UNINVITED GUESTS

SIZE OF COMPANY
3–7 on the road

SCALE OF VENUE
Small- to middle-scale

PERMANENT STAFF
Artistic Directors
Paul Clarke
Richard Dufty
Jessica Hoffmann

Producer
Kate McGrath

Administrator
Christina Elliot

ARTISTIC POLICY
Formed in Bristol in 1998, Uninvited Guests makes entertaining and provocative performance. The company’s work represents a contemporary reality in which memories of movies are as much part of our experience as intimate dialogues with lovers. Uninvited Guests works in various contexts and constellations, focusing mainly on performance but also producing installation and digital media. Recent work has blurred the line between theatre and social festivities, with audiences joining in events that are celebratory and elegiac, nostalgic and critical of these times.

REVIEW EXTRACTS
‘An abundance of intellect and a sharp performance style.’ The Guardian (Schlock)

‘The latest show from Uninvited Guests is absolutely brilliant… this is a clever, engaging and tightly controlled show.’ The Guardian (It Is Like It Ought To Be: A Pastoral)

‘A rich collage of music, rituals, inspired daftness and inventive staging, coupled with strong performances from a cast of five.’ The Herald (It Is Like It Ought To Be: A Pastoral)

‘A rich collage of music, rituals, inspired daftness and inventive staging, coupled with strong performances from a cast of five.’ The Herald (It Is Like It Ought To Be: A Pastoral)

CURRENT PRODUCTIONS
Schlock A darkly comic and disconcerting mix of poignant confession and B-movie melodrama, real acts of violence and pints of fake blood. (75 mins, 4 on stage, 7 on the road.)

Aftermath Trained by a TV make-up artist, Uninvited Guests lovingly fabricates bloody wounds on each other’s bodies. These fake cuts proliferate, spreading from performers to the gallery walls and onto the audience’s skin. (6 hour durational installation, 3 performers, 5 on the road.)

It Is Like It Ought To Be: A Pastoral In the guise of some ragtag band, Uninvited Guests invents folksongs and dances for our green and plastic land. They declaim hip romantic poetry, conjure epic landscapes and offer prayers to make things better. Herald Angel Award winner 2007. (60 mins approx, 5 on stage, 7 on the road.)

Love Letters Straight From Your Heart An event somewhere between a wedding reception, a wake and a radio dedication show. The company speaks of its own and other's loves – deep, passionate, ambivalent and unrequited – and dedicates songs to them. (75 mins, 2 on stage, 3 on the road.)

FUTURE PRODUCTIONS
Ghosting… A site-responsive, participatory audio-tour, conjuring a city’s ghosts and fictionalising your home town. Made in collaboration with sound artist Duncan Speakman.

Make Better Please With this event, Uninvited Guests will cure your venue and its city of its ills. The company will invoke moments of horror from the city’s psyche in order to exorcise them and celebrate the good times, the city’s stories of romance, love and beauty.

WRAP-AROUND
One-off workshops or longer courses for a range of participants, from school and university groups to professional development for artists. Post-show discussions and lecture presentations.

RECENT INTERNATIONAL WORK
2003 – 04 Denmark, Germany (Offline), Portugal (Guest House CD-Rom), Slovenia (Offline)

TOURING AVAILABILITY
Details on request