Past Shows | UnderConstruction Theatre

Hidden Spire

30th September 2015

Since 2012 UnderConstruction’s Artistic Director, Lizzy McBain, has worked as Creative Director for Hidden Spire, a collaborative project between Crisis and Arts at The Old Fire Station.

Hidden Spire brings professional artists and Crisis members together to create a performance using music, dance, theatre, visual arts and more. The two groups work together every step of the way and aim to produce an event which will stir, enchant, amuse and intrigue.

Everything from set design, script-writing and front-of-house is done as a collaboration between the artists and Crisis members. Hidden Spire isn’t just a production, it’s a process – it demonstrates the value and potential of having a public arts centre and resources for homeless people in the same building. Most importantly, it shows that excellent art and inclusive art can be the same thing.

To date we have created three productions exploring the themes of Hidden (2012), Chance (2013) and Transforming the Ordinary (2015), with the most recent resulting in the writing of a prequel to Shakespeare’s Tempest, called Before the Tempest.

Find more information about Hidden Spire here.

The Story Tailors

31st August 2015

“This is Isaac’s favourite activity at the festival!”

“We’re back again! I wanted to tell another story.”

“Seeing Tyler doing this and how much she is enjoying it, makes me think I should sign her up to a drama class.”

Two Story Tailors have travelled from afar bringing with them a tent of theatrical “wears”. They have dressed every character you have ever heard of; from the Queen of Hearts to Rumplestiltskin. They tell stories of old, gathered across time, but times are hard and people can’t afford characters anymore, so our Tailors need some new stories to tell. They need muses – people to dress up in their “wears” to give them inspiration for some new tales and characters.

The Story Tailors is a magical tent full of costumes, where children and families can dress up, play, invent characters and create stories together, facilitated by two professional actors. At the end of their time in the tent, participants will receive a commemorative photo of them and their story title.

The Story Tailors can be adapted to suit your event or as a starting point for story writing or drama in a school or learning setting. Most participants typically spend between 15-30 minutes in the tent, but many spend much more as the invention of stories is limitless.

Please email us

While They’re Away: The Story of a City at War

While They’re Away: The Story of a City at War

15th March 2015

“Poignant” , “Moving”, “A phenomenal play”, “The play blended the familiar and the ‘new’ elements of WW1 history in Oxford so brilliantly.”, “Nothing would have prepared me for this moving, thought-provoking and utterly breathtakingly enacted performance.”, “Quite simply, a triumph!”

A compelling new play drawn from authentic accounts of life at the home front in First World War Oxford. This original production brings to light the city’s role in the ‘War to end all wars’ and the parallel stories of the local people whose lives it changed forever.

Playwright, Jeremy Allen worked with members of the local community and delved into local archives to uncover the WW1 experiences of a varied cast of characters from Oxford’s past: including Siegfried Sassoon and Lady Ottoline Morrell, as well as many whose stories have not previously been told.

While They’re Away was an UnderConstruction Theatre production in partnership with the Museum of Oxford. Created as part of the Lost Voices of Oxford’s Great War, a community project to uncover the city’s untold First World War stories. Generously funded by the Heritage Lottery.

Photographs by James Sutton

Older Posts