustav Meytink's 1915 novel, The Golem tells of a psychic phenomenon sweeping the Jewish ghetto in Prague during the early years of the twentieth century. The centuries-old myth of the Golem, a superhuman figure made out of clay and animated by kabbalistic words, re-asserts itself violently in the thoughts and actions of the inhabitants of that quarter once a generation.

A synthesis of storytelling, music and physical theatre.

By Vicky Flood. Directed by Alex Buckingham and Vicky Flood. Music by Alex Buckingham and Tom Ward. Set design by Andrew Buckingham. Lighting design by Jayne Allen.
Cast: Daniel Binham, Andrew Buckingham, Louisa Coward, Imogen Goodman, Steve King, Luke Surl, Rachel Thorpe.

'When I am dead, my darling, sing no sad songs for me'

An experiment in audience engagement, and eighteen months in development, Song employed innovative performance methods and storytelling techniques to offer a sensitive portrayal of depression. The play charts the final minutes of the life of a troubled young man, as he mixes memories of the distant past with his immediate surroundings, and moves ever closer to a final and irrevocable act of self-destruction.

The production was intended to give the unspoken, and the unspeakable, a voice.

Written by Vicky Flood. Directed by Alex Buckingham and Vicky Flood
Cast: Steve King, Lydia Birch and Andrew Buckingham.

A revised adaptation of Shakespeare's classic comedy. As suitors vie for the affections of the eligible Bianca, her sharp-tongued sister Katherina battles against the crazed and persistent attentions of Petruchio. A battle of wills and an intrigue of disguise and deception, set in the beautiful surroundings of Clare Gardens, Cambridge.

Revised and directed by Alex Buckingham and Vicky Flood.
Cast: Imogen Begg, Ian Calvert, Louisa Coward, Rob Frimston, Tom Hensby, Anna Hobbis, Steve King, and Luke Surl.

To see production photos click here.