in development
We slip between different realities: a buffon theatre company – the real lives of the performers in the room – the play within a play.
The deaf and disabled buffon company greet the audience. The director announces changes and challenges the company have faced – the theatre is disintegrating in the face of the cuts, the actor playing King isn’t here so the director is taking over the part and the writer has also jumped ship but it’s ok, they’ll improvise.
A King is crowned. The End Times are coming.
Rumours of a cull.
Musical chairs.
A Wedding.
Care home jobs during lockdown.
Austerity.
Webinars. Enquiry.
Grief. Rage. Revenge.
Musical chairs.
THE GREAT TRAGEDY is an uncompromising new work asking if disabled lives are to forever be the modern-day human sacrifices offered by opportunist political leaders to appease the gods.
Co-Created by Caroline Horton, Alex Bulmer and Simon Startin.
TPE is thrilled to be supporting the onward development of THE GREAT TRAGEDY. Conceived with integrated audio description and BSL interpretation, THE GREAT TRAGEDY is available for production from 2026.
A Vital Xposure commission.
Caroline Horton is a theatre maker, performer and writer whose work has toured nationally and internationally. Her practice also includes writing and performing for audio, radio and TV dramas, collaborations as a deviser/performer/writer/director, mentoring artists and companies, leading courses and masterclasses. Caroline has received ACE DYCP funding to integrate access and movement into her practice, with a particular focus on ideas around neurodivergent spaces and processes.
Credits include, Theatre: YOU’RE NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS CHRISSY winner The Stage Awards Best Solo Performer, nominated Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre. MESS winner The Stage Awards Best Ensemble, nominated The Offies: Best New Play. ALLOF ME winner Fringe Mental Health Award Edinburgh Fringe and international touring. Audio: HUMANS NOT HEROES a series created with NHS workers to represent their experiences of Covid-19; NANA, PARIS & ME (Shortlisted for the Imison Award 2015, produced/directed by James Robinson, BBC CymruWales); HOME FRONT (Editor Jessica Dromgoole.) ROLES: BBC Birmingham Writer in Residence, 2018/19 Creative Fellow at Birmingham University’s Shakespeare Institute. Collaborations: The Egg, Bath, Evie Fehilly, Amerah Saleh, Vital Xposure and Coventry City of Culture.
More information about Caroline's work is available here
Alex Bulmer was named one of the most influential disabled artists by UK’s Power Magazine, thanks to over thirty professional years’ experience across theatre, film, television,radio and education. Alex is fuelled by a curiosity of the improbable, dedicated to collaborative art practice, deeply informed by her experience of becoming blind and welcomes the unexpected in her practice.
Alex is the writer of two award winning short films, two award winning BBC radio dramas, writer of the Dora and Chalmers nominated SMUDGE, and co-writer of the BAFTA-nominated U.K. television series Cast Offs, featuring six lead disabled actors.
Alex is co-founder and co-Artistic Director of The Fire and Rescue Team, former Artistic Director of Common Boots Theatre, and curated CoMotion Festival 2022, an international disability arts festival with Harbour Front Centre. She has extensive dramaturgy experience with Graeae Theatre, Diverse City, Extant Theatre, Common Boots Theatre, and is currently developing a “Theatre For The Ears” project for Blind playwrights in Ontario. Alex teaches Disability and Theatre for the National Theatre School of Canada and was one of the first dramatists to integrate audio description within a dramaturgical practice
Simon Startin has been a director, actor, playwright and disability rights activist for over 30 years. Previously Artistic Director of Vital Xposure Theatre Company a disabled led theatre company making work around issues of social justice and politcal agency, Simon is also an Associate Artist of TRSE, London Bubble and Graeae. Asan activist he has worked with many organisations including the BBC, NationalTheatre, RSC, Creative Diversity Network, and London Theatre Consortium to increase disabled representation on stage and screen.
Acting credits include The Unicorn Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Shakespeare’sGlobe, Arcola and Birmingham Rep, as well as TV roles on BBC, Channel 4 and Paramount. He has directed at the Young Vic, RSC and NottinghamPlayhouse, and his 2015 production of CINEMA for Zendeh was awarded British Theatre Guide’s Best Small Scale touring production. As a published playwright, he has 21 professional commissions under his belt, 5 of which were Time Out Critics Choice.
