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As a young child in 1932, Leah embarked on an epic journey from Yemen to Palestine. Ninety years later her grandson, Gecko’s Artistic Director Amit Lahav, imagines the voyage her family made to escape persecution and build a better life.
Gecko’s new production sees Amit, together with Gecko’s extraordinary ensemble of international devising performers, present a provocative story of desperation and compassion. At a time when the re-birth of community and acceptance seem vital to our survival, they bring their own experiences of migration, racism, empathy and home to this poetically intoxicating performance.
Director’s Note
“Twenty-two years ago, I wanted to make arresting, powerful, energized, visceral theatre that would speak to any human being on the planet. Since then, we have been developing a unique language, a style of making and a style of performing which allows us to create work that deeply impacts our audiences.
Kin explores the lived migration stories of our international ensemble and reflects years of questioning and exploration. We are all the product of migration stories whether we're aware of them or whether they're more distant. From the beginning of the process, this idea excited me. Kin is a voyage toward empathy – now, more than ever, we need stories that connect us.”
Amit Lahav
Q&A with Amit Lahav
For someone who has never seen Gecko’s work, how would you describe what the audience will experience?
When you come and see a Gecko show, you sort of fall into a dream – or a nightmare, depending on your point of view! Each moment is crafted very carefully so you never know what’s going to happen next; there are always tricks and things will emerge from unexpected places. The shows are both a reflection, and a comment, on life, which can sometimes be a dark place. All the different elements are there to take the audience to another dimension, and as an invitation to re-imagine the world.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Inspiration for creating work is all around us. It’s in our personal lives, in the news, politics, and in the relationships that we have with our friends, families and colleagues. In 2017, I went to Israel and had a conversation with my grandmother about the walk that she embarked upon in the 30s from the North to the South of Yemen to get on a ship to Palestine. That conversation provoked in me questions about all of the migration stories that make up who I am. Human beings have always migrated – we all have migration stories whether we’re aware of them or whether they’re more distant, and I think that excites me because it encourages a profoundly positive, celebratory voyage towards empathy. This is what I wanted to explore through the creation of Kin.
How did the creation process of Kin differ from previous shows?
The creation process for Kin has probably been my favourite process of all eight shows that I’ve made. I feel that we have gotten more of the conditions right in terms of support and space, and that’s been very important. COVID happened right in the middle of this process which was a huge problem, but it did fire up that problem solver in me and in all of us as a company. We came up with the scenario where we all lived together which solved the ‘bubble’ issue, but what it also did was bring us very close together as a group, even more so than in past productions. Cooking together, sharing cultural cuisine, sharing language, sharing stories well into the night... I think that time has changed the process of making a Gecko show forever. I don’t think we’ll go back to not living together when we’re making.
How do you then realise these ideas for the stage?
The creation process is a slow, organic three-year process to get a show to its first audience. All I have at the beginning is a feeling, an idea. I have no idea what the conditions are, what the world is or who the characters are. These things require a very detailed process where, through searching and uncovering, things slowly start to rise to the surface that I fall in love with. While these elements may not make it into the piece, they at least become an anchor for me to then find a way to get to the next thing to fall in love with. I’m also steering a group of human beings through that process, and it’s important for them to feel personally and emotionally connected to these ideas, which are often about their own migration stories. So, it’s a trial-and-error testing ground, it’s all workshopped in every way imaginable until something clicks and eventually things fall into place.
What can the audience expect from Kin?
The world that we’ve created is a beguiling and delicious sensory assault, in the best possible way. I think it’s going to be moving and personally complex for some people to watch, though I also hope that it will fill people with a real desire for empathic connection.
Making Kin
Kin is Gecko’s eighth production and was originally inspired by a conversation Amit had with his grandmother about her journey from Yemen to Palestine to escape persecution. Since then, Amit has been fascinated to learn more about his own family’s migration story, as well as the migration stories of those around him, including his devising ensemble. Using these themes of migration, family and home as a starting point, Amit and the Gecko company began developing Kin in 2019 with an R&D in Faura, Spain.
Gecko productions typically all follow a similar structure of creation:
Year one is the 'Thinking/Feeling Year', where Amit will develop the seed idea for a new show.
Year two is the ‘Writing Year’, an experimental period where Amit delves deeper into his research and starts to build a new theatrical world.
Year three is the ‘Making Year’ where Amit writes a number of draft storyboards which are staged with as much technical detail as possible and a show starts to take form. Amit will then make at least two more versions of the show during the first year of touring to theatres across the UK.
Our work utilises all facets of theatre-making from set and costume design, to music, lighting and sound design. These technical elements are developed during the devising process alongside choreography and performance, which results in complex and rich ‘total theatre’.
The Sound World of Kin
Since Gecko’s first show in 2001, Amit has worked with composer Dave Price who has developed an intimate relationship and working method with the company which allows him to create original music that reflects the narrative and emotional tone of the piece. Dave’s work is then combined with a soundscape by designer Mark Melville.
Unlike a more traditional play, language is not the main method of storytelling. Our performers come from all over the world and speak their own languages in the show, including Cantonese, Nahuatl, Norwegian, Malayalam, Mandarin, Hebrew and Spanish. As a result of this, no audience member understands all the languages spoken, and the words become less important than the emotion conveyed.
The music in Kin is partly original composition by Dave Price, and partly sourced music from all over the world. The music reflects different atmospheres, characters and themes in the show, and doesn’t represent a particular culture or style. For example, the music which opens the show is mostly sourced from the Balkans and reflects the atmosphere of the scene; it is full of energy, inspired by traditional folk music and all the Officers know the dance moves, perhaps suggesting a shared cultural background.
A key location that features multiple times in the show is the home - sometimes it is an image of stability and sometimes it is the setting for conflict.
The first home scene shows Leah reuniting with her family. In this moment, the music features a strong, deep female vocal paired with violin and flute. The presence of these instruments, and later also an accordion and clarinet, acts as a cultural link to the puppets, and this presence is returned to both within the music and through the props. These instruments were typical for Jewish bands of the early 20th Century, and they are also small enough to be portable, reflecting the idea of migration.
The second family has a much more limited instrumentation reflecting their lack of resources – voices, clapping and a suitcase as a percussion instrument with the Armenian Duduk (an ancient woodwind instrument similar to the modern clarinet) and the Ethiopian Krar (an ancient 6 string harp similar to the harp of David depicted in antiquity and very popular in modern Ethiopian music) being the only conventional instruments.
At the climax of the conflict between the two families, dramatic operatic singing is morphed with distant explosions and the voices of the performers are distorted as they fight, reflecting conflict between the families and in the wider world.
Chris Swain’s Lighting
Gecko’s lighting designer, Chris Swain, has been with the company for over a decade, starting out as a relighter on our show The Overcoat. Chris’s background is primarily in dance and circus lighting, having previously worked with Rambert, so while he admires skilful, naturalistic lighting, he describes his work as far more ‘architectural’, working with bodies rather than faces.
The Gecko creation process is extremely collaborative, not just for the ensemble of performers, but also for the creatives & tech team who are in the studio from the beginning. During the creation process, ideas for lighting are trialled and tested alongside the work devised by the performers; some ideas stick and many others are discarded, so it’s a constant journey of discovery. Even while on tour (and here at the National Theatre), the lighting develops and changes alongside all other elements of the show, so Chris joins us on tour even now, which is quite unusual for a UK theatre company.
Kin is incredibly visual and deceptively complex, so the lighting does a lot of work to centre the audience’s attention, usually towards a small section of the stage. This allows us to zoom in on characters and their interactions with each other, and quite often, it’s also used to hide something in the background that the audience is not supposed to see! So scenes are often lit by just one or two lights, and we also use several practical lights including a tall lamp, a bar-heater and even an old television.
Set & Costume Design
Gecko’s set & costume designer, Rhys Jarman, is an award winning designer who has been with the company since our fifth show, Missing, and his design for our seventh show The Wedding was selected to be part of an exhibition entitled ‘Staging Places: UK Design for Performance’ at the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) in 2019-20.
The main set element in Kin is the stage, which has a revolve in its centre. The stage in Kin represents an island that the characters arrive and depart from in different ways, such as via border gates which are manned by guards, or by climbing up onto it from below. The island doesn’t represent one place or time, it is vast and barren which encourages the audience to populate it with whatever place or time the show takes them to. This is the same with the characters in the show who also don’t represent a singular culture or ethnicity, and this is emphasised by their costumes which take references from many different cultures and styles.
As Kin has toured for the past year and a half, we have visited many venues of different shapes and sizes, and so we’ve had to create a set which is adaptable. The Kin stage was built to be modular in design so that we could adapt it to be small, medium or large. At the National Theatre, you are getting to see the largest version of the stage which has only been used once before.
Take a look at some of Rhys’s early designs for the set below.
CREDITS
For Gecko:
Artistic Director: Amit Lahav
Head of Operations & Development: Steve Allman
Finance Manager: Andy Brumwell
Producer: Rae Lee
Creative Engagement Producer: Paul Smethurst
Fundraising and Development Manager: Natalie Pace
Producing Assistant (Touring and Digital): Malachy Luckie
Producing Assistant (Creative Engagement): Niamh Milligan
Creative Team:
Created by: Amit Lahav
Collaborating with:
Set and Costume Design: Rhys Jarman
Lighting: Chris Swain
Sound: Mark Melville
With original music by Dave Price
Devising Performers:
Lucia Chocarro, Chris Evans, Madeleine Fairminer, Vanessa Guevara Flores, Saju Hari, Kenny Wing Tao Ho, Amit Lahav, Wai Shan Vivian Luk, Mario Garcia Patrón Alvarez, Miguel Hernando Torres Umba.
Producer: Rae Lee, Rosalind Wynn
Producing Assistant: Malachy Luckie
Production Manager: Mat Ort
Assistant Director: Andres Velasquez
Company Stage Manager: Alyssa Watts
Technical Stage Manager: Jake Channon
Lighting Associate: Pablo Fernandez Baz
Sound Engineer: Sharon Tsang
Design Associate: Blythe Brett
Costume Supervisors: Gayle Playford, Becky-Dee Trevenen
Stage & Production Work Placement: Gabriel Haslam
Musicians and Vocalists: Eska Mtungwazi, Polina Shepherd, Dave Shulman, François Testory, Temesgen Zeleke
With heartfelt gratitude to Frank Bright MBE who invited us into his home, gave us his time and humanity, and shared his story of loss, empathy and survival. You can read about Frank’s life here.
Interview of Freida Stieglitz is from the archive of the USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education. For more information: http://sfi.usc.edu/. Interview of Lydia Tischler from Channel 4 News.
Photography & Film
Richard Haughton, Mark Sepple, Todd MacDonald and Malachy Luckie for Gecko
Gecko is supported by Arts Council England and Ipswich Borough Council. Kin is a Gecko production commissioned by The National Theatre. Supported by HOME Manchester, Lighthouse Poole and London International Mime Festival.
THE COMPANY
DEVISING PERFORMERS
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DEVISING PERFORMER
Saju was born in the South Indian state Kerala and is now based in London. Saju is trained in martial art Kalaripayattu before he started his contemporary dance career working professionally with several UK based dance companies including Imlata Dance Company, the Bedlam Dance and Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company. He also toured with the Akram Khan Company, Michael Keegan Dolan’s Fabulous Beasts Dance Theatre as well as the Berlin based Sasha Waltz and Guests.
Saju is also a choreographer and director. Between October 2017 and July 2018, Saju premiered two of his own works: “Stillness is monochrome?” at the Viennese castle Luftschloss Cobenzl and “Fly from” at the Curve Theatre (Leicester, UK). Saju’s well-received work “Breaking Joints”, commissioned by UK Arts Council, premiered at London Richmix (2016). Previously, Saju directed a site specific creation with Spitfire company at Palac Akropolis Theatre, Prague (2014), created Vice Versa a duet in collaboration with Finnish choreographer and dancer Saku Koistinen. Saju’s other choreographies include works commissioned by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden’s ROH2 Summer Collection seasons, The Place and South Bank Center.
SHOWS WITH GECKO
The Wedding | Kin
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DEVISING PERFORMER
Kenny began dancing at a young age; training and competing in breakdance, all over the United Kingdom. He then went to study at London Contemporary Dance School.
Kenny has worked with various dance artists as both deviser and performer. He began his career, on the stage of the 2012 London Olympics, with Akram Khan, and has since gone on to dance for Protein Dance Company and Hofesh Shechter Company. As a freelancer Kenny has worked with, Itamar Serrusi Sahar, Just Us Dance Theatre, Jose Agudo, Eleesha Drennan, Nina Kov, Renaud Wiser and New Movement Collective. Recently Kenny has been featured as ‘one to watch’ in the Hunger Magazine, appeared on television around the world for BBC’s identity season in Protein’s Border Tales, and studied Shaolin Gung Fu in China under the direction and guidance of Master Hè.
Kenny joined Gecko in 2016 for their production The Wedding.
SHOWS WITH GECKO
The Wedding | Kin
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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CREATOR OF KIN
Amit is the Artistic Director and founder of Gecko. He was born in Israel and grew up in London where he trained with theatre and dance creators such as Lindsay Kemp and David Glass and worked as a facilitator in South East Asia, making theatre with street children over a four-year period.
Shortly after this time he began to develop his own company and methodologies, particularly Gecko’s emphasis on emotion, physicality, metaphor, breath, and musicality. The shows are created in the UK with an international ensemble and tour world-wide. He has developed a unique language of training, performance, devising and teaching and these methods are used by the company as Gecko continue to generate relationships around the world.
Amit has created seven critically acclaimed Gecko shows; Taylor’s Dummies, The Race, The Arab and The Jew, The Overcoat, Missing, Institute and The Wedding, all of which have toured nationally and internationally.
Commissioned by the National Theatre, Gecko’s eighth theatre production – Kin, premieres at HOME Manchester in September 2022.
In 2015, Amit created and performed in The Time of Your Life, which was broadcast live on BBC4 as part of Live From Television Centre.
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DEVISING PERFORMER
Wai Shan Vivian Luk trained in Musical Theatre in 2009-2010. She graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2015 majoring in contemporary dance. She completed her master degree at Edge, The Place in 2017. She collaborated with choreographers including Ismael Ivo, Laura Arís Alvarez , Natalia Hoecna, Christine Gouzelis, John Utans and Rob Tannion. She started working with TRIBE// in 2016 Still I Rise. From 2018, she worked with various independent artists and in projects through various platforms and dance companies in Hong Kong including Hong Kong Arts Festival Society Limited, Passover Dance Company, E-Side Dance Company, Hong Kong Dance Alliance, Hong Kong Dance Exchange and La P en V Dance Company.
She worked as a dance tutor in Hong Kong leading contemporary dance classes from 2015-2021. In 2017 February, she co-choreographed a first full length piece Post- WHAT and was performed in Hong Kong. In 2018, she performed a solo work in the Austrian-Chinese Profound Arts Festival in Austria. In 2019 and 2021, she choreographed for The Hong Kong Children Musical Theatre annual performance. In 2020, she choreographed her second solo work ANNE. In 2021, she choreographed a 30 minutes piece -ology and co-choreographed a charity show Pasión Por Danza directed by Alan Bailey.
SHOWS WITH GECKO
The Wedding | Kin
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DEVISING PERFORMER
Lucia is from Pamplona, north of Spain. Moving to the UK to pursue her training in dance, she graduated from London Contemporary Dance School in July 2013 with a First Class Honours. Lucia has performed across the UK and Europe, has worked on a variety of projects and has performed with Punchdrunk Immersive Theatre Company, Jamaal Burkmar Dance, BitterSuite, Victoria Fox, Sarah Dowling, Just Us Dance Theatre (Joseph Toonga) and worked as a Special Action Artist for Wonder Woman and Justice League with Warner Bros Productions. Lucia is a founding member of Feet off the Ground Dance collective and a certified Yoga Alliance Teacher and practitioner.
SHOWS WITH GECKO
The Wedding | Kin
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DEVISING PERFORMER
Chris began his career with Hofesh Shechter Company, performing as one of its original members, and touring worldwide. During this time, he also collaborated with Jonathan Lunn to devise Reading Rooms, a dance/text interplay working with Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson, and Miranda Richardson. He later joined Lost Dog Theatre Company, co-devising It Needs Horses, which toured internationally and won the Bloomburg Place Prize Award for dance. Chris has been a member of Gecko since 2011 and has worked on the creation of The Wedding, Missing and Institute, touring these productions worldwide.
Chris still continues a creative relationship with Hofesh Shechter, joining him on two major projects; as Assistant Choreographer for The Metropolitan Opera’s new creation Two Boys, and Associate Choreographer for the Broadway Musical Fiddler on the Roof.
SHOWS WITH GECKO
Missing | Institute | The Dreamer | The Wedding | Institute (Film) | Kin
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DEVISING PERFORMER
Vanessa is a Dancer-Choreographer specialising in contemporary and traditional Mexican and African diaspora dance. She was first introduced to movement at a very young age by both of her parents who were yoga teachers at the time.
Her passion and curiosity for storytelling and community-related projects led her to perform Mexican traditional dances around the world, and share her practice to professional dancers, children, senior citizens, young offenders and refugees.
She started her professional training as a dancer at the National School of Contemporary Dance in Mexico and continued her training in USA, Africa and Cuba. She has worked with Jose Agudo, Akram Khan (Opening Ceremony of London 2012 Olympic Games) Vocab Dance, State of Emergency, ACE Dance and Music, Ballet Nimba, National Company of Mexico, Heartbeat of Home (Riverdance), David Bolger (CoisCeim) and Catherine Young Dance.
Vanessa is currently embarking on the research and development of her own work, starting with her debut piece in London “Xipetza”, where she explores and examines Mexican culture.
SHOWS WITH GECKO
The Wedding | Institute (Film) | Kin
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DEVISING PERFORMER
Madeleine studied dance in her hometown Oslo before starting her contemporary dance career with Hofesh shechter company in the uk, touring the world with the pieces Sun, Political Mother and Orphee et Eurydice at the royal opera house. In 2015 she started working with gecko theatre and has been involved in 3 creations with them.
Alongside this she is active as a freelance dancer in Norway and Europe, collaborating and working with several different artists and companies such as Cie Alias, Yaniv Cohen and Alexander Montgomery-Andersen.
SHOWS WITH GECKO
The Time of Your Life | The Wedding | Kin
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DEVISING PERFORMER
Miguel is a Colombian actor, physical theatre performer and director. He trained in Acting at the Superior Academy of Arts of Bogota (Colombia) with further specialist training in Corporeal Mime at the International School of Corporeal Mime in London. He is part Cirque du Soleil’s roster of physical actors and joined Gecko’s Missing in October 2018.
He is the Artistic Director of Blackboard Theatre, a company he founded as a channel to create work that responds to human and sociopolitical issues. He performed in and developed the original idea for the company’s latest show, STARDUST, which was written by Daniel Dingsdale and created in collaboration between artists from Colombia, UK and France. The show is an irreverent and impassioned multimedia solo production exploring the human cost of the global cocaine industry on communities in Latin America.
Miguel works regularly with immersive theatre specialists Secret Cinema as an actor, Performance Director and Associate Creative Director and formed part of the core team that lead some of the companies most popular productions including Back to the Future and Moulin Rouge.
Miguel is also Associate Creative Director at carnival arts company Mandinga Arts, with whom he has worked as performer, choreographer and workshop leader for over 9 years. He is currently leading and developing the company’s new artistic ventures.
SHOWS WITH GECKO
Missing | The Wedding | Institute (Film) | Kin
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DEVISING PERFORMER
Mario started his career as a performer in 2012 at the EMAD Academy of Madrid. At the age of 18 he starts a 4 years bachelor in Physical Theatre at the RESAD (Royal School of Performing Arts in Madrid). The third year of studies, he goes to the Folkwang Universität der Kunste (Essen, Germany) where he takes classes with companies as Pina Bausch or Familie Flöz. In 2018, he comes back to Madrid and finish his bachelor.
Since that time, he performs in different projects: Gods and Humans (Javier Mejía), Chaplin (Cachivache Company), The Hive (Ataria´s Company), The Idiots (Diego Landaluce) or LOVE (Julio Béjar). In the meantime, he founded with other performers of the RESAD the physical theatre company Conclave Theatre. With this company, he participates in the creation and performs in the shows: Today is Now (2018), In the middle of the supermarket I wanted to dance (2019) and Like me (2020/2021).
He also keeps developing his acting capabilities with masters as Vicente Fuentes y Francisco Carril, and his dance performances with David Vilarinyo, Marie Gyselvrecht or Malou Airaudo.
SHOWS WITH GECKO
The Wedding | Kin
CREATIVES
In collaboration with Amit Lahav
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SET AND COSTUME DESIGN
Rhys was one of the winners of the 2007 Linbury Biennial Prize for his designs of Varjak Paw (The Opera Group). New work includes James and the Giant Peach (Northern Stage) and The Machine Stops for York Theatre Royal. In 2015 he designed The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Northern Stage); Hurling Rubble at the Sun and Hurling Rubble at the Moon (Park Theatre). Designs for Gecko include Missing, Institute and The Time of Your Life (BBC co-production). Recent theatre work includes The Nutcracker (Nuffield Theatre), Holes and Threeway. Rhys has also designed for opera, television and a range if outdoor site specific work.
His design for The Wedding was selected to be part of an exhibition entitled ‘Staging Places: UK Design for Performance’ at the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) in 2019-20.
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LIGHTING
Chris is a Lighting Designer based in Bristol.
He has worked extensively with Gecko – collaborating with the company for over ten years. Lighting design for the company includes Kin, A Little Space, The Dreamer, The Time of Your Life (for a televised performance on the BBC), Institute and Missing. Chris has also worked as a production manager at various points on The Overcoat, Missing, and Institute.
Other lighting designs include: 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf', 'Our Country's Good', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'Beautiful Thing', and ‘Blue Heart’ for Tobacco Factory Theatres in Bristol, ‘We Can Time Travel’ for gig-theatre maker Dom Coyote, 'Oz', ‘Flies’, and ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ for Pins and Needles, 'Cutting Out' for artist and activist Viv Gordon, and designs for various contemporary dance companies including: New Movement Collective, Fertile Ground, Renaud Wiser Dance, Sophie Nuzel Dance, and TrashDollys.
Chris has toured widely as a production manager and re-lighter both nationally and internationally - working in China, the USA, Mexico, Colombia, Russia and throughout Europe.
Chris also is a visiting lecturer at Bristol Old Vic Theatre school, where he works with the students on their own lighting designs, supervises technical workshops and fit-ups, and provides lighting design for the school's own productions.
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SOUND
Mark is a composer and sound designer for theatre and film and trained at Leeds College of Music. His work has been seen across the UK and internationally and exhibited at the V&A Museum in London, the Prague Quadrennial Theatre Design Festival and the British Design for Theatre Exhibition.
Recent theatre includes: Flight (Vox Motus/Edinburgh International Festival); Frankenstein, Wit, Birth (Royal Exchange); Human Animals; Violence and Son; God Bless the Child (Royal Court); Yer Granny, Knives in Hens, Miracle Man, Empty, My Shrinking Life (National Theatre of Scotland); Tomorrow (Vanishing Point/Cena Contemporânea Festival, Brazil/Brighton Festival/Tramway); 1984 (Emilia Romagna Teatro); Guards at the Taj, The Children (Theatre by the Lake); Where Do We Belong (Northern Stage); Little Gift (M6 Theatre/AndyManley); Road (Leeds Playhouse); The Greatest Play in The History of the World (Tara Finney Productions/Royal Exchange); The Manchester Project (Monkeywood Theatre/HOME); Where Do We Stand? (Northern Stage); Charlie Sonata (Royal Lyceum Theatre); The Destroyed Room (Vanishing Point/Battersea Arts Centre); Dragon (Vox Motus/National Theatre of Scotland); Saturday Night (Vanishing Point/Teatro Nacional Sao Jao, Porto/Teatro San Luis); Mister Holgado (Unicorn); Wonderland (Vanishing Point/Napoli Teatro Festival/Edinburgh International Festival); The Crucible, A Tender Thing, Hamlet (Dukes Playhouse).
Mark is also a frequent collaborator with director, Louie Ingham and a member of the Association of Sound Designers.
Visit his website: markmelvillemusic.com
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COMPOSER
Dave works as a composer, multi-instrumentalist, performer, sound designer and music producer. He trained as a percussionist at the Chopin Academy, Warsaw and in 2002 began a long-standing collaboration with Gecko, initially as a performer in the company’s first show Taylor’s Dummies and in The Overcoat. He composed and recorded original soundtracks for The Overcoat, Missing, Institute, The Time of Your Life, The Dreamer and The Wedding.
Other theatre includes several original live scores for the RSC including Troilus & Cressida (collaborating with Evelyn Glennie); the stage adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones and scores for National Theatre, Young Vic, HOME Manchester and Bristol Old Vic. Recent dance projects include scores and sound designs for The Roof and DeadClub (Requardt & Rosenberg) and The Mother (collaborating with Frank Moon) by Arthur Pita.
Dave co-founded the contemporary music collective Noszferatu and has recorded and toured extensively with many bands including numerous projects with singer-songwriter Gwyneth Herbert, co-producing her 2013 album The Sea Cabinet and five albums with Aqualung.
Visit his website:
www.davepricemusic.net
PRODUCTION & TECHNICAL
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PRODUCER
Over the last ten years, Rae has worked as an independent producer with a predominant focus on interdisciplinary arts, working in circus, dance and theatre. In her role as Executive Producer for the internationally acclaimed and award-winning contemporary circus company Gandini Juggling Rae toured and produced work across the world and partnered with institutions such as the English National Opera (UK), Metropolitan Opera (USA) and La Tohu (CA).
Rae’s most recent role as Creative Producer for IF: Milton Keynes International Festival 2023, saw her delivering an exciting programme of new commissions, UK premieres, community projects and talks. Rae has produced and toured productions on multiple scales for both the indoor and outdoor sectors with companies such as ATMA Dance, Seeta Patel, Metal Rabbit Productions, Half a String and Monstro Theatre as well as supporting independent practitioners with their artistic development. From 2005 – 2013 Rae was the Events and Creative Producer at Stratford Circus where she managed a cultural programme of work in Stratford’s cultural quarter.
Rae is incredibly excited to have joined Gecko at a significant time for the company with the autumn tour of Kin culminating with a run at the National Theatre and plans afoot for the new creation space in Ipswich. Rae has long admired Gecko’s ambitious, provocative and virtuoso productions and is thrilled to be part of the team, bringing outstanding work to audiences across the UK and beyond.
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PRODUCING ASSISTANT (PRODUCTIONS AND DIGITAL)
Malachy Joined Gecko in 2022 and has a background in theatre and outdoor arts production. He was previously the Production and Programme Assistant at Norfolk and Norwich Festival where he worked closely with companies including Fuel Theatre, Common Wealth, The Place and Avant Garde Dance to support the presentation of their shows in Norwich and beyond. In this role he honed his skills in producing and production management across two festivals, as well as an Autumn tour of Blast Theory’s Rider Spoke.
Malachy completed his undergraduate degree in Theatre and Performance at the University of Surrey where he also took a year-long placement with Theatre Deli at their Camberwell venue, The Old Library.
Alongside his work in producing, Malachy is a freelance photographer and filmmaker having worked with DanceEast, Soho Theatre, Latitude Festival, Norwich Theatre Royal, Walk The Plank and many others. He is a resident filmmaker & photographer for the dance company Casson and Friends and he regularly films the company’s work in communities such as The Dance We Made and Tiny Dance.
Malachy supports the producing and delivery of Gecko’s touring productions and digital work, as well as capturing content and managing their social media channels.
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PRODUCTION MANAGER
Mat is an independent, creative production manager with a passion for delivering projects and productions that are artistically ambitious, extraordinary and often community focused and in unconventional settings.
For over 20 years he has delivered a diverse range of projects including numerous theatre and dance productions, international arts festivals, site specific shows and one-off cultural commissions. These have spanned all scales of work, both indoors and outdoors, across the UK and internationally.
Recent projects include Production Management for Gecko Theatre, New Art Club, Vincent Dance Theatre and Wiltshire Creative, Production Manager for Green Space Dark Skies (Unboxed Festival), Head of Production and Safety for Milton Keynes International Festival, Inside Out Dorset Festival and Winchester Hat Fair.
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ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Andres is a Colombian performer who has been living and working in the UK for over 15 years. In Colombia he worked and trained with Physical Theatre company Casa del Silencio - Maison du Silence, which inspired him to specialise in movement, leading him to train at the International School of Corporeal Mime (London) where he graduated. Since then he has been very active on stage and back stage.
“I like to make highly physical work. I enjoy devising specially with other people, I love people. Some of my experience is as a deviser/perfomer and some as a facilitator (this is just a word to describe a really broad range of things: movement direction, production technician, or even directing). I’ve been really lucky to work with companies and incredible humans like Gecko, Theatre Re, 1927, Ephemeral Ensemble, NMT Automatics, amongst others. “
Andres joined Gecko in 2015 as Technical Stage Manager for Missing, Institute, and Time of Your Life (where he had a small cameo at the end playing Tony!).
Since 2020 he has been supporting Amit and the rest of the team in the making of Gecko’s new show as Assistant Director.
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COMPANY STAGE MANAGER
Alyssa is a freelance Stage Manager currently based in Manchester. Recent credits include Future Bodies (RashDash/ Unlimited Theatre); Oh Man (Hetain Patel/ Contact Young Company), Holiday (Derby Theatre), Sweeney Todd (Derby theatre/ Colchester Mercury) and On Corporation Street (ANU/ HOME Manchester).
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TECHNICAL STAGE MANAGER
Jake joined Gecko in 2021 and is a freelance production carpenter, prop maker and technical stage manager for live theatre, dance, circus and site specific works.
He thrives making the unique special effects and props that Gecko are famous for and the stranger the brief, the more fun it is.
Previously he has toured domestically and globally with companies such as Impermanence Dance Theatre, Bath Theatre Royal, Eclipse Theatre, Kneehigh, DV8 and Rambert.
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DESIGN ASSOCIATE
Blythe is a performance designer and theatre collaborator. She trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, graduating in 2020.
She is a 2021 Linbury Prize for Stage Design winner and bursary recipient.
Recent design credits include Project Dictator (New Diorama Theatre), Who Killed My Father (Tron Theatre), Ariadne (English Touring Opera) and Murmurations (Tangled Feet).
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COSTUME SUPERVISOR
Becky-Dee is a designer based in London, she trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, Australia and graduated with a Bachelor of Dramatic Art (Design). She moved to London in 2015 as a Drama Awardee from the BBMYS to explore the role of a designer in immersive, experimental and devised work.
As a freelancer, Becky-Dee has worked with companies including Punchdrunk, Coney, Bazmark and Tangled Feet.
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COSTUME SUPERVISOR
Gayle is a professional costume maker and supervisor for theatre and television. She is inspired by everything in the world around her, and is particularly interested in the role of costume as a narrative tool. Gayle believes in an organic development of work, rich in terms of cross collaboration, and is enthused by both contemporary work and themes of a forgone era. Recent TV work includes: Taboo (BBC/FX channel), Dr Who (BBC Wales), Beowulf (ITV), Evermoor (Disney) and Wolf Hall (BBC); Gayle’s theatre work is extensive, and she has collaborated through opera, musical theatre and ballet with: The Bolshoi Ballet, RSC, Northern Stage, York Theatre Royal, Sheffield Theatres, and Opera Australia.
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LIGHTING ASSOCIATE
Pablo joined Gecko in 2023 during our Autumn tour of Kin. His recent lighting design credits include Oliver Award-nominated show” Warheads”, directed by Toby Clarke at the Park Theatre. Contemporary Circus production “Staged”, Winner Total Theatre awards for Circus 2019. “United queendom” site-specific, immersive production at the Kensington Palace, produced by Les Enfants Terribles. “Nearly Human” by Perhaps contraption, offie nominated (IDEA 2020). “Valhalla” Site-specific directed by Rich rusk, nominated Offfest short run 2019. Other companies Pablo has collaborated include Talawa Theatre, The sleeping trees, Little soldier production, Nofit Circus state. Recent credits as LD assistant : “El Medico, El Musical” , “El tiempo entre costuras” ( Spain Tour).
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SOUND ENGINEER
Sharon graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts at 2019, majoring in Sound Design. She worked as a freelance sound mixing engineer and sound designer in Hong Kong, working with various theatre and music companies including Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, Hong Kong Dance Company, Music Live Valley and 117A Studio.
Sharon moved to the UK in 2021 and is excited to start her new journey with Gecko.
BEHIND THE SCENES GALLERY
The Gecko company outside the National Theatre
The Gecko ensemble rehearsing for Kin at the National Theatre
The Gecko ensemble developing Kin in Ipswich, 2022
The Gecko ensemble rehearsing for Kin at the National Theatre
Amit and the Gecko ensemble developing Kin in Ipswich, 2022
The Gecko ensemble rehearsing for Kin at the National Theatre
The Gecko ensemble rehearsing for Kin at the National Theatre
Rufus Norris visits during a development week for Kin in Ipswich, 2021
Amit and the Gecko ensemble developing Kin in Ipswich, 2022
Photography by Mark Sepple & Malachy Luckie
Gecko’s Creative Engagement programme supports the company’s artistic output, inviting performers, teachers, professional artists, students of theatre or dance and the public to bravely and open heartedly delve into new worlds of connection, imagination and discovery through creativity and play. It provides an opportunity to explore the techniques and processes used to create and perform our work and a safe and supportive environment to express, heal, be vulnerable, nurture empathy, uncover truth and foster deep relationships.
Led by Gecko’s highly experienced devising performers, our workshops and intensives provide a practical and engaging exploration of the devising processes and performance techniques we use when creating a show. Our workshops support the teaching of students in schools (Year 10 upwards), colleges and universities, giving participants the chance to experience Gecko’s unique style of movement and physical theatre, as well as an opportunity to gain an insight into the creative processes Gecko’s devising performers use when creating a show.
Our professional development intensives are uniquely curated experiences and richly collaborative spaces to connect, play and make art within a safe community where honesty and vulnerability is encouraged and championed. We run 4 intensives per year where participants from all over the world travel to our home town Ipswich to spend a week learning, devising and connecting with us and 20 fellow artists, teachers, facilitators, and performers.
Find out more about our Creative Engagement activities below.
Support our work
Make a donation to support the full breadth of our work. It is an investment in everything that we do, helping propel our work forward and connecting us with more people. We’ll use your donation to:
Develop and tour pioneering productions, allowing us to take risks and test new ways of working.
Remove barriers to participation, to inspire, enrich and unlock the potential in everybody, no matter their background
Deliver transformational work with schools, community groups and beyond
Catalyse the careers of emerging practitioners and provide training to our devising ensemble
We know you have a choice of who to support, which is why any donation you give means so much to us at Gecko.
Thank you
Resources and Further Reading
Kin tackles themes of migration, persecution and racism which can be challenging for audiences, particularly those with lived experience of these themes.
Below are some organisations who do great work to support migrants, refugees and asylum seekers:
Safe Passage - reunites child refugees with their family.
Refugee & Migrant Forum of Essex and London - supports vulnerable migrants to access justice.
Refugee Action - provides advice and support to refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.
South London Refugee Association - works with refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants in crisis in South London.
Notre Dame Refugee Centre - supports asylum seekers, refugees and human rights applicants in London.
Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants - offers migrants and refugees emotional support, practical tools and sense of community.
The Faith and Belief Forum - an interfaith organisation which creates safe spaces in schools, universities, workplaces and the wider community where people can engage with questions of belief and identity.