PSYCHEdelight Theatre Company of Sanctuary

Description

PSYCHEdelight is a participatory theatre company of Sanctuary, based in London. It uses clowning as an act of resilience and resistance, teaching clowning and co-creating performances with communities and individuals who wish to raise serious questions through the art form. Its trauma-informed, devised approach (developed by an artistic director trained in both drama and therapy) gives participants authorship of their own stories, honouring experiences such as illness, displacement, grief and women's journeys, and celebrating shared vulnerability through poetry and humour, far from pity or victimhood. The company has developed a technique it calls Visual Poetry, creating symbolic visual tableaux (informed by Family Constellations and resonant with the Image Theatre of Theatre of the Oppressed) to help people affected by trauma or language barriers find their voice. It works with mixed casts blending formal training and lived experience, produces professional touring productions on themes including migration and mental health, and runs free year-round Together Workshops in London as a space of welcome for people seeking asylum, culminating in an annual community show for Refugee Week. It also runs clown retreats, camps and solo residencies at its French base, Canole Theatre, in the Dordogne, and offers free 'Theatre Woofing' residencies there in exchange for gardening help.

Currently active

Yes

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

Founding year

2011

Contact details

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Partner Infrastructures

Counterpoints Arts

Counterpoints Arts is a leading national and international organisation working in the field of arts, migration and cultural change. Its mission is to support and create transformative art by, with, a… read more about Counterpoints Arts

London

Migration Museum

The Migration Museum explores how the movement of people to and from the UK across the ages has shaped individual, community and national identity. Treating migration as a pressing contemporary issue … read more about Migration Museum

Partner Universities

King's College London (KCL)

Additional Partnerships

Young Vic; Theatre Delicatessen / Theatre Deli; The Cockpit; Old Vic Workrooms; Arts Council England; The French Institute; Clown Without Borders; British Red Cross; St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace; Young Roots; MigrationMatters Festival; Samphire; Leisure Studies Association (Bournemouth); Hastings Supports Refugees; Imprology (shares Canole Theatre); Mardin International Theatre Festival (Turkey); Leading Women's Association (Turkey); Ellisphere (Lyon)