Shuck (2020)
a LaPelle’s Factory production
A contemporary take on an East Anglian folktale. Storytelling and spandex. Crafted to exist in the live and the online live-streamed realms simultaneously.
Commissioned by Attenborough Arts Centre and Nottingham Playhouse.
Co-Director/Deviser/Writer/Performer
At the Edge of the World (2020)
a collaboration with Michael Pinchbeck
Interactive documentation of one of the strangest and most unexpected periods of recent times. During the Covid-19 lockdown Pinchbeck & Smith devised a call-and-response means of creative dialogue-at-distance involving photography and writing.
Supported by S.H.E.D, Lincoln Performing Arts Centre and New Perspectives.
Co-Director/Writer
A Seventh Man (2020)
a collaboration with Michael Pinchbeck
An immersive performance inspired by the highly influential 1975 book about migration by John Berger and Jean Mohr. Part slideshow, part documentary, part adaptation, and explores and explodes the book to mark its 45th anniversary.
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Commissioned by Lincoln Performing Arts Centre and New Perspectives. Supported by S.H.E.D and Nottingham Playhouse.
Co-Director/Writer
The Future History of the British Isles (2019)
a collaboration with Influencing Machine
An irreverent sketch-show that takes a sideways glance at the apocalypse, fake news and mass-ignorance-hysteria.
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Supported by In Good Company.
Performer
EUGENE (2019)
a collaboration with Daniel Nicholas
A show about what happens when we give technology power over us (with an anthropomorphic powerpoint).
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Dramaturg
Solo (2018)
a collaboration with Michael Pinchbeck
An intimate and interactive performance installation inspired by Maurice Ravel’s Tzigane. Solo is a poetic and poignant 10-minute audio experience for two audience members at a time.
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Commissioned by Futureshock and supported by Attenborough Arts Centre.
Deviser/Writer/Performer
Bunkum (2018)
a solo performance
A delirious man in a suit talks nonsense in an exploration of the power inherent in empty words.
Commissioned by NewVolutions for Lincoln Performing Arts Centre
Writer/Performer
Krampus (2017)
an interactive Christmas party piece by LaPelle’s Factory
Two ‘little helpers’ of a festive Alpine demon descend on a Christmas party and determine which guests have names on the Nice List and who has been naughty..
Commissioned by Nottingham Contemporary
Co-Director/Writer/Performer
Who wants to live forever? (2017)
an interactive 1-to-1 audio performance by LaPelle’s Factory in partnership with Lisa Chakrabati
An gentle audio experience which casts the listener as a laboratory mouse and muses on the process of ageing and hypothetical immortality.
Supported by Pint of Science
Co-Director/Writer
The Black Cat (2017)
a LaPelle’s Factory production in collaboration with Mufaro Makubika
A renegade retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s twisted tale.Two performers dismember the process of adaptation by reimagining a macabre classic with the cheekiest of glints in their eyes.
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Supported by In Good Company, Attenborough Arts Centre and Nottingham Playhouse.
Co-Director/Deviser/Writer/Performer
A Collector’s Piece (2017)
a shifting gallery installation
A meditation on the difference between collecting and hoarding involving every birthday card Ollie has ever received.
Supported by Attenborough Arts Centre (Leicester).
Curator/Performer
The Dancebombing Project (2016)
a collaboration with Dirtmarket
A series of unannounced, site-specific, dance-based micro-performances which take place out in town centres. Collisions of tenderness, struggle and hope battle the overwhelming pressure of urban anonymity.
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Supported by The Brewhouse (Burton-upon-Trent) and East Staffordshire Borough Council.
Dramaturg
Desperado (2016)
a LaPelle’s Factory production
Mischievously riffing on rock gigs, dance marathons, school sports days and rodeos, Desperado is a manic and adrenaline-fuelled display of camaraderie and strength which fights to dispel the myth that mankind has reached the end of the line. Driven by power and pain, this show pushes back against the grinding monotony and brutality of the modern world. With dancing bandits.
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Commissioned by Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. Supported by Camden People’s Theatre (London), Attenborough Arts Centre (Leicester) and Derby Theatre of In Good Company and The HopBarn (Southwell).
Co-Director/Deviser/Writer/Performer
Concerto (2016)
a collaboration with Michael Pinchbeck
A unique musical experience inspired by Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and featuring world-renowned concert pianist Nicholas McCarthy. Concerto is a deconstructed and re-orchestrated exploration of the legacy of war and the healing power of music to overcome tragedy. A sequel to Bolero (2014).
Dramaturg
The Little Love Cabaret (2016)
a collaboration with Spiltmilk Dance
A scrapbook of real-life loves and a curious combination of ultimate heart throbs, full-on chocolate addictions, grand gestures of love and favourite days of the week. Each performance features local stories and acts from guest artists.
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Supported by artsdepot (London), Creative Arts East, Nechells POD and In Good Company.
Dramaturg
CLOUDCUCKOOLANDERS (2015)
a LaPelle’s Factory production
An insane movie night which examines mad couples, personality cults and the changing faces of cinema via some little white lies and wild fantasies. A hilarious and mysterious headtrip that crashes through old films, pop delusions and odd expressions of love.
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Commissioned by In Good Company. Supported by Hatch (Nottingham), The HUB (Leeds) and The Malt Cross (Nottingham)
Co-Director/Deviser/Writer/Performer
Blast from the Past (2015)
a collaboration with Spiltmilk Dance
A fast-paced race through seven decades of the blockbusters and bestsellers we all remember, and the fads and fashions we might prefer to forget. Somewhere between a dance performance, sketch show, TV gameshow and the ultimate compilation album.
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Supported by Live & Local, The Place (London), artsdepot (London) and In Good Company.
Dramaturg
Bolero (2014)
a collaboration with Michael Pinchbeck, Benjamin Bajramovic, Jasenko Pasic, Amila Terzimehic, Vera Molitor and Nicki Hobday
An international collaboration of artists from Bosnia, Kosovo, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, lead by Michael Pinchbeck, and inspired by the premiere of Ravel’s Bolero at the Paris Opera in 1928 and Torvill and Dean’s Winter Olympics victory soundtracked to the music in 1984.
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Supported by Making Tracks (Nottingham), the British Council, Nottingham Playhouse Sarajevo War Theatre and Teatri ODA (Kosovo).
Deviser/Performer
The Man Upstairs (2014)
a play
Runner-up in the New Perspectives Long Play Competition 2014.
Presented at neat14 (Nottingham European Arts & Theatre Festival).
Writer
The Litvinenko Project (2014)
a collaboration with 2Magpies Theatre
A site-responsive piece made for tea shops, The Litvinenko Project is a show that swings between the facts and the fictions of arguably the most brazen assassination in history.Part-biography, part-conspiracy, all best-guess-work, The Litvinenko Project has been described as “an aromatic blend of, possibility, actuality, fact, fiction, documentary, theatricality and tea”.
Direction
Cat in Hell (2013)
a collaboration with Olwen Davies
A cat and a demon engage in a purgatorial duel in this nightmarish cabaret act gone wrong, which explored relationships, control and emotional violence.
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Commissioned by Hatch (Nottingham) and supported by New Art Exchange (Nottingham), Lakeside Arts Centre (Nottingham), Emerge (Leeds), NewVolutions (Lincoln) & Compass Live Art Festival (Leeds)
Deviser/Writer/Performer
27 (2012)
a solo performance
An obsessive and drawn-out suicide note from the world’s least rock ‘n’ roll rockstar, 27 was a bittersweet look at the cults of celebrity, fading dreams and death.
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Commissioned by Emerge (Leeds) and supported by circuit Live Art Festival (Leicester).
Deviser/Writer/Performer
The Review Show (2012)
a collaboration with Mufaro Makubika
The Review Show was a text crafted and delivered by Ollie and Mufaro, which reviews the piece the audience is watching as it happens. Both performers are desperate for five stars, but a lack of plot, characters and direction, and a little too much self-obsession, means that’s very unlikely to happen.
Supported by Hatch (Nottingham).
Deviser/Writer/Performer
The Beginning (2012)
a collaboration with Michael Pinchbeck & Nicki Hobday
A Midsummer Night’s Dream meets Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody Nelson in a reflection on what it means to begin. The Beginning took place between a rehearsal and a performance, dreaming and being awake, and asked how we might begin a career, a relationship or a life.
The Beginning was developed at Lakeside Arts Centre (Nottingham), Leeds Met Studio Theatre, Loughborough University and The Junction (Cambridge). Commissioned by World Event Young Artists (2012). Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Selected for the British Council’s Edinburgh Showcase 2013.
Deviser/Performer
Goldfish (2012)
a collaboration with New Perspectives
Goldfish drew together the scripts of five East Midlands-based writers, which waded in and out of realms where memories lurk just beneath the surface.
Performer
The End (2011)
a collaboration with Michael Pinchbeck
Inspired by the stage direction in The Winter’s Tale, “Exit pursued by a bear”, The End explores endings and exits and asks why we perform and how we will know when to stop.
Commissioned by Chester Performs. Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Supported by The Junction (Cambridge), Brighton Dome and Festival, New Art Exchange (Nottingham) and Lakeside Arts Centre (Nottingham). Selected for the British Council’s Edinburgh Showcase 2011.
Deviser/Performer
Do Not Enter: Performance in Progress (2010)
a duologue
This text was written for two theatre ushers to perform outside the theatre auditorium door. The show has already started and latecomers are not permitted. The text mischievously pokes fun at academic over-analysis of performance, and is a good-humoured homage to Stoppard, Beckett, et al.
Commissioned by Theatre Writing Partnership for the Momentum new writing festival at Curve (Leicester). Developed with Talking Birds Theatre Company.
Writer
Non sequitur: a series of stalled tales (2010)
a solo durational performance
Story-time for the grown-up channel-hopping Jackanory generation.
Created specifically for ‘poolside emergency at The Bluecoat (Liverpool).
Deviser/Performer
Vodka Revolution (2009)
a collaboration with Ellie Harrison
A site-specific performance made for a grimy bar in Nottingham, in which ‘high art’ took on ‘low art’, Chekhov tooks on The Beatles, and the whole performance felt completely at odds with its binge drinking surroundings.
Commissioned by Hatch (Nottingham) for Hatch: Abroad.
Deviser/Performer
Help Yourself (2009)
a collaboration with Phoebe Walsh
Armed with a stack of self-help books and a CD of ’90s feel-good pop songs, Phoebe and Ollie made a live attempt to “help themselves out of their hole” and become better and happier people.
Commissioned by greenroom/hÅb (Manchester) via the Method Lab programme.
Co-Director/Deviser/Performer
Alone Time (2008)
a collaboration with Phoebe Walsh
Often we feel most alone when in a room full of people – whether caught in a crowd, or at a party, or on a stage. Stripped back and anti-theatrical in its aesthetic, Alone Time was a contemplative and insular confessional of all the things we think and do when we’re on our own.
Co-Director/Deviser/Performer
Dressing The Part: A Durational Performance (2008)
a collaboration with Ellie Harrison
Part photography installation, part tag-team dress-up marathon. Ellie and Ollie took it in turns to speculate on what could have been if they’d ended up as bankers, emos, Sloane Rangers, murder victims, naturists…
Commissioned by greenroom/hÅb (Manchester) via the Instant Win programme.
Co-Director/Deviser/Performer
OLLIE SMITH 