It’s our 15th birthday!
Since founding from our base in remote West Cornwall in 2009, Tangle has helped to change the landscape for African Caribbean theatre in our home region of South West England and beyond. Our touring productions, training programmes and research projects have provided a vital access point for diverse and isolated communities, artists and audiences to come together.
Here’s a look at our shows, the talent we’ve developed, the communities we’ve inspired and the values we continue to uphold.
A STAGE TO INSPIRE: OUR PRODUCTIONS
2009: Everyman
Co-produced with The Brewhouse, Taunton and Hall for Cornwall, our first production was a site-specific version of the medieval morality play, Everyman, performed by a company of African and Caribbean actors with original live music and song. Everyman was featured as Pick of the Week in The Guardian and helped Hall for Cornwall to win the TMA Eclipse Award in 2010.
2011/2012: The Crossing
Produced in association with Nottingham Playhouse, Esther O’Toole’s riveting new play The Crossing told the story of three Ashanti men who journey thousands of miles across Africa in search of a new life in Europe. Performed in English and Twi, The Crossing was one of the first all-Ghanian stage productions in UK Theatre history, selling out at both Nottingham Playhouse’s NEAT Festival and later at Exeter’s Bike Shed Theatre and London’s Theatre 503.
2016: Workshop Negative
We produced the English premiere of controversial play Workshop Negative by the late Cont Mhlanga, at Gate Theatre in London. A striking and satirical response to the backlash of Zimbabwean independence, Workshop Negative pulled no punches. The original production, toured by Mhlanga across Zimbabwe with his own company, Amakhosi, saw extreme intimidation from the government to the acting company, and its writer imprisoned and threatened with torture. We were proud to bring this important play to a London stage.
2018: Doctor Faustus
For our first major tour, we staged an adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, receiving excellent reviews and selling out across venues in the South West. We fondly remember the queues wrapped around The Bike Shed Theatre in Exeter, and later selling out our London run at the Arcola Theatre, close by to Marlowe’s native East London.
2020: Volpone
Our production of Ben Jonson’s Volpone, also adapted for a small ensemble cast, wowed regional audiences and sold out across the South West. This was to have been our first national tour, our first three-week London run and our first appearance with a full production in our home base of Swindon. Volpone also marked the stage debut for Zimbabwean actor Marshall Defender Nyanhete in the title role. Sadly, just as our tour team set out on their way to Swindon, the production was cancelled due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
2022: Richard the Second
Our adaptation of Richard the Second saw Daniel Rock achieve his professional stage debut as Richard. He was nominated for the ‘Offies’/Off West End Awards (Newcomer category) and the Stage Debut Awards (Most promising Newcomer). Daniel was also a recipient of the 2023 Ian Charleson Award.
These productions brought African inspired theatre to rural parts of South West England and platformed some of the very best theatre talent from the African and Caribbean in one of the UK’s largest, most monocultural and rurally dispersed regions.
Production photo of Volpone. Photo by Bettina Adela.
BRINGING COMMUNITIES TOGETHER
2009 – present: TANGLESPACE
It started with an invitation from Yinka Shonibare CBE (RA), now Tangle’s patron, for the Tangle ‘family’ to gather together in his East London studio, sharing scratch performances, creative ideas and food. TANGLESPACE (previously Tangle Café) soon became an annual sell-out and unmissable event for African and Caribbean artists and cultural workers to come together and celebrate with a sense of community.
In 2023, we rebranded as TANGLESPACE, and brought the event to Hoxton Hall in East London. The night featured performances by members of WOVEN, our Swindon-based network for African, Caribbean and Global Majority Creatives, as well as networking, music, and food.
We are currently planning more TANGLESPACE events in Swindon and London. Stay tuned for details!
2013-2018: Tangle Company
From 2013 – 2018 our chamber ensemble, Tangle Company, toured to over 100 venues across South West England: from community centres and schools to libraries, pubs and care homes. For five years, tight ensembles of four actors performed newly commissioned works alongside a capella song.
Works included: I Have a Dream (2013); Water, Bread and Salt (2014 & 2018); Steering Through Stars (2015); Towards the Sun (2016-17); Renaissance: No One Is An Island (2017).
Over five years, this project saw Tangle commission 15 writers, including Oladipo Agboluaje, Chinonyerem Odimba, Louisa Adjoa-Parker and Patricia Cumper MBE, composer and arranger Allyson Devenish and more than 40 African and Caribbean actors to deliver the tours.
UBUNTU: CELEBRATING OUR PARTNERSHIPS ACROSS SOUTH WEST ENGLAND
As one of our core values, Ubuntu is a Nguni Bantu term sometimes translated as "I am because we are”. The principle of ‘ubuntu’ is “how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?”
Ubuntu for Tangle implies that we are interdependent, that we are stronger together, that we are all equal, and that we work as a strong team to generate success.
In the spirit of Ubuntu, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has played a vital part in the work we’ve done in the last 15 years!
Production photo of Doctor Faustus. Photo by Bettina Adela.
“Totally fabulous. We saw the RSC production 2018/19 and we enjoyed this more. The actors are so good and deserve to be on the RSC stage”
“Brilliant, superbly done! If only I’d seen this before I sat my ‘A’ Level English exam in 1969!”
A PLACE TO BELONG – PROJECTS AND PARTNERSHIPS TO CELEBRATE TALENT
2012: EVERYTHING MATTERS
EVERYTHING MATTERS was our ground-breaking action research project capturing opinions about African Caribbean theatre and artists from arts organisations across South West England. The project paved the way for a stronger, more inclusive creative future across this large, rurally dispersed and predominately monocultural region. This work led to the launch of both the AMPLIFY and KUKURA programmes.
2018-2024: AMPLIFY
Addressing a chronic and historic lack of opportunity for progressing careers off stage, we launched AMPLIFY in 2018 as a mentoring and career development scheme for Black and Global Majority technical theatre professionals. For 5 years, we provided over 30 paid placements, influencing sector growth at a time of economic and cultural challenge. During the COVID Pandemic, when the industry was at the highest risk of losing emerging technical theatre professionals, AMPLIFY empowered newly skilled freelancers to develop their theatre careers and influence the industry’s future direction.
Post participation, AMPLIFY alumni have not only gone on to work professionally on Tangle’s touring productions, but with a wide network of UK theatre, dance, opera companies, and in film and television.
2020-2023: KUKURA
Conceived, led and launched by a team of Black African theatre professionals, the KUKURA inclusivity programme enabled theatre and arts organisations nationally to work creatively with our artists on this intensive year-long programme. KUKURA led to meaningful changes and improvements around racial representation and inclusivity for those organisations participating. The principles of the programme are now embedded in the development of our touring productions.
2023 – present: WOVEN
Summer 2023 saw the launch of WOVEN, a citizen-led network for African, Caribbean and Global Majority professional live performance artists living in Swindon, Southampton and their surrounding areas.
WOVEN is a safe space for these creative people to share opportunities and learning in a safe space environment, organise social events and collaborate on projects. Regular meetings are augmented with business training and commissioning opportunities. New members are warmly welcomed. A second WOVEN collective launches in October 2024 in partnership with MAST Mayflower Studios where Tangle is an Associate Company.
Production photo of Richard the Second. Photo by Bettina Adela.
Production photo of Volpone. Photo by Bettina Adela.
“Inviting cross-community involvement across the board, Tangle’s work is changing the landscape of theatre making. A bridge for engagement, the company builds understanding of different cultures within diverse, and often remote communities.
In an increasingly challenging climate this work is becoming more important than ever.”
Yinka Shonibare CBE (RA), Tangle Patron