Friday, 13 March 2015

STASIS TICKETS NOW ON SALE! - BARE ESSENTIALS REVIEW ROUNDUP



14 - 25 APRIL 2015
 WHITE BEAR THEATRE, KENNINGTON, LONDON

Entering their fifth anniversary year Encompass Productions present the world premiere of Stasis at the White Bear Theatre, Kennington for two weeks from 14 April 2015.

How far are you willing to go to say you’re sorry?

Stowaway Ren is on a Union spacecraft. Mission uncertain. What is for sure, is that she shouldn’t be there. With the whole crew in stasis and only a hologram and the ship’s computer for company, Ren must cope with isolation and depleting oxygen whilst trying to find her way home.

An intimate and bold new vision from Emily Holyoake and Encompass Productions, Stasis is a thrilling science fiction drama with a ‘spellbinding narrative saturated with imagination, sincerity, and humour’ (Impact – preview).

Reviews and press for Encompass Productions:

‘Guaranteed to strike a chord. Impressive...original.’ The Stage
‘Pitch-perfect. Intelligent, stimulating and heartfelt. The sheer beauty blew me away.’ ★★★★★EdFringe Review
‘Accomplishes something original...see this show.’ ★★★★ LondonTheatre1

‘A highly dramatic show with big ideas. Encompass are ones to watch.’
Everything Theatre

‘Visually stunning...genuinely moving and thought provoking.’
A Younger Theatre

‘High quality acting and equally impressive directing panache. A breath of fresh air.’
Theatre Bubble

‘Raw, edgy, with distinctive eloquent performances. Terrific direction...this is real theatre.’ John Foster (BAFTA award-winning writer)

Encompass are a London-based theatre and production company that have been making bold and visually arresting new work since 2010. They explore the psychological and emotional, drawing from cinematic influences to tell stories through heightened reality. Their mission: to challenge, move and entertain.

Directed by Liam Fleming                    
Produced by Jonathan Woodhouse & Liam Fleming
Written by Emily Holyoake
Designed by Sarah Buller
Music and sound by Alex Burnett
Lighting by Owen Pritchard Smith
Associate Producer: Rachael Owens

CAST BIOGRAPHIES

Naomi Stafford – Ren
Naomi trained as an actor and graduated from the Poor School in 2012. She also gained a first class degree in Maths from the University of Leeds. She tours regularly with the award-winning Bootworks Theatre Company with A Little Box of Horrors and La Boite Noire. She has also appeared in more classical theatre; as Dunyasha in The Cherry Orchard and Olga in The Parasite, an adaptation of Turgenev’s A Poor Gentleman. Most recently she had the pleasure of working with Roundhouse Radio, recording two new radio plays; Tiger and The First Day of the Rest of Your Life. Naomi is the co-founder of The Watermark Collective; a company of actors who provide a bespoke script reading service for new writing of screen, stage and radio.

Ceridwen Smith – The Hologram
Ceridwen trained at Drama Centre London, which included work at Shakespeare’s Globe, London and the Vakhtangov Institute, Moscow.  Since graduating, her work has included Venice Preserv'd (Spectators' Guild); The Wind in the Willows (Lord Chamberlain's Men); The Girl With No Heart (National tour with Sparkle and Dark); Audience with the Ghostfinder (Etcetera); Olga’s Room (Arcola); Rhinegold (The Yard);  Mervyn Peake’s Noah’s Ark (Blue Elephant); The Clockmaster (National tour with Sparkle and Dark) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Cochrane). 
Scarlet Sweeney – The Computer (voice)

Theatre credits: As Ye Sow (Pleasance, Edinburgh – Nominated Best Actress by The Stage at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Awards for Acting Excellence), The Ruth Ellis Show (George Wood Theatre), Blood Wedding (Waterloo East Theatre), Potholes (Theatre 503), Love Vs Hate; Wounds (Tristan Bates Theatre), St George’s Day (New Diorama Theatre), 7 Year Itch (Barbican), Le Justes (Cockpit Theatre – in French/co-directed), Grand Guignol (Etcetera Theatre), Revenge of the Grand Guignol (Courtyard Theatre), We Are Scorned (Bloomsbury Theatre), The Censor (BAC), Mariana Pineda (Arcola Theatre), All Together Now (Barbican), In Camera (Rosemary Branch), Jocasta (Chelsea Arts Theatre), Coffee Cigarettes & Paranoia (King’s Head Theatre). Film: Mother (Contra Image), Keith and Val (Beckton Alp Cinema).

BARE ESSENTIALS - REVIEWS AND PHOTOS


Bare Essentials recently had its most successful run to date with four performances at the Take Courage Theatre at the legendary Amersham Arms, New Cross. On the last night we moved downstairs to the main space which completely filled up with a sell-out audience! Our regular series of new writing events received a number of excellent reviews, see some choice quotes below alongside production photos:


'Build A Wall' by Cary Pepper
'Letting Go' by Rhea MacCallum
'High quality acting and equally impressive directing panache. A breath of fresh air on the fringe circuit.' ★★★★ Theatre Bubble

Read full review >>

'I'll Take a Dozen Accountants...with Sprinkles' by Matt Hanf

'Friend Roulette' by Adam Lowe
'Theatre at its most nude and impactful. Another astonishing achievement. Miss the next Bare Essentials at your peril.' ★★★★ Grumpy Gay Critic

Read full review >>

'The Maltese Walter' by John Minigan

'Little Boy' by John Foster
'Encompass Productions has proved again that all one needs for interesting theatre is a great script, a room and actors that are willing to give it their all.' ★★★★ Female Arts


BAFTA-winning writer John Foster - whose work 'Little Boy' was met with unanimous praise - also shared his thoughts on the night as well as his experience of working with Encompass for a second time on Bare Essentials:

'A very rigorous and creative process which makes Bare Essentials very different from the average scratch night...[it] is sustained at another level and provides a proper professional production of a very high standard.' 


We'd like to thank everyone who made this the biggest and best Bare Essentials yet - look out for the next event in June, and see you at Stasis at the White Bear Theatre in next month!

Team Encompass for Bare Essentials February 2015!