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What the Press has written for Collide Theatre
For The Woman Who Turned Into A Tree [April 2022]
"A fable-cum-horror story, atmospherically directed by Emily Louizou. Piepe’s performance feels genuinely fraught while Filippakopoulou, also movement director, very creepily manifests Daphne’s fracturing, doubling over, as if in pain, slipping out of the wardrobe or staggering across the floor. There are voiceovers, too, it all verges on the baroque but never gets hammy and there is excellently eerie music by David Denyer."
Read the full review here from The Guardian
"Emily Louizou’s production makes effective use of Collide Theatre’s trademark movement and striking visuals. Louizou threads some beautiful moments through the text. She and Filippakopoulou devise interludes in which the two Daphnes mirror each other, then break out of sync; there is a terrific, horror-filmic scene in which Filippakopoulou emerges from the wardrobe in a twisted, grotesque form. Amy Hill’s lighting, with garish, shifting pools of illumination, conjures the club where Daphne works, while also suggesting synapses flashing and fizzling in her brain. It is a beautiful design, bringing a constant sense of uneasy motion. All of that really elevates the play [...] It is a wonderfully weird piece of theatre."
Read the full review here from The Stage
★★★★
"The Woman Who Turned Into A Tree is a triumph in introspective storytelling which is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining. It is relevant for anyone who feels as though they may be sinking at times under the weight of expectation or isolation and uses a clever mythology-influence to deliver its messages in a fun and unpredictable way utilising great creative movement. It is stronger for its direct and authoritative style which comes across as both measured and authentic, while still leaving room for its audience to interpret their own outcomes. Its cool set and funky soundtrack are matched by outstanding performances. If this show began a seed, it is well on its way to becoming a tree."
Read the full review here from All That Dazzles
★★★★
"This is a piece of theatre that defies easy categorisation. It is a mixture of spoken word, drama, mime, dance, and music. This is an innovative piece of storytelling and raises many more questions than it offers answers, It is constantly surprising and always intriguing. For many in the unusually young audience it clearly struck chords. A play well worth seeing – and arguing about in the bar afterwards."
Read the full review here from PlaysToSee
For The Coral [October 2022]
"Timely revival of Georg Kaiser’s knotty political expressionist allegory... the image of the rich in their bubble, everyone else choking, has rarely hit so close to home: a depressing reminder of how little has changed in more than a century."
Read the full review here from The Stage
[...] the production often has a dynamic panache, thanks in part to Ioli Filippakopoulou’s movement direction. David Denyer’s score provides an unnerving industrialised clang, Amy Hill’s lighting design evokes the psychedelic colours of a reef and Kaiser’s closing metaphor of a harmonious coral colony lingers in the mind.
Collide are clearly a company to keep an eye on."
Read the full review here from The Guardian
"The sparse Finborough stage is enlivened with an outstanding use of lighting and costumes in black, red and white while actors perform stylised movements and express Kaiser’s prophetic words like characters from a Greek tragedy."
Read the full review here from PlaysToSee
"[...] has a strange theatrical magnetism in Emily Louizou's fine production."
From London Grip
"There are moments which cry out for a still photo, the like of which you'd expect in a glossy art magazine."
From Everything Theatre
"[...] a solid and engaging work."
From A Youngish Perspective
"This imaginative, entertaining production takes you briefly into that disintegrating world of Weimar Germany [...]"
From British Theatre Guide
For Metamorphosis [April & June 2019]
★★★★
“Perhaps the philosophy that supports Metamorphosis is deeper and wider than childhood, but this fresh interpretation of Kafka’s wretched, haunting tale propels it straight into the 21st Century where it belongs to be revisited yet again, and perhaps for centuries to come.”
Read full review here from LondonTheatre1
★★★★
“Part-drama and part-dance, Metamorphosis uses powerful visuals to create an unsettling and arresting experience […] The great strength of Louizou’s direction is in how she encourages the audience to identify with Gregor. Metamorphosis is a fantastic show, presenting a fresh and original take on Kafka that will please both the knowledgeable and the curious.”
Read full review here from PlaysToSee
“Collide Theatre’s adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novella Metamorphosis is a dynamic and expressionistic piece of dance theatre, performed by a fresh and youthful ensemble. Very interestingly, no actor was playing the protagonist: Gregor Samsa, the very ordinary travelling salesman who wakes up one morning to discover he has been transformed into a large and verminous insect. His bedroom was placed in the audience’s seating area, and when the actors wanted to look at him or refer to him, they were looking directly at us. We were made into an audience of Gregors. This was an uncomfortable scenario, and the Samsa family’s increasing revulsion and rejection of their son and brother became very personalised.”
Read full review here from Number9 Reviews
“Collide Theatre have created Kafkaesque theatre through the ingenious use of perspective, a fantastic score and superb dance choreography. Metamorphosis is a provocative performance that is both thought-provoking and precisely executed.”
Read full review here from The Plays The Thing
Read Culture Whisper‘s full feature: “In this dance theatre piece, a group of five individuals use Collide Theatre’s trademark blend of storytelling, dance and music, to bring to life the story of Gregor Samsa. In so doing, this group of emerging artists aims to celebrate Samsa’s uniqueness, as well as the uniqueness of all those before and after him who had to fight against their family’s alienation.”
METAMORPHOSIS WAS SELECTED FOR THE INCOMING FESTIVAL 2019. THE BEST EMERGING THEATRE COMPANIES’ FESTIVAL CELEBRATING THE BEST IN EMERGING THEATRE FROM ACROSS THE UK.
REVIEWS FROM OUR PREVIOUS SHOWS [2015-2018]:
★★★★★
“The piercing stares of the all-female chorus as three Virgil like furies leave an audience squirming. What makes TROY a unique show is a brilliant incorporation of music and song into the language of the play […] It challenges and provokes reflection. This is a great play outstandingly directed and performed. Highly recommended.”
PlaysToSee for TROY, 2018
★★★★
“With Tejas Verdes, Collide Theatre have again put together and presented a first-rate show which works on many levels. A fascinating and thought- provoking piece!”
LondonTheatre1 for Tejas Verdes, 2017
★★★★★
“The acting by every cast member is phenomenal. This production’s stripped- back approach is ideal, treating the text with sensitivity and never tipping over into melodrama.”
PlaysToSee for Tejas Verdes, 2017
★★★★
“An excellent, pitch-perfect production. It it both brutal and beautiful, and never maudlin. In such close quarters, Louizou and her talented cast confronts us with the pain and suffering; and pose uncomfortable questions about how, as individual and society, we forbear and acquiesce to such abhorrent deeds. A challenging experience that offers both grim portent and the hope of human perseverance – but it is up to us to decide which…” PerformanceReviewed for Tejas Verdes, 2017
“Director Emily Louizou has found the perfect space for Tejas Verdes… Louizou’s promenade staging works to great effect in conveying the sense of a disturbing visit to a shadowy museum of prison cells.”
A Younger Theatre for Tejas Verdes, 2017
“Watching Emily Louizou’s production, the effort undertaken to remain cognisant of the lives lost and trauma lived is almost palpable, and it is this fact that grounds the piece and makes it what it is: frankly, breath-taking.”
Savage for Tejas Verdes, 2017
★★★★
“A really gripping production… Director Emily Louizou both asks for and gets a huge amount from her cast. A fascinating performance!”
LondonTheatre1 for Hamletmachine, 2016
★★★★★
“An incredibly powerful production which rises to Kane’s challenge”
PlaysToSee for 4.48 Psychosis, 2015
★★★★
“I don’t think the written word is enough to convey the power of being in the crypt with the play going on around you.”
LondonTheatre1 for 4.48 Psychosis, 2015
“There is no benchmark I can offer, no relevant experience to relate it to, but in terms of pure stagecraft it is an excellent envisioning of a very difficult play, and an experience worth undertaking, even if only because it is different from anything else out there.”
A Younger Theatre for 4.48 Psychosis, 2015
“4.48 Psychosis plunges its audience into the psychotic mind of a clinical depressive. Directed by Emily Louizou, this is a gruelling and brilliant piece of immersive theatre. The attention to detail is staggering, testament to Louizou’s magisterial direction; the staging appeals to almost every sense. It is nothing if not a powerful piece of theatre, and one, whilst a challenge to stomach, that is entirely deserving of the upmost praise and reverence.”
UCL Pi Media for 4.48 Psychosis, 2015
“I can’t really put into words everything that I felt as I climbed out of that Crypt, but I felt changed. Bravo.” Performance Reviewed for 4.48 Psychosis, 2015
