about simple8

There are 6 full time members of simple8 - Mat, Ems, Christopher, Seb, Dudley and Hannah - as well as a number of associates who work alongside us.

Our company was formed in London in 2004 by a group of friends with a fairly straightforward aim: to create the kind of work we love - that is ensemble based theatre which has at its heart the collective and the story.

Over the past six and a half years, we have grown as a company but have hopefully stayed true to this ethos. We still strive to create innovative, ensemble based productions and we aspire to provide new writers with the opportunity to develop original scripts for large casts without having to worry about the financial constraints that force most theatre companies to commission work for a small number of actors.

Simplicity, truth and the collective remain our reference points. We want to produce simple stories, simply told.

We have done three productions so far - all written, produced, performed and funded by the company. Our first was a collection of short plays at The Curtains Up Theatre in Barons Court in 2005, which we financed by doing a cabaret show round parts of England. This allowed us to pay for Les Enfants du Paradis, an adaptation of the wonderful French film, which we performed at Arcola Theatre in 2006, to 5 star reviews. This in turn funded our next production as we returned to the Arcola with The Living Unknown Soldier, which we co-produced with Lilli Geisendorfer. This was London's first ecologically sustainable theatre production, in partnership with The Major of London and Global Action Plan, and it also received excellent notices, such as Critics choice in Time Out.

The Four Stages of Cruelty is our most ambitious project to date - creatively, financially and ecologically - and we are very excited about it.

simple8 would not exist as it is without the help of many individuals and organisations. Thank you to all of them, especially Arts Council England and The Brook Trust, for their support.

We hope you can see The Four Stages of Cruelty and we hope you enjoy our work.