About

See innovative, groundbreaking, new and sometimes experimental work for a price everyone can afford! The Colchester Arts Centre Director has hand selected some of the finest up and coming and established names in new work - and you won't need to break the bank to see them, as  all these shows PAY WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD. You can get a ticket for any of the Wonderful Wednesdays shows for the princely sum of anything from 15 to zero pounds - whatever works for you.

The 2022 season includes

23rd March - Triffids! A gig theatre adventure in Music Sound and Pictures

This remarkable collision of music, text and rich visual imagery takes the audience deep into John Wyndham's classic cold war novel: The Day of the Triffids. The live soundtrack is created with instruments including Moog, Double Bass, Theremin, Hammered Dulcimer and... a Cactus!

The incredible team behind Triffids have worked with The National Theatre, Bellowhead, Southbank Centre, Kneehigh, BBC and The Bone Ensemble; together they create a very special magic, as seen in their previous collaboration, the acclaimed Invisible Music.

30th March - Emma Spearing - Whole

In some parts of the world people believe that twins share a soul, so how can you be a twin alone? It is a brutal wander through the shadows of a bluebell wood at dusk, a map of a life written across two bodies. A dive into the depths of what happens when you lose part of yourself. It is a raw, tender, messy love story, a wound splashed in whisky and haunted by ghosts.

Using autobiographical story-telling, immersive soundscapes, song and striking visual imagery Whole is an exploration of complex grief, identity and belief systems. Brutally honest and tender this is a deep dive into what it means to lose the person who makes us whole.

​​​​​6th April - Beverley Bishop - Finding Magic

Do you believe in magic? Bev does. Join her in this beautiful, poignant one-woman show as she explores her progression through grief and healing after the loss of her son Jess and seeks to find her magic again.

Beverley uses storytelling, comedy, clowning and film to introduce the audience to her new reality of unpredictable triggers, clichés and flashbacks, and invites them to share in the new-found surreal humour she deploys to find peace after bereavement.

Equal parts moving and magical, Finding Magic is a story of loss, longing, love and laughter.

13th April - Rhys Hollis: Ladybird Boy

What makes up the Pieces of Rhys?
Demons and monsters; Sexuality and fierceness; terrified of his blackness, grappling with masculinity; and re-moulding of what it is to be a drag artist.

Rhys’ Pieces delves into this autobiographical performance looking at connection, community and the fragility of his body. Experimenting with lip-sync, movement and film, Rhys’ Pieces tell a tale of fetishisation, expectation and breaking the pattern.

20th April - Amy Kingsmill: Light Source

Light Source brings light to lost histories of persecuted people- primarily women, and honours them. It explores and expands the use of body performance techniques and contextualises them within the practice of queer people and women, creating a space to share these techniques & histories.

Amy Kingsmill is a radical, queer performance artist, her work focuses on transformation & transcendence, combining beauty with arrestingly visceral actions. She produces minimalist, pain-based ritualistic performance exploring inherently feminist themes.

27th April - Van Huynh Company presents Rebirth by Dam Van Huynh

Dam Van Huynh draws upon the words of writers, poets, activists as an awakening to his displaced experience as a child refugee from the Vietnam war. Starting from a state of disorientation into a state of consciousness, Rebirth retraces a personal experience of rediscovery.

The performance unravels a recollection of visual impressions and sensations, a memory book whose pictures and stories long forgotten begin to resurface, a distortion between memories and dreams. Movement responds to a field of light, sound and voice to illude the senses.