About Rogue Theatre

Rogue Theatre creates daring high quality theatre, events and immersive experiences that are widely accessible and deeply engaging. Our work mixes rich atmosphere and a highly visual style with instinct, energy and a passion for celebration and the macabre.

We produce a range of projects including late night cabaret shows, festival projects, music events, young people’s performance events/projects, and of course theatre.

Our theatre shows mix entertainment and spectacle with pathos and powerful narrative whilst sharing the same vein of wreckless celebaration which runs through all of our work.

We are committed to creating projects, shows and events which are accessible, appealing, exciting and beneficial.  We aim to engage new audiences and participants in new ways, maximising enjoyment, nurturing talent, encouraging aspiration, supporting the development of skills and stoking the fire of exciting cultural activity in the UK.

To find out more about Rogue’s founders and past and present members CLICK HERE.

Brief Rogue History

2004 – Rogue Theatre was founded by Angelina Boscarelli and Ollie Oakenshield with support from Anthony Waller and Tamzyn Smith (Emery) who supported ‘The Escape Plan’ helped establish Rogue.  We performed an extract of ‘Beauty vs. The Beast’ at the Cornwall showcase (we recieved our first bookings for the show from Andy Burdon, The Rondo and Paula Hammond, The Merlin as a result of the showcase).  This gave us our first opportunity to explore our ideas, to work with Anna Maria Murphy on our own project and to develop our identity.  We worked with 2 live musicians and a pyro…and so it began…

2005 – Rogue Theatre Debut tour ‘Beauty vs. The Beast’.  We toured to 20 theatre venues around the South West and a bit beyond.  The show was co-directed by Bec Applebee and combined cabaret influences, a hint of illusion and spectacle, live music (Dj/Musician and Rock Drummer!), lots of curtains, some excellent writing by Anna and one hell of a fight between Beauty and The Beast (Angelina and Ollie).

We started to develop workshops and education projects to support our touring activity.  At the end of the tour we had no where to store the set so it stayed in our lounge for a number of months.

2006 – Rogue produced ‘Mucking About With Words’ at Port Eliot Festival.  Paul Leingaard and Den Malcom (Angelina’s old Circus friends) were running the Cabaret Tent and offered it to us during the day.  Working with Creative Partnerships and The Works we delivered ‘Mucking About With Words’ a young person’s performance event (later to become what is now Twenty Five).

‘Madame Lucinda’s Wonder Show’.  Based on people Angelina has known during her travels we created a fantastical play about running away with the circus.  The show really defined Rogue as a company and created a great deal of excitement.

We performed an extract at the Cornwall showcase and gained bookings from Battersea Arts Centre and Komedia Brighton.  We decided to retour the Wonder Show in 2007/2008.

2007 – Rogue was engaged in a great number of young people’s projects and delivered ‘Mucking About With Words’ at Port Eliot in Partnership with Arts Awards and The Works.

Rogue reworked and (extensively) retoured ‘Madame Lucinda’s Wonder Show’ adding a number of mid scale venues to the tour (October 2007 to May 2008).  This retour was greately beneficial to the company allowing us to gain critical mass with a production we knew we could sell and which we knew would define our brand.  The tour forged our first links with Prema Arts Centre and The Lowry, Salford as well as performing to sell outs at BAC (the show was previewed by Lynn Gardner and drew a crowd for 3 nights).

2008 – Rogue started to develop cabaret and burlesque shows at venues like Annabel’s Cabaret (Barbican Plymouth) and other pub/club venues.

Port Eliot took a fallow year so we produced a community festival at Trematon House for the local community of Saltash.

Angelina toured with The Globe on Tour as the transport manager and driver for their European tour.

Rogue was involved in a great number of young people’s projects.

“Pathway to the Red Sun”.  Inspired by Japanese horror, Madame Butterfly and Quentin Tarrantino Rogue produced a show in stark contrast to the Wonder Show but with a strong Rogue identity.  We created a show which was visually arresting, had a strong live score by Andrew Bate and mixed pathos with spectacle and reality with the fantastical.  The show was set against a backdrop of projected film by Laura Hardman and mixed Bladerunner-esque futuristic style with traditional Japanese mythology.  The show toured 82 venues between October 2008 and May 2009.

2009 – Rogue Theatre produced a number of cabaret and live music events.

We were engaged in a range of workshops, education and young people’s projects.

Rogue Theatre rebranded ‘Mucking About With Words’ as ‘Twenty Five’ and redefined the scope and aims of the project.  Supported by Relays and The Works Twenty Five was a vibrant and exciting project, a fantastic event and a great success for all involved.

Rogue developed a new production base in Redruth.  Giving the company a base and a highly productive and creative resource.  We began to consider the definition of Rogue as a creative company and started an exploration which aspired to increase the impact of our work and our cultural contribution at the same time as increasing our sustainability.

‘The Family’.  Inspired by Hammer Horror and David Lynch ‘The Family’ was a dark piece which explored the lives of a stir crazy and dysfunctional family trapped in their decaying mansion by guilt relating to a terrible accident.  The show embodied the style of Hammer and warped the sense of reality in David Lynch-esque sequences which presented the situation in the same intoxicated and disorientating way that the characters were seeing them.  Each of the characters depending on drink or lordinum to escape the claustrophobic terror as they waited for Vincent the dark scientist to bring their dead (and decaying!) son back from the dead.

The Family toured from October 2009 to May 2010.

2010 – Rogue Theatre decided to take a strategic break from touring to focus on company development and to progress Rogue, focusing on sustainability, financial stability and the cultural impact of our work.

We developed a great number of young person’s workshops and education projects.  Twenty Five in partnership with FEAST and Port Eliot Festival grew again, involving over 270 young people from accross Cornwall in a vibrant event which hosted over 90 different performances.

Twenty Five also worked in partnership with a range of arts and cultural organisations including CYMAZ, RIO, CYDC, The Works, Arts Awards, Chew TV and Extravert.  The event hosted a number of workshops as well.

Rogue Theatre developed our first ever Corporate Cabaret Project in Partnership with BEST PARTY NIGHT.  We were commissioned to deliver 21 Moulin Rouge Inspired Performances for a series of Christmas Party Events.

“The Dancer and The Devil”.  In May 2010 BAC invited Rogue to participate in their Scratch Festival.  We spent 2 weeks at BAC developing ideas for an immersive cabaret show which journeyed towards the routes of theatre and explored cabaret, ritual, and the relationship between audience and performance.  We created a 45 minute performance which explored a number of ideas and engaged all the senses.

Porl Cooper (Producer from The Lowry) came to BAC to work with Rogue (he even got roped into playing the doorman of the club) and offered The Lowry’s support to develop the work further as part of their “Developed at The Lowry” Programme.

Simultaneously Gordon Scott (Artistic Director of Prema Arts Centre) offered Rogue some money and support in kind to develop the work.  We spent 2 weeks at Prema developing the show with a fantastic group of artists and performers.

We then developed the work with Anna Maria Murphy at Rogue Space before taking a new extract to the Lowry as part of their “Developed at The Lowry Showcase”.

This process has been grately beneficial to both Rogue and the work and has enabled us to involve critical dialogue in our development considering both quality affect/experience and cultural impact.

Rogue is currently developing “The Dancer and The Devil” and is redefining the way develop projects and work with the public, audiences and other organisations and venues.

We are planning a period of focussed organisational development and hope to develop an organisation and a creative process which increases the scope, benefit and impact of our work, which creates more opportunities and which brings new energy to the development of vibrant culture.

2011 -We have a number of exciting plans and developments.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE.