Staffordshire St LATES | Arcade

Staffordshire St and Brightmouth presents ARCADE.

ARCADE is a new night for emerging theatre makers to showcase 20 minutes of bold and innovative new work. Centred around the idea of play, ARCADE provides an opportunity for artists to try out new work in front of a live audience, offering a platform for them to go on and develop these works in the future.

Curated and hosted by Brightmouth, a collaboration between artists and producers Theo Moore and Nathan Charles, ARCADE is a night for exciting, emerging artists to test out a new script, a new idea, a new approach; to start something and see where it goes.

The performances at the first ARCADE have gone on to have multiple five-star runs in theatres across London, Brighton and the Edinburgh Fringe.

Audiences are central to ARCADE, given the opportunity to watch and reflect on four high-quality, bold new pieces of performance work at the inception of their development, and stay for a drink afterwards!

Performers: 

Derek Mitchell: Double Dutch

The debut hour of stand-up and characters from the 'out-and-out hilarious' (Stage) Derek Mitchell (Ted Lasso), whose online sketches as @letsdoubledutch have generated over 250 million views and a dedicated following.

Right off the back of a 44-date European tour, the show is about the journey from being an outsider to a sort-of insider and making sense of all the cultural nonsense and confusion in between.

'The biggest laughs of the night' (TheArtsDesk.com)
'Outstanding' (Oxford Mail)


Levi Meltzer: ReadyMades
Levi Meltzer (London's most dangerous new clown) seeks out to discover a cosmic bubblewrap that might just guard us from every inevitable risk.
In his debut solo show, 'Deadbeat Laureate,' Levi ran a personal investigation into the world of childhood neurodiversity treatments. He also runs 'Do Not Resuscitate,' a variety night that he begun in Sydney but has now traveled to London and the Edinburgh Fringe.

Ellie Shaw: were you in terror? did you know? did you feel the claw that cleaned you?
Ellie started with the Royal Court Introduction to Playwriting Group. She presented a work-in-progress of her first full-length play, 'in case you thought you had no addictions, here is a list', as part of the ALT-B season at the Bush Theatre. This play was shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Prize for Theatre in 2023, and is in development with the Engine Room at the Omnibus Theatre. The pitch for were you in terror? was shortlisted for the Bitter Pill Prize 2023.

Bennie puts the ghost in ghostwriter. She writes suicide notes for a living. It’s dishonest work, but she’s got a perfect record of seeing land-owning billionaires and plane-naming people-trafficking businessmen through to the bitter end. Frankly, a lot of them deserve to die.

Until: a beloved chef-turned-TV presenter. The world’s favourite uncle. An unproblematic king - so we think.

Ella Dorman-Gajic: Pain Gap

A comedic family drama takes a darker turn when twin sisters Mila and Tanya are driven apart due to one’s pregnancy and the other’s infertility. Humorous yet heartwrenching, this sharp new play explores women’s mental and reproductive health and the complexities of motherhood.

The first act of the play will be performed, which is currently in development. It is directed by Ella Rowdon, and stars Verity Bajoria, Victoria Buse, and Ella Dorman-Gajic.

Ella Dorman-Gajic is a South-London-based writer, performer and producer of Serbian heritage, working across theatre, screen, and poetry. Her OffComm-awarded, Arts Council-funded stage play, TRADE, just completed a UK Tour, starting with a sell-out at London’s Pleasance and completing with another sell-out at Norwich Arts Centre; the tour received solely 4 and 5-star reviews. As an actor, she stars in the BBC Radio Drama Series ‘Song of the Reed’ alongside Mark Rylance.
★★★★★ “Bold and brilliantly written… fierce, unapologetic and gripping” - West End Bestfriend (on Trade)

Live music from Jorj Sabio | @jorjsabio

Jorj Sabio is a music artist and actor based in South London. Having gigged in venues and events all around London with music collective, Gravy River, throughout 2021, and having released his first two singles, Premonitions, with Graver in 2022, and Bed in May 2023, Jorj is set to release his most ambitious project to date - an 13 track album project that was created and developed over the past 4 years. The first song from the project, the eponymously titled, ‘SABIO’, and its accompanying music video were released at the end of March and are available to stream now.

Jorj is also a passionate campaigner and advocate in the music industry and was inducted onto the board of the Ivors Academy (presenters of the prestigious Ivor Novello awards for songwriting excellence) and is actively engaged in campaigns across the industry that address equal and just renumeration of songwriters and composer.

Doors Open at 6.30pm

Performances: 7:15pm

General admission: £10
Concession: £8
On the door: £12

PWYC option

Accessibility: There is step-free access to the gallery via the door to the left hand side of the main entrance. There is a wheelchair accessible toilet. The event will be taking place in the exhibition space, which is a large open room with bright lighting and some seating available.

Staffordshire St is an independent project space in Peckham, South East London. The venue facilitates arts and cultural events and provides affordable studios for artists, makers and designers. ​

Staffordshire St is not-for-profit and all income is invested into developing our public programme which launched the summer of 2022. The venue was established as an art gallery in 2017, before then it was vacant for many years after a community centre closed. Originally it was built as a Methodist Hall. We intend to support a range of cultural events for the local community.

Staffordshire St will build on the established record of these histories, opening up again to the neighbourhood and developing a welcoming interdisciplinary arts space. More information on upcoming events at : info@staffordshirest.com or @staffordshirest

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