RADA Lab Works 2026 - Digital Programme

RADA LAB WORKS 2026

WELCOME TO LONDON’S INTERNATIONAL THEATRE The Coronet Theatre is the home of exceptional international arts in a reimagined and restored Grade II listed theatre in London’s Notting Hill. Both its programme and the building’s restoration are curated by Artistic Director & CEO Anda Winters in collaboration with artists from across the globe.

TCT’s mission is to engage, educate, and empower our diverse audiences with new perspectives on global arts. We platform both emerging and renowned artists from all over the world, creating a vibrant space where cultures collide and ideas come alive.

RADA

LAB WORKS 2026 The Coronet Theatre and RADA present RADA’s MA Theatre Lab’s Lab Works.

The week-long project culminates in a series of original ‘theatre-shorts’, enabling artistic development, public visibility, and new networking opportunities for these emerging artists.

RADA’s graduate community from across all 10 years of the MA course will take up residency at the Coronet Theatre sharing their practice and inspiring new ideas for future collaborations. Graduates will also contribute towards a public scratch night of original material, experimenting with a range of ideas, practices and forms.

“The Coronet Theatre’s mission is to support diverse and international artists, platforming unique and experimental practice from across the globe. As a leading international theatre, it is our duty to develop emerging talent in this field, giving them the opportunity and visibility to contribute to the global artistic scene. We’re thrilled to continue this collaboration with RADA MA Lab, one of the only courses in London that truly champions experimental, laboratory, practice.”

Anda Winters, Artistic Director, The Coronet Theatre.

“We’re delighted to continue our collaboration with the Coronet Theatre in Notting Hill. It is one of the most inspiring and creative performance spaces in the UK and has a history of supporting unique visual theatre from across the world. We hope that this partnership between RADA’s MA Theatre Lab and the Coronet team offers a secure space in which graduates can take risks, exploring collaborative and experimental approaches to performance, in a ‘brave’ and playful environment.”

Ian Morgan, MA Theatre Lab Course Leader.

TUESDAY: SCRATCH NIGHT An evening of short, work-in-progress presentations, Scratch Night offers audiences a rare chance to see original ideas in development before they reach the stage. Expect an eclectic mix of theatre, movement, performance and live art from RADA’s MA Theatre Lab artists as they test new concepts, experiment with form and share fresh creative voices in an open, collaborative setting.

Pieces included in this evening: The Mirrors Piece, Show me the thumka, C**T ACT, Saturn’s Return, Birds<Birds<Birds<, and Wide Awake.

Each piece is presented as part of an ongoing creative process, making this a unique opportunity to witness new work at the moment it begins to take shape.

THE MIRRORS PIECE Created and performed by SookKuan Tang and Joshua Aiu Shifting the narrative weight of Euripides’ The Bacchae from an ideological duel between king and god — this forced perspective immersive experience asks viewers to step into the shoes of Agave (King Pentheus’s mother) by transforming a classic political tragedy into an intimate psychological horror.

Historically, Agave spends most of the play off-stage as a reported figure of wild ecstasy, only arriving at the climax to serve as the punchline of divine vengeance.

Retelling the story through her eyes attempts to reframe the entire mythology around agency, the terror of fanaticism, and maternal grief.

SHOW ME THE THUMBKA Devised and performed by Devaki Rajendran and Ranjini Nair Choreography and Dancer: Devaki Rajendran Primary academic research by Ranjini Nair Show me the thumka is a choreographic work-in-process that explores the hip as a site of sexual availability, discipline, and regulation within Indian dance cultures.

The project draws on Hindi film songs that repeatedly associate the moving hip (called a thumka) with desire and excess, placing these representations in conversation with the cultivated stillness expected of the hip in Indian classical dance, and how respectability is encoded in the frozen hip. Emerging from a chapter of my doctoral thesis on the hips in Indian dance, the work asks how power operates through formal aesthetics and how choreography can expose and reimagine these embodied norms. It asks questions around desire, who is allowed to evoke it, and how the male gaze perpetuates a fantasy of the dancing woman.

C**T ACT Devised and performed by Anna Kopacek and Lucy Mae Bean We do what we want. Do you mind?

Content Warnings: Profane language, loud sounds, and yelling

SATURN’S RETURN Created, written and performed by Rose Klekotko Performer and dramaturgical collaborator: Tomás Barry Movement collaborator: Aleksandra Komarnicka Saturn’s Return is a multidisciplinary solo performance in development, combining theatre, movement, voice and multimedia.

The project began as a personal investigation into the concepts of success and failure, and the psychological threshold of turning thirty. Inspired by the astrological phenomenon known as the Saturn Return – a symbolic period associated with responsibility, endings and transformation—the work explores what happens when the version of ourselves we expected to become begins to collapse.

Julia is an actress who’s about to turn thirty. She desperately clings to an illusion she’s still 25 and is determined to prove that her dreams are still within reach before the “deadline”. As the pressure of time builds, an unseen voice begins to challenge her, exposing the fantasies and expectations she has built her identity around.

This extract captures the beginning of her confrontation with Saturn: the moment denial slowly starts to crack.

Drawing from my background in acting, movement and my long-standing practice of studying astrology, the project uses live performance, physical theatre, music and an off-stage voice to investigate how these internalised beliefs become embodied. Rather than approaching astrology as a belief system, I use it as a dramaturgical framework through which to explore identity, social pressure, ambition, burnout and the transition into adulthood from a female perspective.

This 13-minute scratch presents the opening chapter of the work. We meet the protagonist before the transformation begins, at the moment when the identity she has spent years performing starts to slowly unravel. The scratch focuses on establishing the theatrical language of the project and the relationship between the performer, the audience and Saturn’s voice.

BIRDS<BIRDS<BIRDS< Created and performed by Patti West “Birds have been on this planet since Archaeopteryx, a hundred and forty million years ago. Doesn’t it seem odd that they’d wait all that time to start a war against humanity?” — Mrs. Bundy, The Birds, dir. A Hitchcock One woman. One impossible director. Many uncooperative birds.

She was hired to train them. The deadline is impossible, Hitchcock won’t leave her alone, and the birds… the birds answer to no one.

Something is about to break. It might be her. It might be the world.

WIDE AWAKE Created and Performed by Helen Percival and Genevieve Labuschagne Wide Awake is a physical theatre work in progress, exploring how emotions affect the body and that if they are left unexplored, have the power to direct the course of our lives.

The piece revolves around a person’s exploration of a particular emotion and how it has shaped the course of their life.

Wide Awake is an experimental theatre piece blending movement and storytelling, inspired by the ground-breaking book ‘The Body Keeps the Score’ by Bessel van der Kolk, which explores the mind body connection and how trauma is stored in the body, As physical theatre performers, we’re fascinated by how we store emotion in our bodies and the ways it can be unlocked through movement. Wide Awake is an exploration of this reflection, blending storytelling, poetry and movement, delving into how our words impact the body and how the body impacts our words.

THURSDAY: LAB RE-WORKS 1

HAPPY SURVIVALIST Created and performed by Oleksandra Barstok The world is full of traps, sorrow and absurdity.

In which everyday life is intertwined with surrealism.

Running time: Approx 30min Content warnings: Loud sounds, Abstract violence

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW Created and Performed by Pat Dynowska and Corinne Soland Guest Appearance by Oscar Rodriguez Lighting Design by Theodor Spiridon Sound Design by Oscar Rodriguez Bodies, spirits and the in-between: welcome to the alchemical workshop where souls are distilled and spirits transmuted. two are hard at work, aware that the abyss lingers. A meeting: blood, salt and water mix until something new emerges – and then, a longing.

Is it possible to distil the human experience?

“True it is, without falsehood, certain and most true. That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above, to accomplish the miracles of one thing.” – Hermes Trismegistus, translation by Steele and Singer Running time: Approx 40 mins Content warnings: Explicit language, depiction of mutilated human body parts

VESTIGES OF A DRY CREEK Created and Performed by Montserrat Cuellar Mestas Sound Design by Rita Horta and Montserrat Cuellar Mestas With the Support of the Grodman Legacy Program for the Promotion of Artists from Jalisco.

A phantasmagorical journey towards a place of origin: Jalisco, Mexico. Landscapes of a past unknown are reimagined and intertwined with the present: a girl walking back home.

Running time: Approx 40 mins Content warnings: Contains references to grief, death and generational trauma

FRIDAY: LAB RE-WORKS 2

PAINT THE SKY BLUE Created and performed by Ethan Bareham, Jack Clark, Georgia Gabrielides and Lucy Laverty Directed by Florence Carr-Jones Creative Development by Georgia Gabrielides Lighting Design by Freya Game Sound Design by Bili Keogh With the support of: Lesley Ewen, Dan Sherer, emma +pj, Simon Gleave, and Ramon Ayres and Eygló Belafonte (Ephemeral Ensemble) Richard and Grace are hosting Eliot and Hannah for a special Birthday dinner! The four friends discuss life, marriage and children in a calm and pleasant manner before retiring at a respectable hour. No emotions have been dysregulated in the making of this performance.

Running time: Approx 40 minutes Content warnings: Loud music, strobe lights, violence, abuse, death, animal abuse, pregnancy/childbirth, miscarriage, loud balloon popping.

MÔRE IS MÔRE Created and Performed by Inge Crafford-Lazarus and Larissa Crafford-Lazarus Guest appearance: Oleksandra Barstok Nelia is afraid of just about everything, including the prospect of leaving her house. Enya is a bit prickly, and sees red when her meticulous routines are disturbed. There are things in their past they would rather forget.

Underscored by music from Gershwin, Ravel and Bartok, Môre is Môre takes a playful approach to exploring the unhealthy behavioural patterns that manifest as aftereffects of trauma.

More often than not, progress entails setbacks, but when we remember that we are not as alone as we think we are, maybe there’s a little bit of hope that comes with every new tomorrow.

Running time: Approx 40 minutes Content Warnings: Loud noises, themes of mental illness

ENTOUCH Created by: Marianna Fornari Performed by: Oleksandra Barstok, Federica Ruggieri, Carmine Tiberini, Eleanor Cobb, Maria Shtofa, Juri Thilak, Jonah Buksbaum, Jake Walton, Haylin Cai, Marilou Tamvaki With the support of: RADA, Jeudi Theatre Company, Ephemeral Ensemble, Stockwell Park Community Centre.

We acknowledge that we exist when we are touched… by emotions, feelings, sensations, and each other. Society often refrains from physical contact, which is yet a vital, deep human need.

Neuroscience and Learning Theories lead the theatre research and practice. Guided by scientific resources, we are exploring what happens withing us when we give and receive touch: how it shapes us, connects us, and awakens us; how important it is, and what it means.

In this performance, physical contact is a central theme, theatrical language and neurologic Stimulus.

(Touch in this performance is subject to consent agreement with the audience, always opt-in, clearly signposted, and may be declined at any time without disruption. Touch never refers to sexual or religious aspects) Running Time: Approx 45 mins Content Warnings: Depictions of fighting, self-harm, and wounding.

Themes of pain, survival, and struggle. Moments of intimacy and affection (containing no sexual content). Sound design featuring war noises, explosions, crying, and gunfire (at moderate volume), along with grunting and shouting and vocalisations of distress. Flashing lights. Nebulised water will be used on stage and towards audience members. Physical touch and interaction between audience members and performers happen in previous consent.

SATURDAY: LAB RE-WORKS 3

PLASTIC FLOWERS Created and performed by Jack Yearsle In a world demanding “good vibes only,” what is the cost of perfection?

Plastic Flowers is a gripping solo show that puts our curated lives under a microscope. We meet LEO, a man who is desperately trying to keep it together in a chic up-scale restaurant. His smile may be practiced, but his charm feels hollow, and much of his life seems like a performance. This play is an unflinching look at the pressure to perform happiness and the agonizing gap between a oneʻs public self and the life we often try to keep hidden.

Running time: Approx 20 Minutes Content warnings: Loud Noises

LIBERATING: SHE DANCES (IN CHAINS)

罗逍瑶

Created by Xiaoyao Luo (she/her) Performed by SHE: Xiaoyao Luo; THEM: Kuba Pawełczak, Wenqi Yu Movement Direction by Rebeca Pereira Original Music by Wenshan Yu Sound Design by Lois Qi Lighting Design by Melody Mengyun Liu Visual Design by Chaoying Lin Assistant Produced by Inini Xinyi Yin Marketing and Photography by Ruidi Zhu Film and Videography by Dana Peiyi Wang Special thanks to Ian Morgan, Christopher Sivertsen, Lesley Ewen, Suzanne West, Xiangrong Tang and Zhuosi Zhao LIBERATING: She Dances (in Chains) is a physical theatre performance exploring the female body as a site of memory, discipline and resistance.

Through chains, masks, movement and multilingual text, the piece follows a body trained to move within constraint, and asks what it takes to reclaim freedom when constraint has become a language of survival.

Running time: Approx 50 mins Content warnings: Contains scenes involving chains, physical restraint, masks, intense movement, suggestive sexual imagery, themes of control, gendered violence and bodily trauma.

SCENES FROM A FALLING WORLD Created and performed by Emma Yvette Conlon, Will Choy Edelson, Jonah Buksbaum and Tara Kitson The world is falling, the stars are leaving, the leaves are working overtime. Lovers cling to each other, families break apart, and humanity searches for something to hold onto.

How do we react when we fall? What do we do on the way down?

Running time: Approx 45 mins Content warnings: TBC

AUTUMN/WINTER

2 0 2 6 PRIORITY BOOKING NOW OPEN

BECOME A STUDENT MEMBER JOIN LONDON’S INTERNATIONAL THEATRE A free programme designed to support the next generation of artists and arts professionals.

25 percent ticket discount 48 hours priority booking Priority access to free workshops Receive our supporters newsletters and be the first to hear news about our new productions and events

FREE FOR STUDENTS AND RECENT GRADUATES

BECOME A FRIEND! BE PART OF LONDON’S INTERNATIONAL THEATRE

FROM £10 PER MONTH

THE CORONET THEATRE TEAM Artistic Director & CEO Anda Winters Audience Experience Manager Giudi Di Gesaro Company & Production Coordinator Emma Smith Consultant Producer Hetty Shand Finance Manager Andrew Michel General Manager Andy McDonald Lead Technician Louis Williams Marketing Manager (Freelance) Elliot Hall Poetry Coordinator Marion Manning Press and Marketing Consultant Sharon Kean Producer Daphne Seale Producing & Marketing Assistant Esme Bishop Theatre Administrator / PA to the Artistic Director Vihaan Chandy

Box Office Assistant Ivana Dieli Duty Managers Francesca Battinieri, Annabelle Gardner, Joanna Papanastassiou, Aylin Rodoplu, Hazel Townsend Front of House Staff Matilda Badziak, Eugénie Bakker, Theo Chen, Stephanie Christodoulidou, Merilee EttiaRussell, Cheryl Fairon, Katrina Foster, Trey Francis, Thea Gavanski, Alessandra Gonnella, Hugo Gregg, Li Ikoku-Smith, Dane Kostic, Emma Laird-Craig, Maria LisbergJonasson, Aija Miranda, Hamza Mullick, Andreane Rellou, Robert Veng, Kajsa Wiberg-Norquist TRUSTEES Linda Bernhardt, Mike Fisher, Mimi Gilligan, Jane Quinn, Anda Winters, Bill Winters (Chair)

103 NOTTING HILL GATE LONDON W11 3LB HELLO@THECORONETTHEATRE.COM +44 (0) 20 3642 6606 thecoronettheatre.com Instagram: @thecoronettheatre Twitter @coronetthetre