Oedipus Rex 2007

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles - the greatest of all Greek Tragedies - in a new adaptation by Richard Spaul

Thebes is under a curse. Disease and death haunt the city. King Laius has been murdered and his killer as yet remains uncaught. His successor, King Oedipus, swears he will solve the mystery, but finds to his growing horror that all the evidence points to himself. And much worse is to come.

With the advent of Freud, the Oedipal triangle became the blueprint for the tragic psychic trap from which humanity endeavours in vain to extricate itself.

All performances will take place at The Leper Chapel, one of the oldest and most atmospheric buildings in Cambridge, creating an ideal site for this powerful drama of corruption, ostracism and social cleansing.

in situ: Cambridge's leading experimental theatre company, in a new and vibrant adaptation of Sophocles' classic, performs inside, outside and all around this remarkable building.

Dates: Saturday July 7; Monday July 9 - Friday July 13, 2007
(no performance: Sunday July 8)
Time: 8pm
Location: The Leper Chapel, Barnwell Junction, Newmarket Road

Metamorphoses 2007

A new performance by in situ: based on and inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses.

in situ: continues its fruitful collaboration with Cambridge Preservation Society, by mounting this ambitious performance of Ovid's famous cycle of stories in the beautiful and varied setting of Wandlebury Ring, with its woodlands, dew-pond and Iron-Age Ring-Ditch.

It's the perfect setting for Ovid's gorgeous, fascinating and occasionally terrifying stories of passionate love, transcendental hate and miraculous transformation.

Come and hear about the sculptor, Pygmalion, who fell in love with his own creation; about Narcissus, in love with his own reflection; about Phaeton, who borrowed the sun-god's chariot and caused climate-change on a catastrophic scale. Hear about men who turn into women and back again, nymphs who turn into trees and waterfalls, people who turn into dolphins, weasels, and birds.

The final performance on Saturday June 30th was a benefit performance for C.P.S. by whose kind permission and with whose support we are able to perform in these magnificent surroundings. All proceeds from this performance went to C.P.S.

Dates and time: 8pm Monday June 25 - Saturday June 30, 2007
Location: Wandlebury Ring, Gog Magog Hills, Cambridge.

The Canterbury Tales

An ambitious new site-specific production by in situ:

Taking place in an around the remarkable Leper Chapel in Cambridge and based on Chaucer's magnificent cycle of stories, The Canterbury Tales explores many of the techniques highlighted in the individual workshops: including storytelling skills and extended voice technique.

Dates and time: Monday July 11 - Saturday July 16, 2005. 8pm.
Location: The Leper Chapel, Barnwell Junction, Cambridge.

Mirabilis

Mirabilis takes as its inspiration the Life of Christina Mirabilis. Known in English as Christina the Astonishing, this extraordinary Flemish mystic was active at the turn of the C13. The Life was written only eight years after her death, and as such is a detailed and even warm account of a strange and marginalised figure.

Performances: Toured East Anglia in Summer 2004

The Bacchae

Based on Euripides' classic text and utilising in situ:'s hallmark performance elements.

Performances:
Dates and time: July 8-10, 2004.
Location: The Methodist Church Hall, Sturton Street, Cambridge.

Paradise

in situ:s new performance explores the events of September 11, 2001, focussing on two astonishing documents - separated by more than seven hundred years of bloody history.

1299. Marco Polo tells of The Old Man of the Mountain and his fanatical followers: The Assassins. They kill anyone he commands, and die in the attempt. Why? Because they believe he has the power to send them to Paradise.

September, 2001. In one of the hijackers cars police find a set of instructions, promising them death... and Paradise.

Paradise is a passionate, thought-provoking and disturbing new work, which asks: if humans beings long for Paradise, why do they create Hell?

Macbeth

MACBETH : one of the most frightening and gripping plays ever written. A nightmarish world of bloodshed, war and political violence.

in situ:'s vocally and visually compelling new production of Shakespeare's bloody masterpiece opens on a devastated landscape. A crazed woman is dancing amongst the rubble - the spectacle cases, the photographs, the hair, the ashes, the teeth. Out of this debris of people's lives and deaths, a performance begins to emerge:

By the pricking of my thumbs
Something wicked this way comes

(More details on Macbeth)

The War of the Worlds

Britain in the late nineteenth century. The most powerful nation on Earth finds itself under attack from a technologically vastly superior and more intelligent adversary: the Martians. Within days all resistance has been crushed, the infrastructure is destroyed and the few remaining humans are reduced to the status of hunted animals.

A terrifying vision of the technological future and one of the greatest works of science fiction ever written. This outstanding new adaptation has all the hallmarks of in situ:'s remarkable performances - high quality ensemble, daring vocal work, a unique blend of the improvised and the scripted and a spine-tingling atmosphere of terror and suspense.

A new DVD of the performance is available to order, please call for details.

Dates and time Thursday 17 - Sunday 20 July 2003 8pm (doors open at 7:30pm).
Location: The Methodist Church Hall, Sturton Street, Cambridge.

War and Peace

War & Peace has arisen out of a theatre course exploring Voice, Movement and Text. It is a work-in-progress rather than a fully-blown performance, the idea being to give the performers, some of whom have never been on stage before, the opportunity to perform in relatively relaxed circumstances.

Each performer has chosen a text on the theme of War and Peace. The performance is a 'cabaret' of these different texts.

Dates and time: Monday 14 July 2003 8:30pm.
Location: The Cambridge Drama Centre.

Without History

A site-specific work in the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The following is an extract from the programme notes:

the performance:
W I T H O U T H I S T O R Y
is performed en promenade. The action happens throughout the Museum, and there is usually more than one focal point at any one time. The spectators walk around, watching and listening to whatever they wish. For maximum enjoyment, could you bear in mind the following:

1. You will, from time to time, be invited by the actors to follow them or to move from one space to another or to look at a particular exhibit. It is entirely up to you whether you wish to do this and you are perfectly at liberty to ignore them. In the unlikely event of the public having to leave the building, you will be given very clear instructions by the Museum staff.

2. Coats, bags, etc can be left in the cloakrooms (female: 1st floor; male: 2nd floor) at your own risk. Otherwise, please keep them with you and do not put them on the floor, as this would constitute a hazard.

3. Sometimes you will find the actors addressing you directly at very close quarters. This may seem a little unusual, but please don't be deceived into thinking that this is an interactive performance. In other words please don't talk to, question or otherwise interact with the performers. In this respect our performance follows the traditional mode.

4. There is no distinction made between the space occupied by the actors and that of the spectators. So please be aware that the performers may need the space you're occupying and be willing to co-operate with them. The actors will never be in a great hurry and you will never be required to make any sudden movements. A normal level of awareness is all that is required.
The performance lasts approximately one hour and forty minutes. There will be no interval.

Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the building.
Flash photography is not permitted.
Please do not touch the exhibits.

the performers:

attendants: colin pinks, mark sparrow
guides: geoff broad, iain coleman, sakura nishimura
investigators: steve adams, tim waterfield
lecturer: brandon high
video artist: pete arnold

directed by: richard spaul, bella stewart
technical director: pete arnold

texts used in the performance:
Being Dead, by Jim Crace
The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells
Hiroshima, by Jim Hersey
The History of Tasmania, by John West
An original text based on The Daily Life of Kawther Salam - used with the kind permission of Kawther Salam - and photographs found at http://www.palestinemonitor.org/gallery and http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/eyetoeye

Performances:
Without History.
Dates: 15-28 June 2002
Time: 8pm
Location: Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Downing Street, Cambridge