Creation Theatre Company

Creation Theatre Company is a producing theatre based in Oxford, England. ^[1] Founded in 1996 by David Parrish, ^[2] the company became a charity in 2007 ^[3] and produces site-specific adaptations of classic stories and Shakespeare. ^[4]

Management

Founding artistic director David Parrish announced his departure in 2010, ^[2] to take on a producing role at the National Theatre of Norway. ^[5] He was succeeded by James Erskine, who had previously worked for The Gate Theatre and Shakespeare's Globe. ^[2] Erskine left the company in 2012 and Lucy Askew was the CEO and artistic producer until she left in April 2024. Helen Eastman is now artistic director and CEO of Creation Theatre. ^[6]

Cast and creative team

Creation does not have a fixed company of actors or artistic staff, instead using a freelance team for each project. Past directors include Laurie Sansom, ^[7] Joanna Read, ^[8] Richard Beecham, ^[9] Gareth Machin, ^[10] Tim Carroll, ^[11] Natalie Abrahami, ^[12] Jonathan Holloway, ^[13] Charlotte Conquest ^[14] and Gari Jones.

Performance venues

Creation has never had a theatre building and produces shows in unusual spaces across the city of Oxford and beyond. The first productions, from 1996 to 2002 were performed open air in the grounds of Magdalen College School. For Christmas performances between 2004 and 2011 the company erected a Spiegeltent in the car park of BMW Group Plant ^[2] with shows such as Beauty and the Beast ^[15] and The Winter's Tale. Following its renovation in 2005, Creation has performed seven shows at Oxford Castle. In 2011, Creation was the first theatre company to perform at Blackwell's Bookshop to perform Doctor Faustus, ^[16] and has gone on to perform Hamlet and The Odyssey, a co-production with The Factory Theatre Company, ^[16] and Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. ^[17] Since Christmas 2011 Creation has performed at The North Wall Arts Centre ^[18] with A Christmas Carol , Aladdin and the Magical Lamp, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Wind in the Willows . ^[19] Most recently, Creation has staged festive productions of Alice and Cinderella at The Mill Arts Centre, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four at the Oxford Mathematical Institute and a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with scenes set across the Oxford City Centre. In 2019 Creation put on Dracula at the London Library. ^[20] In 2020 Creation performed live performances online via Zoom including, The Tempest , The Time Machine | A Virtual Reality (an adaptation of The Time Machine ) and Alice | A Virtual Theme Park (an adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ).

Pascale Aebischer and Rachael Nicholas, University of Exeter, released "The Digital Theatre Transformation Report - A Case study and a Digital Toolkit" in October 2020. The case study is based on Creation's digital production, The Tempest Live, Interactive and In Your Living Room, one of the first productions made for the digital stage utilising Zoom at the beginning of April 2020. The report is aimed at performers and companies embarking on transforming their physical theatre practice into a digital mode of home working for both office staff and creative practitioners.

List of Creation productions

Production	Year	Venue	Directed by
Romeo and Juliet	1996	Magdalen College School Grounds	Sebastian Doggart
Macbeth	1997	Magdalen College School Grounds	Zoe Seaton
Hamlet	1998	Magdalen College School Grounds	Zoe Seaton
The Tempest/ Antony and Cleopatra	1999	Magdalen College School Grounds	Zoe Seaton
A Midsummer Night's Dream	2000	Magdalen College School Grounds	Zoe Seaton
Alice Through the Looking Glass	2000	Magdalen College School Grounds	Laurie Sansom
Hamlet	2001	BMW Group Plant	Zoe Seaton
Romeo and Juliet	2001	Magdalen College School Grounds	Richard Beecham
Macbeth	2002	BMW Group Plant	Zoe Seaton
A Midsummer Night's Dream	2002	Magdalen College School Grounds	Zoe Seaton
Twelfth Night	2003	Headington Hill Park, Oxford	Charlotte Conquest
The Tempest	2003	Headington Hill Park, Oxford	Zoe Seaton
The Winter's Tale	2004	Mirror Tent, BMW	Justin Butcher
Much Ado About Nothing	2004	Headington Hill Park, Oxford	Charlotte Conquest
Romeo and Juliet	2004	Headington Hill Park, Oxford	Abigail Anderson
A Christmas Carol	2004	Mirror Tent, BMW	Abigail Anderson
The Comedy of Errors	2005	Mirror Tent, BMW	Charlotte Conquest
A Midsummer Night's Dream	2005	Headington Hill Park, Oxford	Zoe Seaton
The Snow Queen	2005	BMW Group Plant	Charlotte Conquest
King Lear	2006	BMW Group Plant	Douglas Rintoul
Macbeth	2006	Headington Hill Park, Oxford	Gareth Machin
The Merchant of Venice	2006	Oxford Castle	Gari Jones
Robin Hood	2006	Headington Hill Park, Oxford	Adam Meggido
Arabian Nights	2006	Mirror Tent, BMW	Dominic Cooke
Hamlet	2007	Oxford Castle Gardens	Gari Jones
The Taming of the Shrew	2007	Oxford Castle Unlocked Courtyard	Heather Davies
The Oxford Passion	2007	Oxford Castle Gardens	Charlotte Conquest
Tales from the Brother's Grimm	2007	Mirror Tent, BMW	Gari Jones
Measure for Measure	2008	North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford	Charlotte Conquest
Much Ado About Nothing	2008	Oxford Castle Unlocked Courtyard	Charlotte Conquest
Saints and Sinners	2008	St Michael at the North Gate	Heather Davies
A Midsummer Night's Dream	2008	Headington Hill Park (in promenade)	Zoe Seaton
Animal Farm	2008	Oxford Castle Gardens	Joanna Read
Hans Christian Andersen's Magical Tales	2008	Mirror Tent, BMW	Caroline Leslie
Othello	2009	New Road Baptist Church, Oxford	Charlotte Conquest
Twelfth Night	2009	Said Business School Rooftop Amphitheatre	Heather Davies
Beauty and the Beast	2009	Mirror Tent, MINI Plant Oxford	Sarah Punshon
Romeo and Juliet	2010	Said Business School Rooftop Amphitheatre	Charlotte Conquest
Rapunzel or The Magic Pig	2010	Mirror Tent, MINI Plant Oxford	Charlotte Conquest
Doctor Faustus	2010	Blackwell's Bookshop	Charlotte Conquest
Tales from King James	2011	St Barnabus Church	Helen Tennison
Antony and Cleopatra	2011	Said Business School Rooftop Amphitheatre	Helen Tennison
A Christmas Carol	2011	North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford	Charlotte Conquest
Hamlet	2012	Blackwell's Bookshop	Tim Carroll
The Odyssey	2012	Blackwell's Bookshop	Tim Carroll
Richard II	2012	Oxfam House	Ashtar Theatre Company
The Comedy of Errors	2012	Sheldonian Theatre	Corinne Jaber
The Merchant of Venice	2012	Said Business School Rooftop Amphitheatre	Natalie Abrahami
Aladdin and the Magic Lamp	2012	The North Wall Arts Centre	Charlotte Conquest
Jekyll and Hyde	2013	Blackwell's Bookshop	Caroline Devlin
Henry V	2013	Oxford Castle Unlocked Courtyard	Charlotte Conquest
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	2013	The North Wall Arts Centre	Charlotte Conquest
Macbeth	2014	Lady Margaret Hall	Jonathan Holloway
The Wind in the Willows	2014	North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford	Gari Jones
As You Like It	2015	Lady Margaret Hall	Tom Littler
Alice	2015	St Hugh's College	Helen Tennison
Treasure Island	2015	North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford	Gari Jones
Alice	2015	The Mill Arts Centre	Helen Tennison
King Lear	2016	The Norrington Room, Blackwell's Bookshop	Charlotte Conquest
A Midsummer Night's Dream	2016	Across West Oxford (in promenade)	Zoe Seaton
Hamlet	2016	University Parks	Gari Jones
Cinderella	2016	The Mill Arts Centre	Helen Tennison
Snow White and Other Tales from the Brother's Grimm	2016	The North Wall Arts Centre	Gari Jones
Nineteen Eighty Four	2017	Oxford's Mathematical Institute	Jonathan Holloway
A Midsummer Night's Dream	2017	Across West Oxford (in promenade)	Zoe Seaton
Alice	2017	University Parks	Helen Tennison
Pictures of Dorian Gray	2019	Blackwells	Tom Littler (Jermyn Street Theatre)
The Tempest	2019	Osney Mead (in promenade)	Zoe Seaton
Don Quixote	2019	Oxford Covered Market	Jonathan Holloway
The Snow Queen	2019/20	North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford
Bleak House	2020	Blackwell's Bookshop	Deborah Newbold
The Tempest Live	2020	Live online via Zoom - Digital Theatre	Zoe Seaton
The Time Machine | A Virtual Reality	2020	Live online via Zoom - Digital Theatre	Natasha Rickman
Alice | A Virtual Theme Park	2020	Live online via Zoom - Digital Theatre	Zoe Seaton
Shakespeare on Zoom - The Merry Wives of WhatsApp	2020	Live online via Zoom - Digital Theatre	Natasha Rickman
Shakespeare on Zoom - Horatio! & Hamlet	2020	Live online via Zoom - Digital Theatre	Nicholas Osmond
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz	2020	Live online via Zoom - Digital Theatre	Gari Jones
The Wind in the Willows	2021	Sunnymead Meadow, Oxford	Helen Eastman
The Witch of Edmonton	2022	Live online via Zoom - Digital Theatre	Laura Wright
Friar Lawrence's Confessional	2022	Live online via Zoom - Digital Theatre	Nicholas Osmond
The Tale of the Beauty and the Tail of the Beast	2022	North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford	Natasha Rickman
The Emperor of the Moon	2023	Live online via Zoom - Digital Theatre	Gari Jones
The Signalman	2023	Wesley Memorial Church, Oxford	Jonathan Holloway
Much Ado About Nothing	2023	South Oxford Adventure Playground (SOAP)	Helen Tennison
The Alchemist	2023	The Mathematical Institute, Oxford & Conduit Street, London	Anna Tolputt
A Christmas Carol	2023	North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford	Gari Jones
Boatman Town	2024	Tour of pubs in Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and London	Helen Eastman
Animal Farm	2024	Summertown United Reformed Church & Greenwich Theatre, London	Helen Eastman
As You Like It	2024	Wycliffe Hall Grounds - Open Air Theatre	Lucy Pitman-Wallace
Treasure Island	2024	Wycliffe Hall Grounds - Open Air Theatre	Gari Jones
Extinction Monologues	2024	Oxford	Glyn Maxwell
Even Stranger with Barney Norris	2024	Summertown United Reformed Church
Hansel & Grettel	2024	North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford	Paul Boyd

Critical reception

Publication	Year	Excerpt
2ndfrombottom	2021	"Visually the production is a treat and deploys some clever video trickery" [21]
From page to stage	2020	"An imaginative and enjoyable show for these extraordinary times" [22]
Love London Love Culture	2020	"immensely enjoyable, fun-filled and ambitious" [23]

References

1. "Creation Theatre Company". tripadvisor.co.uk.
2. "Creation Theatre company celebrates its 16th birthday (The Oxford Times)". The Oxford Times . 8 June 2012.
3. "Charity Overview". The Charity Commission.
4. "Creation Theatre on Shakespearemag.com" . Retrieved 20 May 2015.
5. "Contact – nationaltheatret.no". National Theatre of Norway website. Archived from the original on 7 March 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
6. "For Art's Sake with Creation Theatre's Lucy Askew (From the Oxford Times)". The Oxford Times. 12 June 2014.
7. "Daily Info Oxford". Archived from the original on 2 July 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
8. "United Agents". United Agents.
9. "The Oxford Times". The Oxford Times. 20 June 2013.
10. "National Theatre Website". Royal National Theatre. Archived from the original on 2 July 2015.
11. "The Public Reviews". The Reviews Hub. 5 April 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
12. "United Agents". United Agents. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
13. "Jonathan Holloway". Red Shift Theatre.
14. "Shepperd-Fox Theatrical Agency". shepperd-fox.co.uk. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
15. Gardner, Lyn (8 January 2010). "Beauty and the Beast Review". The Guardian . Retrieved 20 May 2015.
16. "Deep Blue Sea, West Yorkshire Playhouse / Doctor Faustus, Blackwell's Bookshop, review". The Daily Telegraph . 23 February 2011.
17. "Blackwell's and Creation Theatre Present Jekyll & Hyde". Blackwell's Bookshop website.
18. "Creation Theatre". newburytheatre.co.uk. UK. Archived from the original on 2 July 2015.
19. Pulver, Andrew (January 2015). "The Wind in the Willows review – fine, meta-sprinkled adaptation". The Guardian . Retrieved 20 May 2015.
20. "Dracula at the London Library: Influential Gothic Novel Returns To Its Spiritual Home". Londonist. 8 February 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
21. Chapman, John (19 March 2021). "The Duchess Of Malfi (Online review)". 2nd from Bottom. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
22. "Review: The Tempest: Live, interactive and in your living room". From page to stage - and everything in between. 20 April 2020. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
23. Clarendon, AuthorEmma (8 August 2020). "REVIEW: Alice: A Virtual Theme Park, Creation Theatre". Love London Love Culture. Retrieved 20 April 2021.