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The Space announces 2023 Autumn Season

The Space are proud to announce our Autumn programme from July to December 2023. We have an array of established and emerging companies and artists, which blends pirates, futurism, musicals, immersive theatre, ghosts and the very best new writing. We continue our livestream and on-demand service, meaning you can still enjoy the majority of our programme from the comforts of your own home!

Delving into the darkness of the past, we bring to light both historical fact and revel in historical inaccuracy. A Health to The Company, is a rollicking, epic romp that busts the myth of the ‘Golden Age of Piracy’. The Kaspar Hauser Experiment documents the true story of a man who claims to have been locked in a darked cell for 17 years. Oubliette casts facts aside to embrace magical melodic realism as a new camp and macabre musical.

We cast our eyes to the not-too-distant future with End of The World FM, as a lone radio host rages a one-man war to stay on the airwaves. The prospect of AI looms large: A solo traveller in space clings to life and artificial companionship in Adrift; A lone worker tinkers with mechanisms in an enormous block, with only their helper in Highrise.

We re-examine recent history with Teacher of The Year, transporting us to Liverpool, 1989 and the height of the poll tax protests. September explores the parallels of two 9/11s in both New York City, 2001 and Pinochet’s Chile, 1973. We become immersed in the memories of a childhood home in solo-immersive show Now Entering Ely, Nevada.

Closer to the present, we visit a Northern Town for a spooky Halloween experience as Alex and Maggie Go Ghost Hunting. Void takes us inside the minds of a struggling artist, battling anxiety as she seeks help and hopes to heal. While Transit and its migrant-led company explore the toxic cycles that marginalise artists in gripping new physical theatre.

The Space welcomes international artists from across near and far ponds: Three Things That Are Never Seen celebrates Old-Irish and Celtic mythology in a blend of music, movement and storytelling. From New York, The Pigeon & The Mouse is a cutting-edge contemporary dance piece of two lovers as they shelter in a post-nuclear American Civil War.

We continue our proud partnership with East 15 Acting School as we host a double bill of works: Bringing Greek Tragedy to the 90’s My Name is Cassandra combines movement and music to re-imagine the classic myth. In Friction Burn, a couple on the edge play love games in the style of Beckett and Pinter.

We also welcome the return of Rising Tides Theatre Company and their dedication to make work that addresses and responds to the climate crisis in their two-week festival Good COP, Bad COP 28: On Jackson’s first day as a drone pilot, he discovers the impossible – a real, living bee in Newbie. And more climate experts are paired with playwrights to create new pieces in Further Evidence.

We are proud to continue working with our Associate Company Mrs C’s Collective, who are presenting four new works from their writer’s collective programme in The Big Share: Nine Moons; Good Boy; Roobaroo & Routine. We are also hosting 5, free to attend, rehearsed readings through our own script development service, ScriptSpace.

The season will be launched, as is Space tradition, with a special Autumn Season Launch Night on Thursday 20th July, where each of our shows will share a preview of what’s to come, and a glass of something fizzy shared by all.

Florence Bell is a writer, director and performer whose credits include TV dramas Wolf Hall, The End of the F*cking World and Clink. In 2015 she co-founded new writing initiative Brave New Word which has to date showcased over one hundred pieces of new writing. The Open is the debut production from her fledgling company FIASCO, a multidisciplinary production house dedicated to reflecting the dark and absurd times we live in.

What inspired you to produce a show of this calibre?

“The play was inspired by the events of 2016; the result of the EU referendum in the UK and Donald Trump’s presidency in the US. That year felt like it rocked the world, and those two events certainly made everything feel like there were suddenly no rules for how things were ‘supposed’ to go. The idea of the Great British Golf Course came out of imagining the worst case scenario caused by those events: that adrift from the EU the UK would be at the mercy of right wing governments eager to sell off our assets to the US in trade deals. Trump’s eyeing up of the NHS recently has proved to be evidence of this. The Great British Golf Course is a satire of this outcome – that the whole of the UK would be sold and turned into a golf course. It’s kind of nightmarish and kind of not far from the truth. “

How has the production process been thus far? What have been some of the most memorable moments?

“Without a doubt one of my most memorable and treasured moments has to be hearing the play with this cast for the first time. It just really came alive and became it’s own entity, rather than this slightly mad idea rattling around in my head for three years. Another truly memorable moment was waking up about three weeks into the production period and hearing the news that Trump had tried to buy Greenland. That was really surreal. It was like the play was coming true, just in time for us staging it.”

Why was a golf course chosen to invoke the “feelings of fear and isolation” as your twitter states?

“So no offence to golfers, but golf is weird to me. In writing and rehearsing the play I’ve realised there’s more to it than I thought – the transition of the land from public to private, the degradation of the environment; it’s all epitomised in golf! When you see golfers playing golf they’re in nature, but it’s this totally clipped version of nature tamed to their needs. The optics of largely white, male, elite golfers strutting around chatting about business is pretty powerful I think, cause at the end of the day it’s exactly that demographic of people who are wrecking the environment with unregulated capitalism.

The idea of the whole UK as a golf course is therefore quite scary and isolating. Outside of the EU (and I know the EU is not perfect) we’re no longer tied into the environmental and employment protections we’ve been enjoying.”

As it seems an outsider changes things for the worst (Donald Trump), but then an “immigrant rebel” comes in to shakes things up. Why is there a potential dynamic shift?

“I find the characterisation of Trump as a maverick rebel hard to swallow to be honest. Yes he’s a political outsider but only in the sense that he doesn’t play by any rules of decency. The Open portrays Great Britain after 30 years of intense political turmoil, a radically changed landscape where the characters that call themselves British have forgotten what it means to be British at all. I don’t know whether there is such a thing, but if I can associate it with anything it’s tolerance, decency and courage. It takes Jana, an immigrant who returns at risk of her life, to remind Arthur and Patrick who they were, what Great Britain was, what it meant.

So in a sense the play is about returning to a previous state rather than overthrowing the present in search of something new. It’s about remembering as an act of rebellion, because their memories and sense of identity has been taken away.”

How do the show’s themes of politics, such as national identity and human rights, tie into the endurance of love?

“That’s a good question. Love is only politicised in a way that makes it sound cheesy as hell, (see hippies and ‘Choose Love’ t shirts) but it’s actually pretty powerful and shouldn’t be underestimated. I don’t think it’s as simple as ‘Choose Love’. It’s harder to love, it’s a more sophisticated human response than fear or hate.

At the start of the play Patrick – the depressed romantic who’s been separated from the love of his life because she’s from a different country seems mad for believing in love above all else. His plight seems impossible. The play is about how the politics of national identity and human rights bring us to that point, and how love (not just romantic love) can be very powerful in the face of all that. “

What advice should the audience keep in mind as to why this play is being produced now?

“There’s a quote my mum told me, I think it’s Jerzy Grotowski, about the audience being witnesses. I really like that. I want the audience to be entertained but I also want them to leave feeling like they’ve witnessed something, they’ve been let into a secret. At different times in the play the audience is cast in different roles (not literally, but in a subtle way). They’re the prisoners, they’re the rest of the world. I want them to leave the theatre feeling like they can do something about what’s going on, that they’re powerful. Cause I think we spend a lot of time feeling like we’re not.”

The Open

Running from September 24th-October 12th

BOOK HERE

We were honoured to be the host venue for the start of Sir Ian McKellen’s 80th birthday tour with two very special performances. Proceeds from Ian McKellen on Stage are going towards the venues on the tour, an amazingly generous gesture by the acting legend. A generosity that was matched by our equally amazing audience, whose donations helped us to raise over £7,000 from the event. We’ll be using the funds to maintain our beautiful, grade II listed building, ensuring a home for the arts on the Isle of Dogs for many years to come.

As patron of the Space, since before the venue had even opened in 1996, Ian has performed with us on a number of occasions and described the building as one of his favourite performance spaces in London. Following the shows, our audiences took to Twitter to show their appreciation, describing it as ’truly humbling’, ‘inspirational and an honour to watch’, ‘utterly magnificent’ and there being ’so much to learn from his talent, experience and generosity’. We’re not going to give away any spoilers but suffice to say that fans of Shakespeare and Tolkien will not be disappointed!

Artistic Director of the Space, Adam Hemming, said, ‘We’re so proud to have Sir Ian McKellen as our patron, a legend of the stage and screen and a tireless campaigner for equality, he’s an inspiration to all. This tour – it’s an incredible thing to do, sharing the incredible things that he’s done, to support venues such as ours, so that we may strive to do incredible things. We’re so deeply indebted and wish Ian all the best for the journeys ahead.’

To find out where Ian is headed next, click here.

To become a member of the Space, click here.

To make a donation to help the Space maintain it’s grade II listed building, click here

Pictured above:- Pradeep Jeyaratnam-Joyner (Chair of the Board of Trustees), Sir Ian McKellen (Patron) and Adam Hemming (Director) at Space20 in 2016.

The March family

It wasn’t that I didn’t like the kindly chaplain whose daughters Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth are at the heart of the coming-of-age story that is Little Women. It wasn’t that I didn’t think he was important to them, either. But finding a modern way to adapt (and relocate to London) a novel that is really far more than that – Little Women is only volume one in a series, and we are including much of its sequel, Good Wives – meant hard choices. Every element we included had to earn its place.

The original story begins against the backdrop of the American Civil War. Mr March is absent for almost the whole of Little Women at the front, where he brings spiritual support to soldiers fighting against the slave-holding South. While his young daughters yearn for him to come home, his absence means that they face life without male protection or male moral guidance. This is what allows the sisters and their strong-minded mother the freedom to test their strength and learn by their failures and triumphs.

Miranda Horn as Beth and Amy Gough as Jo

How does that sit with us in the 21st century? Not so well. It seemed to me that while the girls missed their father and feared for him, underneath Louisa May Alcott’s always brilliant writing was the far more profound influence of their mother. It is Ma who sets the girls’ moral compass throughout both stories: it is her advice and judgement that they take to heart, and it is her absence when their father falls ill that brings them into a state of crisis. Their father’s absence plays a greater role in their lives than his presence, and so, in our version, he is just as important to the girls, but he isn’t coming home.

Finding Mr March’s place in a new version of the story wasn’t the only challenge. The original is packed with incidents. Not only can we not include them all, but some have changed meaning. What to make of Jo cutting off her hair to raise money for her mother to go to her sick father? Back then it partly signified her desire to shake of the restrictions of femininity – half thrilling, but half mortifying too. But perhaps there are other sacrifices Jo can make in our context that show how impetuous she can be for the things that really matter to her – and how hard it still is to find one’s place in a world packed with frustrating conventions.

Victoria Jeffrey as Ma and Amy Gough as Jo

There were other challenges – writing eight characters’ storylines over two acts (my previous play had one act and two characters, and I thought that was hard): writing a (SPOILER ALERT) harrowing loss that occurs during the course of the story (and rewriting it again and again, always tearfully); trying somehow to bring in Alcott’s wise and humorous eye without having the luxury of all her words – though some do remain in key moments.

The greatest challenge, however, was trying to make these changes while staying true to the four lively women Alcott created, and the complex relationships at the heart of her novel.

Fingers crossed.

Little Women tickets available now.
Must end 15th December

BOOK HERE

Here at the Space we love working with artists. It’s one of the reasons we are here and we couldn’t do what we do without them. As we continue to grow as a theatre we want to bring artists with us, nurturing them in their development and making sure we offer the right kind of support, at the right moment.

With this in mind we are pleased to announce our new Associate Artist scheme! A bespoke package of support to specifically chosen companies or artists who we believe have real, exciting potential and who we can help flourish.

So – without further ado. We present to you Wonderbox and Bric A Brac… in their own words…

WONDERBOX

Describe Wonderbox in three words?

Fun, Raucous, Feminist

How did it all begin?

We met at the National Youth Theatre. We spent a month in a room with 30 women, hotboxing our creativity and it was wonderful. Five of us decided to carry on making theatre together, because we didn’t want it to end.

If I was coming to see a Wonderbox show – what can I expect?

They’re quite high-energy, they’re funny, they’re a bit filthy. They tackle big subjects but are rather irreverent about them. Expect candid discussion, cheeky movement sequences, wacky characters, and a political sting.

What is your process of creating work?

We’re an ensemble, so it’s very collaborative. We have our writer, who’ll create a script for us to work with, or we’ll find other scripts written by women. We work with new writing rather than established texts. Then we’ll experiment in the rehearsal room, with our director guiding the process.

Proudest achievement so far?

After ‘A Womb of One’s Own’, which we performed at the Space, women told us after the show how much it meant them and that they felt no longer alone in their experience. It’s very special when someone tells you that. Seeing my mum laugh at a lesbian sex joke was a proud moment especially.

What does being an Associate Artist mean to you?

It means a lot! It shows us that people trust us and believe we make great work and see our future as bright.

What is the one thing you can’t do without in rehearsals?

Partial nudity.

BRIC A BRAC

Describe Bric A Brac in three words?

Explorative, ensemble based and fun

How did it all begin?

Our company began over €5 pints of mojitos (yes, pints of mojitos) at a bar called ‘Bric à Brac’ in Paris, 2015. We were in our second year at Jacques Lecoq and knew we enjoyed working together so when Anna, our director, asked if we wanted to create a show together, we leapt at the opportunity! Fast forward four years later, and while Bric à Brac the bar has sadly closed down, our company has never felt more motivated and excited about the future.

If I was coming to see a Bric A Brac show – what can I expect?

You can expect fun and fast-paced heartfelt storytelling with lots of movement, humour and packed with plenty of colourful visuals! No Bric à Brac show is the same so expect the unexpected. Just sit back, relax, and we guarantee you will enjoy yourself.

What is your process of creating work?

Before getting into the room each company member prepares a personal response to the topic material. Through a process of playful and increasingly structured improvisation we are able to generate new material. From this we can then develop characters and build narratives. We use movement, object manipulation, and other theatrical techniques in order to create slick transitions, bringing the whole show together.

Proudest achievement so far?

Being named Associate Artists at The Space, of course!

What does being an Associate Artist mean to you?

Collaboration, support, guidance, belief and trust. It’s an honour to have the backing of a theatre that is accessible to all and continues to have faith in the work we do.

What is the one thing you can’t do without in rehearsals?

A generous sense of humour and a total willingness to clown about!

We sat down for a chat with actor turned writer/director, Tiwalade Ibirogba-Olulode ahead of the opening of her play RUSH. We talked about the creative process, the difference in roles and tackling mental health.

Hello Tiwalade, as an actor turned writer, what was it that made you want to take the leap into playwriting?

I honestly didn’t see it as me transforming or becoming a playwright, I just knew that there was a story I had to tell and I have told stories for as long as I can remember. I prefer to say that I’m an artist; acting, writing, dancing and singing are all my passions. I couldn’t identity as one. That wouldn’t be true to me, Tiwalade.

How do you feel that your acting experience informs your writing? Any elements you’ve wanted to include? Or any pet peeves you’ve wanted to avoid?

Being an actor has helped me shape the text tremendously. I always write for it to be performed. So after I finish writing a page or two, I’ll get up and act out the characters. If the words move me, I know it’s real. If not, I’ll scrap it. Then the second stage is getting the actors to read it out and seeing if they are moved too. It can be a long process of trial and error but it’s worth it in the end.
Also, directing RUSH has been a bonus because I am able to shape what was in my mind when I wrote it. I am lucky to be working with a talented group of actors and team, they are making my dream come true.

How do you begin to tell a story? Do you start with characters, a topic or a situation?

I was originally inspired by this idea shortly after I was diagnosed with anxiety. From the age of 16 I started to have panic attacks, I didn’t understand what it was, so I kept quiet about it, until 21 when I got a really bad attack on the Subway in New York and thought I was going to die, I was alone. It was only then I spoke up about it, found out what I’d been suffering with for years. It was a bittersweet moment as I now knew what I was dealing with, but on the other hand I thought if mental illness had been spoken about more openly, I wouldn’t have felt alienated for 5 years. So I started writing, RUSH was born.

What has been your biggest surprise in the process of writing your own script?

How much I laughed! I didn’t intend on RUSH being a comedy. But I guess one can find humour in the darkest hours.

Any advice for other actors who want to get into playwriting?

I started writing RUSH 3 years ago and it still feels unfinished, but it gets to a point where you must click send!

Who has been your biggest inspiration as a writer?

Life inspires me; people and moments.

As well as writing you are also directing, how are you finding the energy to do two incredibly stressful jobs?

Surprisingly not as stressful as I imagined. But, as I say this, we’re still over 2 weeks away from opening. So I’ll probably have a different answer as the 21st comes closer.

How do you manage to maintain an outside eye within the process while you are working?

I have an Assistant Director- Sophie Franklin and my close friend/Movement Director- James Monckton who are always in the room with me, giving suggestions and honest feedback. Every audience member will have different perceptions in each scene. But, there will always be a message that I want told, so it’s great having people watch to see if that’s coming across.

Talk me through a day in the rehearsal room, how do you structure your creative process?

With this being my directorial debut, I started this rehearsal process off with what I had experienced. I had the pleasure of being in Ned Bennetts’ cast in National Youth Theatre. We spent so much of the rehearsal process playing games! It was the most fun rehearsal process I have ever done! It enabled us as actors to let go, we weren’t afraid to make bold choices and I left that experience with life long friends.

I’ve brought that same energy into my rehearsal process. And now, I feel a warmth from the whole team, we laugh a lot! Saying that, we have found a great balance between work and play.

At the end of the day. Coming into this as an actor I know exactly how it feels being on the other side. That has helped to empathise with the cast.

Having now experienced three very diverse roles in the process (as an actor, writer and director) do you have any strong leanings to a path? Or do you wish to combine your talents?

From a young age when people asked me what I wanted to do, I had a list; Actor, Singer, Dancer, Playwright… Some people saw it as a joke. But now it’s all coming to fruition! I couldn’t see myself directing until recently. I was lucky enough to work with the incredible director Anne- Louise Sarks at the Lyric Hammersmith, she sat me down and asked ‘Why not?’. Throughout the rehearsal process, she was an advocate for building women up. That was a pivotal moment in my life!

I’m part of a very hardworking and creative generation. My friends inspire me everyday! The industry is evolving and changing so rapidly, as an artist it is imperative that you adapt. We have to wear many caps and I’m enjoying that. Don’t get me wrong, it’s tough! You’re having to learn a lot, but it’s fun if you’re investing in projects that you really care about.

So to answer your question, I see myself as an all round artist, I still have so much to learn but I sure am enjoying the ride!

RUSH opens Tuesday 21st of August until Saturday 25th.
7:30pm
£12/£10

Book Here

Many moons ago, whilst on a small-scale theatre tour of the north I found myself with a free evening in Manchester and so got myself a ticket to see Port by Simon Stephens at the Royal Exchange Theatre directed by Marianne Elliott. This was my introduction to Simon Stephens’ work. It was so real and hard hitting. I was absolutely blown away by it. I thought then this is the type of writing I would relish tackling and the type of theatre I dream to be a part of.

Simon Stephens is a remarkable and prolific playwright, he writes emotionally, intelligently, and with huge passion. As an actor and writer I find his work dangerous, exciting and very inspiring. He often tackles the darkness of the human soul and forces us to think about what it is to be human. I find Stephens’ writing the stuff that shakes you at your core, he gets right in there, and chews you up and spits you out, and it’s always a rollercoaster of an experience for an audience. I have seen twelve of his plays, a couple multiple times, and read more.

The first time I read Bluebird I cried. It is a deeply beautiful heart felt wonderful play for actors, full of characters that we recognise, people we’ve met, know, have observed or heard about who dealing with struggling, coping with real, devastating and traumatic incidents and events. Each character reveals something deeply personal through talking with the mini cab driver Jimmy, played by Jonathan Keane, and he to them, the beauty is that they are complete strangers to each other.

It’s great to be working at Space theatre on Bluebird directed by Adam Hemming in a role I have always wanted to play. Janine Williams is quite possibly one of the hardest roles I’ve worked on and I love her. She is a complex character, she is described as “smartly dressed, manic depressive former teacher”. There’s also two further pieces of guidance in the stage directions “she has started crying”, and “almost angry”, pitching those right in the playing of her has been a positive challenge and I still feel, one week in as though I am grappling with it. There is something brutal about her, there is something exciting and dangerous about her, something very sad, mixed with her despair and anguish.

The role requires employing craft, and not just relying on feeling emotions, especially as she is so changeable. She is gripped by an erratic stream of consciousness in the moment. Some of her sentences are as short as one word and her questions and active reflection on her current situation and what she thinks about people and their conduct towards each other is deep. Janine is so rich, she requires a certain energy. I have to hit the ground running.

When I know I’ve done it right and worked well with Jonathan I come off stage and for a moment feel so sad – Janine is a character that as an actress it is best as much as possible to leave her at the theatre, I think that applies to every character in Bluebird.

We are blessed with a great company, and all enjoy working together. We only have a handful of shows left and we would love it for you come and share in this experience.

BOOK TICKETS FOR BLUEBIRD

THANK YOU to everyone who came to see ‘The Castle’. We were absolutely thrilled with the response and have already begun hatching plans for our next show. Watch this Space…

“An invigorating and brain-stirring show. Space Theatre is a haven of warmth and humanity” Remote Goat 4 STARS

“excellent and incredibly atmospheric… a show that feels epic in scale” The Blog of Theatre Things

“A beautifully constructed production, delivering a complex narrative and text spectacularly” The Spy in the Stalls, 4 STARS

“A trumph… the sheer energy of the play alone is a spectacle” View from the Cheap Seat

“cruel, sweary and achingly relevant … One of the best things I’ve seen on London’s Fringe in a long while.” SEEN LONDON

“it’s the grandest most epic fringe show I’ve ever seen… The cast is crammed with superb performers” Theatre Box Blog

“Under the direction of Adam Hemming, Stucley’s petulance has a Monty Python-esque irreverence – absurd in his conclusions, but clearly showing his fragile mental state.” Breaking The Fourth Wall 4 STARS

“The play feels relevant again today with passionate performances from the cast” Theatre Weekly, 4 STARS

“Proves Howard Barker’s seldom-produced and equivocal play still has the power to enthral… draws you in relentlessly, almost obsessively.” Act Drop 4 STARS

“Strong in its visual clarity giving an insight into a world in which women possess real power and prosper” The Upcoming, 4 STARS

“The Space is special. It’s intimate, it’s friendly, it can be cosy and I should think, if you were watching the right thing, you could be terrified out of your wits.”- Sir Ian Mckellan, The Wharf (more…)

“It’s a little bit of the old Docklands that has been rescued. It still looks and feels like what it would have been. Through think and thin, the Space has come through with links to the glory days of the Docks,” Sir Ian McKellen, The Wharf.

The Space is celebrating its 20th anniversary! From its humble origins in a derelict church the Space was transformed into a vibrant arts centre back in 1996. It is both an important creative hub, producing outstanding professional productions, and an asset for the local community. Over the years the Space has required a high level of commitment and dedication from its staff, volunteers and trustees. The incredible lengths that they have gone to in order to make the Space a success are recognised here in our feature ’20 people who shaped the Space’. Of course there are many others who have contributed, we would also like to thank all of our volunteers, artists, performers, supporters and audience members for making the Space such a great place to be.

Pradeep Jeyaratnam-Joyner
Pictured above with Space director, Adam Hemming and Sir Ian McKellen
“Don’t panic, we may be in Dave Granger” occasionally but the Chairman of the Board happens to be one of our new members of the 20 people who shaped the Space so we are in safe hands. We’re extremely fortunate to have his support, insight and leadership as he takes us forward as an organisation into the next 20 years.
From the very first Space production where Pradeep enthusiastically leapt over a chaise longue and mispronounced the words “We’re all in Grave Danger” he has been one of the heartbeats of the Space. Artistically, he went on to perform in such classics as the Graduate, The Master and Margarita before taking a lead role in The Space Christmas Space Show (set in space). Not content with treading the boards he has distinguished himself as a director – co-directing the epic Caucasian Chalk Circle and formed his own company: A Monkey with Cymbals to direct The Shape of Things. After serving on the Space’s Arts Committee and Board of Trustees for a number of years he was appointed as Chair in 2015.
As befits someone who has contributed much to Space, bringing his professional skills as a trainer and facilitator to the board room and green room it was not difficult to find some tributes for him from his peers.

“Pradeep is a delight. He is a true champion of the Space bringing an enthusiasm and sincerity to all of his endeavours. He has the rare ability to make everyone feel welcome and appreciated and happy that they joined the team,” Kate Osborne –Treasurer.

“Pradeep has a ‘what can we do to make it better?’ philosophy and his willingness to help us grow and develop by telling us about opportunities for courses is highly valued,” Keri Chesser Theatre manager, sound designer.

“Pradeep has been part of the inventory of the Space for the longest time. He was in the very first Space Production and has been a great advocate for our theatre spreading the word of the venue far and wide. During my time at the Space, he was a great supporter of the staff, always offering us valuable encouragement,” Mari Rettedal Westlake Former centre manager, producer.

Sebastian Rex
Living locally, Sebastian first came into contact with the Space as an assessor for the Off-West End awards (nominating Space Productions’ A Doll’s House for a Best Set Design Award). After meeting with Adam and Mari, he swiftly joined the Space Arts Committee. Sebastian took on the ScriptSpace project for playwrights and became the Literary Manager. Continuing the work in supporting new writing, Sebastian developed and ran the Script6 project in 2014 and then the popular 28/29 Plays Later events in 2015 and 16. Sebastian’s involvement in developing the programming at the Space has helped to raise the quality of work and brought us the One Festival which is about to enter its 5th year.
As a writer the Space has staged some of Sebastian’s works including The Man who Found his Freedom, Fulfil me Fully, Phil and the recent Manifesto. Sebastian has directed numerous pieces at the Space and was director of the Roof Garden Players, working with a rep company to create and produce 3 pieces for performance during the summer of 2015 at the Crossrail Place Roof Garden in Canary Wharf.
Jodie Botha – SAC member: It’s hard to write plaudits for a man who is in equal measure humble and talented. Yes, he is a perfectionist, but also a team player and he works hard to get the best out of everyone for the benefit of everyone. He has a truly individual perspective which adds depth and colour to all projects he is a part of.
“Sebastian is a truly brilliant and original creative. I think he sees things in a really unique way and this translates into his work, be it his choreography, writing or directing. I’ve always loved working with him, with his kooky exercises, honesty, attention to detail and challenging direction. He knows how to get the best out of actors and I love to see and be a part of his work. He always has a good pun up his sleeve!”, Avita Jay – Actor and SAC member.

To read about the other fifteen people that have helped shaped the space click here.