Shunt is a theatre company based in London, England, founded in 1998.

Between 2004 and 2010, the company produced work in the vaults beneath London Bridge station

London Bridge station

London Bridge railway station is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex in the London Borough of Southwark, occupying a large area on two levels immediately south-east of London Bridge and 1.6 miles east of Charing Cross. It is one of the oldest railway stations in the...

, a space of considerable size. They then move to a former tobacco warehouse in the district of London Bridge

London Bridge

London Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames, connecting the City of London and Southwark, in central London. Situated between Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Tower Bridge, it forms the western end of the Pool of London...

, where they staged weekly cabarets until the spring of 2011. Shunt's work is centred on immersive, site-specific performance, usually in a grand scale, and has been supported by Britain's Royal National Theatre

Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

, NESTA

NESTA

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts is an independent endowment in the United Kingdom established by an Act of Parliament in 1998....

 (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and Arts Council England

Arts Council England

Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport...

. It has been the subject of much critical and academic discussion over the last decade.

Shunt has been awarded the Peter Brook

Peter Brook

Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...

 Empty Space Award, in 2003 and 2005, the Time Out Live Award in 2003, the Total Theatre Award in 2000 as part of the London International Mime Festival, and many critics' awards in the United Kingdom.

Artists

• Founding Members

Serena Bobowski, Hannah Ringham, David Rosenberg, Louise Mari, Lizzie Clachan, Gemma Brockis, Layla Rosa, Andrew Rutland, Heather Uprichard, and Mischa Twitchin . The Shunt artists met on a one-year postgraduate course at Central School of Speech and Drama

Central School of Speech and Drama

The Central School of Speech and Drama was founded in London in 1906 by Elsie Fogerty to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students...

• The Managers

Executive Director: Philip Lloyd, Programme Co-ordinator: Luke Cooper, Buildings/Technical Manager: Andrea Salazar, Production Co-ordinator: Eleanor Barrett, and Finance/Office Manager: Catherine McKinney.

• Bar Managers

Marina Saura, Maurizio Vaccaro, and Sylvia Sampons.

• Associate Artists

Max Ringham, Ben Ringham, Susanne Dietz, David Farley, Glen Neath, George Tomlinson, Simon Kane, Nigel Barrett, and Ryo Yoshida.

Production History

Money (2009-2010), Bermondsey Street, London.

Amato Saltone Starring Kittens and Wade (2005-2006), the Vaults, London.

Tropicana (2005-2006), the Vaults, London

Dance Bear Dance (2002-2003), the Arch, London.

The Tennis Show (2001), The Museum of the Unknown, London.

The Ballad of Bobby Fancois (1999-2001), the Arch, the Pleasance for the 2000 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Drome for the 2001 London International Mine Festival.

Twist (1998), for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Battersea Arts Centre’s Octoberfest.

Locations

Their first performance space was rooted in Bethnal Green Arches from 1998 to 2004. It was an old railway that had one large archway or ‘the Arch’ and was the central piece in their performances. There they performed Shunt Cabarets, Dance Bear Dance, Sightings, ‘’the Tennis Show, and the Ballad of Bobby Francois. In 2004, however, Shunt moved to a bigger venue after exploring every possibility in the space. Their new home, called the London Bridge Vaults or ‘Shunt Vaults’, is located under the London Bridge Station. It is an immense abandoned warehouse where they produced Tropicana, Amato Saltone Starring Kittens and Wade, and Shunt Lounge. The Vaults were in need of renovation so in 2010 Shunt moved to a tobacco warehouse called the Bermondsey Street Warehouse where they performed Money, and Bermondsey Street Cabarets.

Shunt’s Process

The idea of Shunt is to ”challenge the model of the single author” . The group agrees on a theme or subject and as individual artists they all contribute proposals for scenes. From that starting point they use improvisation and games to create material. Though they strive for minimal hierarchy, there are normal roles that the artists fulfill such as a lighting designer, sound designer, director, performers etc. This collage is described as “a framing device that holds together disparate found material: the fragments of reality are not fully integrated into the representational scheme of the work of art” . Most devised theatre

Devised theatre

Devised theatre is a form of theatre where the script originates not from a writer or writers, but from collaborative, usually improvisatory, work by a group of people...

is a ‘montage’ or “artwork that brings together assorted material but forges it into a new whole so that all elements are related rationally to the whole despite the heterogeneity of their source”. Shunt is a mixture of these ideas because they are intelligent and strategic in terms of intrigue, suspense, and structure.
There is some advantage in sharing in the one vision of Shunt; however, the creative team has an arduous task piecing together all of the units to form the solid piece. This is where their idea of no single author falters because Rosenberg, the director, has the final say in what is chosen. Like in any group, Shunt has disagreements and clashes of artistic vision. Company member Mischa Twitchin says, “There’s no need for rose-tinted glasses, sometimes it’s fraught and difficult, but there’s an ethos”. Later he also says:

“That spirit of collaboration is something special; it’s about the quality of the particular person, not simply their extraordinary skills, but their own ethos. Professionalism is a necessary condition but it is not sufficient. You can’t institutionalize individuals’ sense of commitment to their own work within a situation like that”.

Awards

Notoriety followed Shunt after The Ballad of Bobby Francois, winning them a Herald Angel and a Total Theatre Award. Continuing on this streak, Dance Bear Dance received Time Out’s ‘Live’ Award and an ‘Empty Space’ Award. The Shunt Lounge was listed as number 25 of the 191 ‘star bars; in the Independent.

Shunt Lounge

The Shunt Lounge was designed as a break that would give the company a time to catch their breath but not completely give them a hiatus. The Lounge created some controversy in the theatre world because it can be described as an unusual bar, rather than a show . Attendees enter through a service door near the London Bridge Station and go through a series of tunnels and corridors that have pieces of past sets and dressings. Also in the corridor there can be found short films and art that differ from week to week. The crowd has the freedom to explore anywhere in the tunnels and, hopefully, end up at the final arena space where there is a bar, music, and time to socialize. Finally there is a form of performance that differs with the day. Everything from the costumes, music, and performance is decided by one or a team of Shunt artists that have creative freedom. Shunt brings in many new artists that want to try out their work on an audience and they often come back with improvements after they get feedback. Twitchin says, “It’s not advertised, there are no reviews, you pay to come into the space… and then you have access to everything for free. So, whether it’s Stationhouse Opera trying something out, or an opportunity to tattoo bananas, there’s no prior judgment. That’s important where artists are experimenting with an idea”.

Shunt Audiences

The audiences have been an integral part of Shunt’s process because they provide valuable feedback. The artists know instantly if something works or does not work and they get the chance to evolve constantly. Shunt’s shows are known for being interactive and giving the audience a chance to discover situations on their own; this is especially true in the Shunt Lounge. Twitchin describes importance of the audience:

“…one of the main interests of the company is to consider the journey of the audience. The work includes ‘an audience’, distinct from a group of people wandering randomly. How they are included is our responsibility; we are making an experience for an audience, in an environment that we are constructing. It’s not a Happening, it’s a rehearsed show and even if it’s not apparent to anybody – even ourselves sometimes! – there is a narrative structure.”