THIS EVENT HAS PASSED

INDESTRUCTIBLE

PRESENTED BY PROTEUS THEATRE COMPANY
“I’m tired, I’m tired of trying to play the system, I’m tired of trying to fight the system and I’m tired of feeling tired about it.”

Catherine Shaw spent the 90s shocking the art world with her provocative performance art. She’s always called herself a feminist, but looking back through the lens of #MeToo, she’s questioning how much she enabled the culture she now sees being called out. An ambitious Curator approaches her to put together an exhibition of female Artists at a major new gallery; a scandal breaks and unwittingly caught in the centre, she begins to question everything.  

When men behave in unacceptable ways, why do we always point to the women close to them and ask why they did nothing?  

Can we, and should we, separate the art from the artist? How far do the ripples of consequence spread? And why is it always women who must hold the moral space? 

Indestructible takes in uncompromising female Artists, from Lee Miller to the Guerrilla Girls via Sinead O’Connor and Taylor Swift, to ask: why is it still so difficult for female Artists to succeed? And why are women always the Muse, never the Artist? 

Using animation and AI-generated projections, Indestructible is a highly visual, surprisingly funny and fiercely theatrical show from award-winning Proteus that asks serious and vital questions about cancel culture and accountability.

Blurring the worlds of gallery and theatre, and drawing on the visual language and art speak of gallery websites, Proteus theatre commissioned digital artist Paula Varjack and web developer Ben Gregory to create a website for the [fictional] gallery MOCA North, including additional material that extends the narrative outside the physical show: a virtual gallery and online guide for the Indestructible exhibition, an interview with Catherine Shaw.

The gallery of 26 artworks features mixes real work by emerging and established female artists alongside fictional digital works created with AI, raising questions about truth, authorship and the rising using of digital creative tools across art forms.

Theatre Club

Tues 30 Jan
Free to ticket-holders

Do you like watching theatre, but wish you had someone to talk with about what you see? Come to Theatre Club! It’s a very informal – no membership required – conversation space similar to book groups: people see a show, then meet to chat about it. Use code TCOMNIBUS at checkout for £10 tickets for this performance! Find out more here→

16 JAN-3 FEB
7:30PM (TUES-SAT)
4PM (SUN)
£18 STANDARD
£16 CONCESSION
£10 PREVIEWS

INDESTRUCTIBLE

PRESENTED BY PROTEUS THEATRE COMPANY
“I’m tired, I’m tired of trying to play the system, I’m tired of trying to fight the system and I’m tired of feeling tired about it.”

Catherine Shaw spent the 90s shocking the art world with her provocative performance art. She’s always called herself a feminist, but looking back through the lens of #MeToo, she’s questioning how much she enabled the culture she now sees being called out. An ambitious Curator approaches her to put together an exhibition of female Artists at a major new gallery; a scandal breaks and unwittingly caught in the centre, she begins to question everything.  

When men behave in unacceptable ways, why do we always point to the women close to them and ask why they did nothing?  

Can we, and should we, separate the art from the artist? How far do the ripples of consequence spread? And why is it always women who must hold the moral space? 

Indestructible takes in uncompromising female Artists, from Lee Miller to the Guerrilla Girls via Sinead O’Connor and Taylor Swift, to ask: why is it still so difficult for female Artists to succeed? And why are women always the Muse, never the Artist? 

Using animation and AI-generated projections, Indestructible is a highly visual, surprisingly funny and fiercely theatrical show from award-winning Proteus that asks serious and vital questions about cancel culture and accountability.

Blurring the worlds of gallery and theatre, and drawing on the visual language and art speak of gallery websites, Proteus theatre commissioned digital artist Paula Varjack and web developer Ben Gregory to create a website for the [fictional] gallery MOCA North, including additional material that extends the narrative outside the physical show: a virtual gallery and online guide for the Indestructible exhibition, an interview with Catherine Shaw.

The gallery of 26 artworks features mixes real work by emerging and established female artists alongside fictional digital works created with AI, raising questions about truth, authorship and the rising using of digital creative tools across art forms.

Theatre Club

Tues 30 Jan
Free to ticket-holders

Do you like watching theatre, but wish you had someone to talk with about what you see? Come to Theatre Club! It’s a very informal – no membership required – conversation space similar to book groups: people see a show, then meet to chat about it. Use code TCOMNIBUS at checkout for £10 tickets for this performance! Find out more here→

16 JAN-3 FEB
7:30PM (TUES-SAT)
4PM (SUN)
£18 STANDARD
£16 CONCESSION
£10 PREVIEWS

Indestructible | Rehearsal Gallery

  • Two actors rehearsing, one lies on the floor propping their head up against a chair covered in a white sheet
  • Two actors rehearsing, slow dancing together
  • An actor holds material that resembles a person, using the prop like a puppet
  • In the rehearsal room, an actor dances and liquid is held mid air
  • The actor holds paint and is pouring it onto a trolley
  • Three people, two actors sit behind a man talking
  • An actor wearing a patterned jumper smiles at another actor stood opposite them
  • A director sits at a table with a pencil talking ahead

Photo credit: Chuck Douglas Photography

Indestructible | Production Shots

  • A man and a woman sit on a cloth covered couch. The woman speaks to the man, he looks at his phone.
  • Three people on stage, two men, one woman. They are talking to each other. The man in the middle speaks to the other man. This man has his head in his hand and is turned away slight turned away from the conversation. The woman looks on their conversation. The background is a set of an art studio. There are stand alone structures that represent walls, on these there are projections with the words 'Creative Conversations'
  • Two men stand on stage. One man looks to be in great comfort, the other looks on, laughing.
  • A man stand is a white shirt and blue overalls, speaking to the audience
  • A woman stands left to center, speaking to the audience. Next to her is a black projected image with white, green and pink illustrations. The illustrations show someone holding up and image of a priest with the words 'fight the real enemy'
  • Two men, dressed in sequin blazers face the audience. One man is speaking while the other is listening.
  • A woman's face is projected onto set wall.
  • A woman aggressively rips up a large piece of paper. The background set of an art studio has projected images of a man's face.
  • A woman moves with her hands in her hands on her head. There is a pink, green and blue colored image projected onto the wall behind her.
  • A man and woman are dance in front of a set of an art studio. The walls of the set have green patterns projected onto them.

Photo credit: The Other Richard

Indestructible | Trailer

Cinematographer & Editor: Chard House Media

Indestructible | Vox Pops

Cinematographer & Editor: Grace Oskiera Vooght

Cast

Headshot of Mary Rose. She wears a navy top and has shoulder length light brown hair and green eyes.

Mary Rose

Catherine Shaw

Mary trained at The Poor School. Theatre includes: What About Samuel? (Brighton Festival & Arts Theatre, London), Frankenstein (Proteus Theatre Company), Romeo and Juliet (Pilot Theatre), Dracula (Proteus Theatre Company), The Seagull (Royal Court & Broadway), Bullet Shaped Heart (Greenwich Theatre), Kane (Theatre 503), Beauty and the Beast and The Wedding Present (both for Proteus Theatre Company), Thin Toes (Hampstead Theatre), The Cut (The Old Vic with St Mungo’s), Macbeth (New Wolsey, Ipswich), A Place at the Table (Pleasance), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Salisbury Playhouse), Fortune’s Fool (Chichester Festival Theatre) and Tess of the d’Urbervilles (Watermill Theatre). 

Headshot of Paul Huntley. He is a caucasian man wearing a black t-shirt smiling at the camera.

Paul Huntley-Thomas

The Collector

Paul graduated from De Montfort University in 1994 with a degree in Performing Arts. Since then, he has toured nationally and internationally with a variety of theatre companies. He has also appeared in films and on television, most recently in Secret Invasion for Disney/Marvel and as Colonel Maurice Buckmaster in Lost Women Spies. He has worked with Proteus on a number of different productions, including writing and performing a one-man show called Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know based on the life of Lord Byron and also a ghost storytelling show Haunting Tales. He has appeared in part in Great Yarmouth playing Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, and at Diss as an Ugly Sister in Cinderella. 

Headshot of Danny Charles. A black man with no hair, wearing a denim shirt over a black t-shirt.

Danny Charles

The Curator

Danny trained at The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts. His theatre credits include: Stripy Tales Bolton Octagon, Macbeth Proteus Theatre Basingstoke, No Worries Polka Theatre, Nervous Break-down Croydon Warehouse, Sleeping Beauty Hoxton Hall and Dead Man’s production of the highly acclaimed cross dressing Cowboy musical Yee Haw. He has worked with Proteus in several previous productions which include, The Little Mermaid, The Arabian Nights and as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. More recently he has been writing and producing his own work including a piece commissioned by Proteus in 2021 about homelessness called Talk to me.

Book Now

Concessions

Concessions apply to students, under-18s, over-60s and more. For more info on our concession policy click here→

Accessibility

All performance spaces and facilities are fully wheelchair-accessible. For more info please contact Box Office on 0207 498 4699.

Ticket Collection

We operate a paperless box office system. You will be emailed a receipt once you have booked in advance. There is no need to print this off, just state your name at the box office on arrival.

Café Bar

Serving a menu of hot drinks, craft beers, wine and seasonal cocktails before and after every show and a full home-made food menu including freshly baked pastries, delicious cakes and savoury light bites from Friday – Sunday. 

Content Warnings

References to sexual assault, rape, misogyny. Some strong language.

Find out more here.

Age Recommendation

14+

Duration

2h

You May Also Like

An oil painting of a woman looking over her shoulder wearing a white shirt, the background is red and in front of her is a mound of dirt
SCARLET SUNDAY

Can you truly separate the art from the artist? Art curator Yasmin embarks on a journey delving into the enigmatic life of the late artist Ray Blackwood and uncovers the haunting truth behind the mysterious painting “Scarlet Sunday”.

More Info
A white marble bust statue splattered in colourful paint
REMYTHED

Remythed takes stories from the backgrounds of its five performers and reshapes, reforms, and retells them, sprinkled with queer truth and joy. Leaving you extremely joyful, a bit tearful and questioning every story you’ve been told.

More Info