Friday 16 February 2024, 7pm Doors open at 6.45pm Aldridge Studio
The Lowry’s Scratch Nights returns this Lunar New Year with Scratch Nights X New Earth Academy+!
Presented as part of our Artist Development programme, join us for an evening of new and experimental work from five up and coming British East and South East Asian artists.
Our Scratch Nights offer an evening dedicated to the development of brand-new work. A chance for artists to put early ideas in front of a live audience to see what sticks; it’s about now rather than never, it’s about the spit without the polish. You might be seeing the early beginnings of ideas that will one day turn into fully formed pieces.
These informal nights bring new live work to audiences and create a supportive platform for artists to experiment, take risks, test ideas on stage, and share new work with peers and wider public.
This event has been curated in collaboration with New Earth Theatre and Horizons Collective.
We are delighted to present the following line-up of artists:
SCATTERBRAIN by Matthew Bevan
YOU’RE ON MUTE by Louiseanne Wong
HOME TO HOME by Isabella So
NAIL DIVA by Sarah Murray
DRIFT by Pui-Ka Cheng
SCATTERBRAIN by Matthew Bevan
Scatterbrain is an experimental project that aims to combine storytelling with gig-theatre. Written and performed by Matthew Bevan, Scatterbrain explores the life of a neurodivergent creative lost within expectations of modern society, and a difficult life event that spurs them to search for a solution. Scatterbrain invites you into its world through a 2nd-Person narrative style and is scored to live music and sounds.
Connect
Email: bevan.matthew@ymail.com
Instagram: @morbidm
Starnow : https://www.starnow.com/u/MatthewJBevan/
Read More about Matthew Bevan’s work below.
Matthew Bevan is a 27 years old mixed race actor and theatre maker from the United Kingdom, Planet Earth. Since falling in love with amateur theatre in his teens, Matthew worked as a resident-artist with Only Lucky Dogs theatre company in Sheffield, developing and performing in Beakers Place (2018), A Few Short Studies on Cannibals (2019), and Crazy Garys Mobile Disco (2021) at their resident performance space and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and developed numerous experimental projects from comedy sci-fi films (White Dwarf IV, 2022) to the virtual gig-theatre performance ‘Rum and Coke’(2021).
At the beginning of 2023 he joined the New Earth Academy+ cohort at The Lowry and began to undertake his first ever live performance solo-project ‘Scatterbrain’. Inspired by a background in academic philosophy, as well as lived experience of being a human person himself, Matthew enjoys theatre that examines the bizarre and absurd nature of human existence, and darkness and light that we are compelled to find within it.
YOU’RE ON MUTE by Louiseanne Wong
A person jumps and searches for connections, yet trapped in what is shaped like a synthetic scaffolding window.
A digital voice asks if you’ve eaten dinner, sprinkled with occasional sharp flavours of existential questions.
An urge to press the mute button – You can’t hear me but I love you Mum.
A live show using storytelling, physical theatre, circus and parkour. Commenting on human connection, digital age, and East Asian family culture – from the distinct dynamics to unsaid communications.
Connect
Instagram: @LouiseanneWong
Facebook: @wongLouiseanne
X: @wongLouiseanne
Read More about Louiseanne Wong’s work below.
Louiseanne Wong (she/they) is a non-binary movement artist, choreographer and coach with Esprit Concrete. Born in Hong Kong, they studied music and dance in HK, UK and LA. Fusing dance, circus, parkour and l’art du deplacement they map themself in space, searching for authentic connections with themself and audiences. Their performance and coaching work revolves around storytelling, identity and empowerment, aiming to encourage others to share their own untold stories.
They have worked in various multidisciplinary shows indoors and outdoors around the world, including Free Your Mind (world premier launch of Manchester’s Factory International), Marinella Senatore (feminist inclusive luminarie exhibitions celebrating Les 20 ans du Palais de Tokyo, Paris), Upswing UK (European Short Film Festival award winner) and Imagineer’s Bridge (BBC feature), Blame Game (Kundle Cru x Crying Out Loud). Coaching credits include Scarabeus’ Take Flight, Royal Academy of Dance dancers, Mountview, Central School of Speech and Drama Applied Theatre MA students.
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HOME TO HOME by Isabella So
Home to Home follows Jeong chasing a mischievous glowing orb through an interactive time warp. Fusing live theatre and video projection, with hints of typical Asian household objects, Jeong is immersed in nostalgic late 2000s memories. Blending real and virtual worlds using motion tracking technology, this multimedia dreamscape playfully explores cultural identity, childhood, and cultural heritage between Hong Kong and Korea.
Read More about Isabella So’s work below.
Isabella So (she/her) is an emerging multidisciplinary artist based in Hong Kong who focuses on performing, directing, and video projections. She has a unique cultural identity as a Hongkonger and Korean who loves exploring themes of identity crisis, memories, and slice-of-life stories with a comedic twist! During her theatre studies at Coventry University, Isabella performed in productions like A Christmas Carol (2019) and collaborated with Tmesis Theatre on U(s)topia (2021). She also directed short plays in Aurora Theatre like C&C Music Factory (2020) and Josan Hong Kong (2020), working with a global team across timezones from New York to Switzerland.
Currently, Isabella is involved with The Edge’s Social Engaged Theatre Maker programme, developing her practice working with adults with complex needs to create high-quality, inclusive theatre. As a multidisciplinary storyteller, Isabella aims to connect with audiences through vulnerable yet humorous performances and collaborations. Her diverse background informs her experimental, contemporary approach to theatre that interweaves comedy, projections, and cultural commentary.
nail DIVA BY SARAH MURRAY
A mixed media performance consisting of spoken word, physical theatre and circus, following the journey of a Vietnamese family’s life transitioning from one culture to another.
Exploring how Vietnamese people have dominated the nail industry and how the professional term to describe these salons are NSS (non-standard salons). Touching on themes of culture, history, racism, toxic beauty standards and self-identity.
All told from the perspective of a mixed-race individual.
Connect
Instagram: @thenailcircus
Read More about Sarah Murray’s work below.
Sarah Murray is a freelance circus artist specialising in hand balancing and partner acrobatics. I originally started working in a family-owned nail salon and from there have gone on to become self-employed and develop my circus practice.
drift by pui-ka cheng
It’s a story about my homeland, a small island where people relied heavily on fishing for a livelihood. Our fate, like fish, swayed back and forth. We followed the water, wherever it went. We had no choice in the form of water, but we had a strong desire to survive.
Read More about Pui-Ka Cheng’s work below.
Pui-Ka Cheng is a playwright, actor, dubbing artist, puppeteer, mother of two daughters, from Hong Kong. Currently Manchester based, she graduated from the Chinese University of HK (Degree in Statistics) and the Drama School of Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts (Major in Acting).
Pui-Ka keeps exploring the possibility of body and voice and hopes to find out some connection with soul, ontology and the world.
Credits as actor include Where is our Sea? (Littlebreath Creative Workshop), Kassandra or the World as the End of Representation (Littlebreath Creative Workshop), Color Symphony (Pure Box). She loves puppets and worked with Make Friends with Puppet, BE Kids and HK Puppet and Shadow Art Center as director, actor and puppeteer. Credits include A Puppet’s Grand Adventure, Bilibala Night Fairies, Forever My Buddies, The Bigfoot.
