3rdthought's 'Absurd'

Highly regarded over-60s theatre company 3rdthought are never less than ambitious in their programming – and the results are never less than engaging. Previous work has included Martin Crimp’s ‘Fewer Emergencies’ at the Unicorn Theatre and ‘Paradise’, a collaborative show set in a fairground tent, which was presented as part of the Long Night of the Theatre in Berlin in 2010. The company’s latest production ‘Absurd’, a rampage through the Theatre of the Absurd’s surrealist material via the writings of Eugene Ionesco, is presented at the CLF Art Café, an old cricket bat factory in Peckham, currently also hosting the Royal Court Theatre, which is supporting this project. ‘Absurd’ celebrates the avant-gard of the 1950s, the cutting edge when members of the company were in their teens or twenties. Door bells ring, visitors arrive, non-sequiturs fly around little rooms, a fireman tells stories, a blue ball hovers and a producer apologises for it all. For this production the company welcomes Josie Kook-Clark, a young actor from the Italia Conti school, Peter Avery directs and 3rdthought celebrates the appointment of its new patron, journalist and actor Felicity Finch, who plays Ruth in ‘The Archers’. This is a promenade performance, suitable for children aged 12 and over.