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Who We Are
What is Wrong Tree?
Wrong Tree is a collaborative theatre company based in Durham that focuses on storytelling through devised physical theatre. This means that our shows never begin fully scripted or plotted but instead are created through the joint efforts of the cast and crew.
Watch this video to find out more about what it means to be a part of Wrong Tree.
Our Productions
Lost Connections
February 2020
A fusion of several physical performance arts, Lost Connections aims to portray universal human strategies for the pursuit of pleasure, desires, and connections. It is a character-driven play that follows the lives of a travelling circus troupe and is a visually striking show in which stories unfold through the language of the body, through dance, acrobatics, and pantomime.
Away
November 2019
“This is my kaleidoscope. When I look through it, it’s like the streetlights are stars. But they’re not stars. The sky’s still dark. And this is just a bottle.”
When you don’t have a secure home to turn to, the world you create inside your own head becomes your safety and your escape. A nostalgic and playful show, ‘Away’ explores childhood imagination as a means to deal with a life where you don’t really feel like you belong anywhere.
50% of ticket revenue was donated to St Chad’s College Charities Committee and Durham Action on Single Housing.
Bedlam
August 2019
'This place is a human rat-trap. It’s easy to get in, but once in,
it’s impossible to get out.'
Set in the Victorian asylum, Bedlam, this play has been deemed as a 'spectacle horrifyingly believable and impossible to look away from' by Palatinate Stage and 'truly authetic theatre' by DST First Night.
Test Bed
June 2019
The Experiment: one man spends his life having his dreams tested in an enclosed, bare and lonely room. In this state of isolation, his dreams reflect his mundane reality but something darker is lingering in his subconscious. One day spent in the outside world is all it takes for that darkness to escape the trappings of his mind.
'Thrilling, polished and unique, this is not a production you want to miss.' - Palatinate Stage
Death To The Afterlife
March 2019
In this hypnagogic play, a young girl, Kaia, goes on holiday to the afterlife in the hopes of meeting her dead mother. As she traverses entire worlds, Kaia encounters a myriad of characters doing their best to enjoy life after death.
Incorporating music and light animation, this is an immersive play that takes audiences on a psychedelic odyssey of self discovery.
La Casbah
December 2018
'Perhaps you expect me to regret having placed bombs in public places. I do not.'
Inspired by events of the Algerian War, La Casbah explores the struggle between coloniser and colonised, as both sides exchange acts of ever-increasing brutality. Hassiba, aged 17, is a National Liberation Front (FLN) urban guerrilla, fighting for her country and tasked with carrying out bombing attacks against civilians.
Aaron
June 2018
You turn eighteen and life seems full of possibilities. It stretches out like an endless road in front of you - it is probably the best and most anticipated moment of your life. But for some people, they never get this moment. For some, their life has just two paths.
Wrong Tree's devised production, Aaron, explores the life through the eyes of Aaron, an eighteen-year-old boy with Prader-Willi Syndrome, to show that nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
Inferno
February 2018
Bella is at the top of her game: respected, influential and the top authority in criminal law. But all of that changes when a new client arrives - Lucifer. Reluctantly whisked away to the bowels of Hell, everything that Bella believes in is called into question. Can she save the souls she deems worthy? Or will Lucifer drag her down to join him...
Inferno explores the boundaries between our corrupt modern world and the classical ideas of Hell. Loosely based on Dante’s Inferno, the 9 circles of Hell are brought into the 21st century and scrutinised against our modern moral ideals. With a completely original score that blends both classical and electric instruments, Inferno injects comedy and retells a classic tale through physical theatre to create what promises to be a truly thought-provoking experience.
The East Wind Rages
August 2017
Inspired by the mesmerising short stories of Daphne du Maurier, and echoing their affecting qualities, ‘The East Wind Rages’ incorporates a spectrum of nautical elements: haunting ghost-ship stories, raucous shanty songs and compelling physical set-pieces, this production plunges you into the seafaring life.
Set on an isolated, barren island, with many years elapsed since any outside contact. A terrible storm comes in and the island awakes to a brig in the bay, consequently alcohol, cigarettes and foreign desires infiltrate the islanders and their harmony. ‘The East Wind Rages’ will entertain and unnerve audiences in equal measure.
Troupe
In October 2019, Wrong Tree established its very own troupe. The purpose of this venture was to allow a group of creatives with a range of talents to work together over the course of the academic year and collaboratively devise an original piece of theatre to be performed in Durham, at Edinburgh Fringe and to tour the UK.
In 2019/2020, the Wrong Tree Troupe created Who Here Knows Kevin Bacon? with the intention of doing the above. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 restrictions, this play did not make it to the stage. However, we're excited to get back to devising something new in Michaelmas term 2020 and would love to invite you to join us on our creative journey by clicking the button below: