Winner of The Stage Awards Best Solo Performance, Edinburgh Festival 2010
January 1945. Paris has been liberated. Christiane, an eccentric and acutely myopic Parisian waits at Gare Du Nord for a ticket to England to be reunited with her fiancé. Whilst she waits, this gloriously irrepressible mademoiselle recounts the story of her love affair with Cyril, a tongue-tied English teacher from Staffordshire. From a chance encounter at Cheadle tennis club, their story takes us to cosmopolitan 1930s Paris before war interrupts their unlikely romance.
A fond, comical and ultimately poignant portrait of one woman’s experience of love and war, inspired by Horton’s discovery of her grandmother’s war time correspondence.
You’re Not Like the Other Girls Chrissy is performed as part of a double bill alongside Sabrina Mahfouz’s Dry Ice
Commissioned by China Plate / Warwick Arts Centre / mac
Ben designs sets, spaces, lighting and interactive environments. He’s made installations, animations, and written performance texts.
Design includes The Mostly Everything People’s Very Important Child; Greg Wohead’s Comeback Special; Adventures of the Little Ghost for Sophie Nüzel; Kiln Ensemble’s A Journey Around My Skull; Melanie Wilson’s Landscape II (co-design).
Lighting includes Sleepdogs’ Dark Land Light House; Thrive for Zest Theatre; Leila McMillan’s Family Portrait; Uninvited Guests’ This Last Tempest and Make Better Please; Kiln Ensemble’s The Furies; and Melanie Wilson’s Autobiographer.
As an artist/maker, he co-directs Dens & Signals (Feast of the Dead, The Wake, A Thousand Shards of Glass). He’s an associate artist of Coney.
Caroline Horton is a theatre maker, performer, writer and director based in Birmingham.
She was nominated for a 2013 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre for You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy, which also won Best Solo Performer at the 2010 Stage Awards and was nominated for Best Theatre Performer 2011 at Adelaide fringe. Chrissy was shortlisted for the Holden Street Theatres Award 2010 and New Writing South Best New Play Award 2011.
Caroline’s second show Mess continues to tour after opening at The Traverse in August 2012, where it won Best Ensemble at The Stage Awards. Mess also won an Argus Angel award and was nominated for an Offie for Best New Play.
This year Caroline created and performed Penelope Retold for Derby Theatre (The Guardian ★★★★) and her first radio play for BBC Radio 4, Paris, Nana & Me.
Current projects include directing Ishbel & I for Julia Voce and creating a new show about The Staffordshire Hoard with the New Vic.
She’s an associate artist at The Bush and has just finished a year’s residency at the Oxford Playhouse on their Evolve programme. In August, she starts a year’s associate-ship at Birmingham Rep.
Caroline directed/co-adapted Grisly Tales from Tumblewater for Teasel. She has also collaborated with Shams, MAKE/SHIFT and The Plasticine Men and on Hetty Feather directed by Sally Cookson. In 2013, she made a podcast for Fuel’s series While We Wait. Recent acting credits include: Heidi at the egg, Bath, directed by Lee Lyford; the White Witch in The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe at The Brewhouse; Olga in Heldenplatz at the Arcola directed by Annie Castledine and Annabel Arden and performed as Cinderella in the version by Melly Still and Ben Power at Warwick Arts Centre. Caroline performed Almost 10 for Tangram at the Edinburgh Festival in 2009 and was nominated in The Stage Awards for Best Solo Performer. Caroline adapted and performed I’ll Show You Mine (TimeOut Critics’ Choice, August 2011).
Omar is an award winning Italian/Palestinian theatre director, deviser and performer, who trained at Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris. He joined the Bush in 2012 alongside Madani Younis and since then has been the resident Associate Director. He is in charge of the Bush’s talent development, leading on the Associate Artists and Project 2036 schemes. He is also involved in the development and delivery of the Bush’s artistic program and lead the programming of the RADAR festival between 2012 and 2015. His directing credits for the Bush include gig theatre sensation Misty by Arinzé Kene, the Edinburgh Fringe First winning NASSIM by Nassim Soleimanpour, One Cold Dark Night by Nancy Harris and Islands by Caroline Horton. As Associate Director, he has worked alongside Madani Younis on the Bush’s productions of The Royale, Perseverance Drive and Chalet Lines. Other credits include acclaimed site-specific production The Mill – City of Dreams, Olivier Award nominated You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy, Testa di Rame (Italy), Les P’tites Grandes Choses (France) and L’Envers du Décor (France).
