Pegasus Theatre, Oxford

Pegasus Theatre

Magdalen Road, Oxford, OX4 1RE

Pegasus Theatre is a unique organisation that brings together the work of young people, professional companies and emerging artists in all fields of performance.

Box Office

01865 722851

Next

The Power of a Dream, 9th to 11th February, 18:30 and 13:30 on Saturday
Pegasus Youth Theatre Groups are taking the essence of the Olympic Spirit “to build a peaceful and better world and to reach for a dream”. All the groups will show in their performances how ‘the Power of a dream’ can influence lives. The film animation group explore a real world versus a dream world; the 6-7s drama and music group are in a dream makers laboratory creating dreams and nightmares in jars; the 14 to 19 year olds take a look at what people are willing to sacrifice to achieve their dreams. This platform performance will give an insight into young people’s perspectives on the future – in a funny, touching and above all creative way.

Serious Money, 15th to 18th February, 19:30 and 14:30 on Thursday and Saturday
Performed by Oxford School of Drama. Dog eat dog in the fast-living, slowly collapsing world of the banker and his bonus. Set in the British Stock Exchange in the late 1980s Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money is even more relevant today than it was when it was written.

The Listeners and Stuck, 28th to 31st March, 19:30 and 13:30 on Saturday
Mental health is a growing issue for young people – what it means, how it affects us and what we can do about it. These new performances take different approaches to understand this wide subject. The Listeners, a brand new play written by Mojisola Adebayo in collaboration with The Samaritans and Pegasus Youth Theatre Company, is set in England in 2017. A massive earthquake has caused a nuclear explosion, tsunami and flood. Teenager Magz is locked in a bedroom communicating through the internet and watching reality TV, reflecting on the recent past and trying to find answers but nothing helps. The planet is all but destroyed. Magz, desperately lonely and in need of intimacy, orders a Listener, from a support website. Will this be the answer to loneliness? Performed by Pegasus Youth Theatre Companies.
Stuck is a new dance performance by Pegasus Youth Dance Company that delves into the mental states of agoraphobia and claustrophobia. Agoraphobia: a fear of situations from which escape may be difficult or embarrassing. Claustrophobia: a fear of closed or tight spaces. Focusing on a series of abstract journeys through the emotions, tensions and effects caused by these conditions and how those might affect the dancers movements.

Jamuna, 20th to 21st April , 19:30
Performed by local community group Theatre Folk. On the eve of her first exhibition, artist Jamuna has a dilemma to face. She has promised an exclusive interview about her life and work which will expose her past as a freedom fighter in Bangaladesh who was imprisoned and abused – something her children have never known about her. Her daughter meanwhile intends to announce her betrothal at the exhibition before her intended leaves to perform a Hajj. Should Jamnua break free from the shackles of her past and face being ostracised from her family and society? This play explores the effect of war on women, their sexuality and social life. Although the story focuses on Bangladesh in 1971, it delves into a matter faced by women all across the world even today.

Reviews of Grimm and Grimmer

9th to 30th December 2011.

Review from the Newbury Weekly News.

Fairytale fun Grimm and Grimmer, at Pegasus Theatre, Oxford, from Friday, December 9 to Friday, December 30 Pegasus Theatre has taken a bold step in programming touring theatre company Gonzo Moose's devised drama Grimm and Grimmer to run over the festive period. As an additional treat, the theatre has commissioned local designer Nomi Everall to create a fairytale whodunit across the Pegasus' public spaces. Children can follow an exhibition of puppets and miniature fairytale sets in which clues are hidden. It's a lovely touch. The play, devised by the company and directed by Abigail Anderson, has a delightful premise. The Brothers Grimm, Wilhehn (Mark Conway) and Jacob (Seamus Allen) years ago encountered Rumpelstiltskin who, in a Faustian pact, offered them the best stories in the world for their collection of fairytales. In return, Wilhelm would have to accept certain death by donating his heart to the necromancer. A clockwork heart is inserted into his body, designed to stop ticking two decades later, on Christmas day. Now Christmas Eve, the brothers' feisty younger sister, Lottie (Lauren Silver), discovers a magic formula and sets off for fairyland in a quest to find Rumpelstiltskin and save her brother's life. Lottie enters a Shrek-like world where the king and queen appear to have stepped out of a Woody Allen film. She encounters random zombies wearing shockingly-coloured wigs and a Glaswegian riddlemeister who threatens to glass those who fail his quiz. The comedy emerges from the company's close reading of academic texts on fairy tales by Bettelheim and Propp but most of the audience does not need to know that. Instead they can enjoy the fine jokes and crazy slapstick. The trio, schooled in improvised comedy, reel off jokes at over one a minute. In one scene they give us wickedly clever fairy tale plot summaries - longer than haiku but shorter than tweets, and all hilarious. The physical theatre is equally funny. Seamus Allen's Mime Prince's mime of the journey to Rumpelstiltskin's cave and all the dangers inherent in such an adventure, deserves its applause. Some of the humour is quite adult, with one scene playfully blood-splattered and teasingly gory. A show, literally, to raise the spirits. JONATHAN LEWIS

There is a review at Daily Info ("a rich, deep and hilarious family theatrical experience that literally bursts off the stage"),

For more details

see Pegasus' web site at www.pegasustheatre.org.uk.