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"Mayhem creates fantastic opportunities for young people, their dedication and enthusiasm is infectious and they consistently produce diverse and unique drama"
Shaheen Baig Casting Director
We are currently in production for BEAUTIFUL BLOWS -the second play in The Mayhem Company's Big Britain series, supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council England. Our first play, Elephant 21, explored the cultural impact of one of Europe's most ambitious regeneration initiatives at Elephant and Castle, London. The play was performed at Royal Court Theatre Local in 2010 and received Time Out Critics Choice****. As with 'Beautiful Blows', 'Elephant 21' was written and produced using real life stories collected from people who had lived and worked in Elephant and Castle over the past century. The cast comprised professional actors, company members and local residents. It was directed by Ben May, and written by Sarah May (shortlisted for Guardian First Book Award; longlisted for The Orange Prize). Elephant 21 was an HLF-funded project, also supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Nabokov Present Tense: MAYHEM - Royal Festival Hall. Following our initial outing with Nabokov Present Tense in 2008 at Southwark Playhouse we thought about creating the same event for young and emerging artists. We approached Nabokov, who readily agreed, and went on to produce an extraordinary evening of performance, spoken word and music with: Tomorrow’s Warriors who are in residence at Southbank Centre , Southwark Playhouse’s Young Company, performance poet Mia Korrel, Open Hands Productions, singer song writer Ayeisha Clark and Henry O’Slatton, and The Mayhem Company. www.nabokov-online.com
Real Life Sex Makes Baby – Royal Festival Hall. This was our first performance in Royal Festival Hall since partnering with SE1 United in 2009. The work was developed at the Jerwood Space and Spirit Level and explored everything the title suggests.
Thames Festival 2009 – MAYHEM worked in partnership with SE1 United and Emergency Exit Arts to produce our first piece of Street Theatre utilising dance, drama and music to create an explosive piece of street theatre.
The Office for Criminal Justice Reform – Inside Justice Week 09. Mayhem worked with Media Trust and SE1 United to devise and work along side a film director to produce three short films about young people and Custody. The films were shot over 6 days and were broadcast on the Community Channel in October for Inside Justice Week 09.
THE CHALLENGE 2009 - TMC provided a week-long drama workshop for the young people on The Challenge project - a London-wide summer scheme working with young people between the ages of 16 and 18 on leadership, skills development and enterprise.
Previous productions include: Elephant 21 - Time Out Critics Choice*** - the story of the Valentine Family set in London's Lost Quarter (Unit 215, Royal Court Theatre Local), Butterfly Club- an exploration of the recent deaths of young people in Bridgend, Wales (Southwark Playhouse, and published by Methuen), See You Tomorrow - our response to one of our former member's decision to join the British Army and serve in Iraq (Southwark Playhouse) and Deluxe the story of a fatal shooting in a Southwark School (Southwark Playhouse). Previous work also includes: 100° Fahrenheit - the study of corruption in the black religious community (Southwark Playhouse) and Hamelyn Heights - an urban fairy tale (Young Vic Studio).