Tangled Feet Announces UK Tour of BELONGINGS
The show will also be performed at schools in London, Surrey, Luton, Cornwall and with The Spark Festival At Your School in Leicester
By: Aliya Al-Hassan Jan. 16, 2024
Acclaimed theatre ensemble Tangled Feet and Rowan Tree Dramatherapy announce the 2024 tour of Belongings, a playful, inventive and heart-warming show aimed at 7 to 11 year olds and their grown ups. Exploring the experiences of children living away from their birth families and our fundamental need to belong, the show was created collaboratively with care-experienced children through a ground-breaking model of therapeutic theatre pioneered by the companies.
Belongings is Tangled Feet’s first production of 2024, a year in which the company celebrates its 20th anniversary. Following the success of its 2023 premiere, for which it has been selected as a finalist for the Offies Award for TYA Best Production, the show will tour UK stages and engage with children in schools, including cared for children under ‘virtual schools’.
Cleo arrives into a new home, unsure of what the future holds. She meets the playful Bertie, who brings her out of her shell, and Leila, who she has more in common with than she first thought. Life has been unsettled for the trio: Bertie is pushing towards the future, Leila is trying to reconnect with her past and Cleo is searching for answers. Together they balance, dance and climb to navigate imagined worlds, divided loyalties and loved ones far away. They unite to discover a place called home, the value of play, and together, learn how to own their own stories.
Belongings is Tangled Feet’s third piece of therapeutic theatre for young audiences, following Need a Little Help (2015-2019) and Butterflies (2017-2023). This model of therapeutic theatre involves working with a targeted population over a long period of time with space for reflection, the use of dramatherapeutic metaphor and elements of audience participation. Through workshops, devising, design and rehearsals the companies generate a feedback loop for the young people’s voices and creativity to feed the creation period and help explore and witness their experiences.
Nathan Curry, director of Belongings / co-Artistic Director of Tangled Feet: “We are thrilled to be touringBelongings in our 20th anniversary year. For two decades, Tangled Feet have treasured the power of team work and ensemble practice, the importance of play and joy in your life, and the power of telling unrepresented stories. We continually find space to play, co-create and perform across multiple forms and platforms - adaptability and reach have been key to our longevity. Belongings is the perfect piece to celebrate our special year - it’s the story of finding out who you are, of finding your playmates, and using creativity and friendship to grow your resilience and build your future… we can’t wait to share it with audiences.”
Justine Staley and Bryony Brooker, Rowan Tree dramatherapists: “It’s been an inspiring experience to give the opportunity to some of the young people we work with to collaborate with Tangled Feet and to share their stories and experiences in a creative way. An important part of the work we do at Rowan Tree is offering Dramatherapy to young people with the lived experience of growing up in the care system and to have a chance to come together with Tangled Feet to offer a chance to devise, play, act, share ideas and create a new piece of theatre has been important and extremely enriching. Our young people have felt seen. They have had their stories recognised and represented, finding new confidence, new creative skills, and greater resilience.”
Alex Ramsden, Tangled Feet dramatherapist: “Therapeutic theatre is the creation of work with and for a targeted population. It brings focus to the specific experience of the co-creators’ lives. The audience watches something that they are then invited to step into, even if that’s just in reflection, but ideally you literally step into the world that you’ve just watched so you inhabit what you’ve witnessed. So it’s more of a dialogue; as opposed to being a passive spectator you become an active engager.”
BATH: the egg, Theatre Royal Bath, Sawclose, Bath BA1 1ET
Dates / times: 23 Feb at 10am + 1pm; 24 Feb at 11.30am + 3pm
Booking: theatreroyal.org.uk
Tickets: £10 (schools £7.50 + 11th ticket free)
LONDON: Waterman’s Arts Centre, 40 High Street, Brentford TW8 0DS
Date / times: 25 Feb at 1.30pm + 3.30pm
Booking: watermans.org.uk
Tickets: £12 / concessions £10; family ticket £40/£36
READING: South Street Arts, 21 South Street, Reading RG1 4QU
Date / times: 2 Mar at 11.30am + 2.30pm
Booking: whatsonreading.com/venues/southstreet
Tickets: £11 / £10 Members
EXETER: Exeter Northcott Theatre, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QB
Dates / times: 3 April at 2pm + 6pm; 4 April at 11am + 2pm
Booking: exeternorthcott.co.uk
Tickets: £15 / concessions + under-26s £13 off
BRIGHTON: Studio Theatre, Brighton Dome, New Road, Brighton BN1 1UG
Date / times: 14 April at 1pm + 3.30pm
Booking: brightondome.org
Tickets: £12 / children £8; family ticket £32
LEICESTER: Spark Festival, Curve, 60 Rutland Street, Leicester LE1 1SB
Date / times: Saturday 25th May: 13:30 + 16:30
Booking: curveonline.co.uk
Tickets: tbc
PLYMOUTH: Drum Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Royal Parade, Plymouth PL1 2TR
Dates / times: 31 May at 11.30am + 2.30pm; 1 June at 11.30 + 2.30pm
Booking: theatreroyal.com
Tickets: £12 - £16
Photo Credit: Greta Zabuly
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