Ikebana is an ancient form of Japanese flower arranging wherein the selection of flowers are held with equal importants to their vessel and upon which surface they are placed and in which room and light. All factors that make the experience are manipulated.

We make theatrical performative experiences with the same philosophy in mind. Our goal is to build immersive performative compositions wherein an audience member can physically explore the environment that the performance inhabits.

A romantic childhood fascination with fairground ghost trains is being indulged and explored in all of Ikebana’s shows.

Ikebana Performance draw’s from the history of experimentation within theatrical practice and gradually re write the contract between its audience and its performances. We want to literally take our audience by the hand and lead it or drag it through a production.

The Director:
Son of a Circus clown and former Catholic Nun Jonathan McGrath trained in classical theatre acting and graduated in 2000. Upon graduating Jonathan moved to London and began work as a commercial actor making his professional film debut in The Final Curtain. Within 6 months the excitement of being a commercial actor wore off and was replaced by boredom with the vapid nature of the acting profession.

Returning to Manchester Jonathan founded Ikebana Performance Company out of a desperate need to find fulfillment from acting within the conservative parameters of the theatre. Ikebana has gone on to make several large scale site-specific theatre performances with the kind support and residency’s offered by PANDA, Contact Theatre, The Lowry and greenroom. Also Jonathan has delivered several large-scale corporate events for marketing events agency Ear to the Ground.

Key performances to date:

Starved
The first show spanning three spaces across a city the play was a study of violence and misogyny. The show began in a bar and then we put the audience on a bus, blindfolded them and took them across the city to a secret location where the show continued, the show was brought to an abrupt halt and the audience was made to walk home.

Skittish
An episodic series of performances in and around the Contact Theatre building. The show focused on deconstructing contemporary notions of masculinity this was also performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London. Four audiences seeing four plays in different places rotate to see all of the shows making the story up for themselves.

Four Second Fool
Performed in a 12ft square crate in the greenroom auditorium. Centered on the relationships that men make with their lovers mirroring that of the relationships they have with their mothers.

Come Forth People Of The City, Under The Cover Of Night
A large-scale promenade performance built with Ben Faulks and a company of thirty performers involving a musical hijacking of Manchester Town Hall, a dinner party, and the unification of a city’s people. As part of the Manchester International Festival 2007.

Future performances:

Kanada Square
A new show made with Teatro Pavana (Holland), greenroom, Manchester, and Contact Theatre, Manchester. The show will be performed in a network of tunnels that run under part of the city, and will be performed on the border of two cities in summer 2010. To have a look at the location for the show see below: