Solo Performance Work

You, Me and the Distance Between Us

A one woman theatre show

Devised, performed and toured internationally 2016-2019

Ellen spent 6 months volunteering in Europe’s refugee camps.

She gave out clothes and blankets, she made many cups of tea.

It gave her lots to think about. Like what everyone was fleeing from, why she had really come to help and whether borders were such a good idea after all.

She’s put it all on stage, because it needs to be talked about.

Expect puppets, slam poetry, song and role-play in an attempt to expose the humanity behind the headlines. 

Audiences left saying “I laughed, cried, felt embarrassed, angry and sad.”

From a traditional theatre education into front line humanitarian aid work, Ellen combines old skills with new experiences to bring alive the existential issues that surround mass movements of people, encouraging the audience to consider their own position within it. 

The stage resembles French and Greek makeshift camps, with a simple set made entirely of found objects. Ellen uses a combination of shadow and cloth puppets, slam poetry, live acapella singing and humorous role play to entice the audience into an honest dialogue, using her own experiences as a base to address popular misconceptions surrounding the media frenzy of Europe’s “Refugee Crisis”, 2015-2016.

You, Me and the Distance Between Us was devised during the Spring of 2016 and was performed over 50 times at theatres, schools, universities, festivals and community centres around England, Scotland, Germany, Denmark and the Czech Republic.