Local theatre company returns home with awards

A young emerging theatre company made up of Exeter University graduates,  Worklight Theatre, picked up not one, but two awards this summer when they took their show How to Start a Riot to Reading Fringe Festival.

They were awarded Best Production up against every show which featured in the two week festival, and Joe Sellman-Leava of the company was awarded Best Actor.

The show, developed with input from leading social psychologist, Professor Clifford Stott, having received five star reviews last year at Edinburgh Fringe continues to tour nationally.

The three performers use text, torchlight and physical theatre as they unpick the presumed causes of civil unrest. The artists behind the piece, having watched the 2011 riots unfold felt compelled to make a show unpicking the question – if the actions behind the riots are mindless, what is in the mind?

Joe of the company said: "We’re really overwhelmed by the support and positive reaction we’ve received for our first show How to Start a Riot.

"With growing public dissatisfaction over cuts and taxes threatening to erupt into civil disobedience once more, we feel the show - which includes reflections on the Poll Tax Riots – remains as relevant today as when we first made it.”

I Think I’m a Feminist, Worklight Theatre’s second show, will be shown at Exeter’s Bike Shed Theatre in May next year.