Embrace the Journey
Where we've been...
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Alice's Mad Boat Party performed on a boat, sailing up the River Thames and collecting characters along the way (including the Tweedles at Teddington, the Mad Hatter at Richmond and the Red Queen at Hampton Court Palace).
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A promenade production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with roving musicians taking audiences on a journey through Beddington Park where they discovered magical fairies in trees and the lovers (literally) fighting in the River Wandle.
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A Rubbish Lunch Break was a pop-up performance surprising shoppers in Morrisons with a weekend of puppetry and clowning as Bill and Fred tried to take a break but discovered an ever-increasing pile of rubbish appearing around them.
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Taking over the 360° Cinema Room at the Sutton Life Centre, for a performance of Hospital Food by Eugene O'Hare where audiences sat on the floor in the centre of the room to experience the multi-media show. Bespoke films were woven into the live action which included interactions with animals, hospital staff and dream sequences.
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Lost in Space was an immersive experience developed with 180 primary school children, 40 adults with a learning disability and artists from Output Arts, to transform a disused community area in Croydon into an interactive spaceship for a month-long performance residency.
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A partnership with Honeywood Museum in Carshalton started with a puppet-led production of Romeo & Juliet (and audiences instructed to arrive dressed for the Capulet’s masked ball). This success was followed with a sensory installation production of Alice In Wonderland in the museum's Victorian walled garden.
Sheree has also marched with Hedgehogs down Oxford’s town centre as part of The Story Museum's Alice Day (they were protesting against the Red Queen for using them as croquet balls), taken an abridged version of Twelfth Night to the RSC’s outdoor summer stage programme, encouraged audiences to be superheroes at the Celebrate Woking Festival, and recently developed a Camelot-themed weekend residency involving walk-about characters and a hobby-horse joust for Reigate Castle.
Coddiwomple is building on the success Sheree had as the founding Artistic Director of SAVVY Theatre Company. Her past shows have included projects in parks, supermarkets, rivers, clocktowers, schools, art galleries, libraries, community centres, hospitals, care homes, pubs, the creation of a haunted ghost-story in a model show-home, playgrounds, castles and even (on occasion) - conventional theatre spaces too!
Where We're Going
At Coddiwomple we are guided by a single question: Why theatre?
What is it about a story, an idea, or concept that can only be expressed, developed, or experienced best through theatre?
Exploring this question shapes everything we create and do by:
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Encouraging creative play, risk-taking, and the trying of new ideas.
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Being unexpected, surprising, joyous and fun.
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Embracing the journey!
When people ask, "What are you going to do next?" our response is usually “We don’t know yet!” - and that’s part of the fun!
Ultimately we want our work to show what makes theatre unique and vital in the 21st century.
