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    An Ecstasy of joy and dancing

    - Reviews Hub

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    An absolute triumph

    - LondonTheatre1

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    Groundbreaking Shakespeare

    - The Guardian

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    All people need to see it to understand what love is.

    - Ukrainian refugee

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    Today was the first time I forgot myself and was just there

    - Autistic participant

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    The only place we find peace joy and comfort

    - Parent of autistic participant

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    In Flute's work, we get to witness the best of humanity.

    - Family member

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    When it comes to caring for and loving a person with autism, Flute is an island in an ocean of chaos.

    - Family member

Flute Theatre  is named after Flute the Bellows Mender in A Midsummer Night's Dream who transforms from not believing he can take part in a play to raising the roof with laughter, charisma and the joy of living. Transformation sits at the heart of every thing we try to do. 

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Our Story

In 2014, we created The Tempest for autistic people as a co-production with the RSC. This production performed at the South Bank Centre in 2015 and at the Orange Tree Theatre 2016. In 2017, Kelly Hunter directed it in Catalan at Teatre Lliure in Barcelona. Flute have continued to tour this production, performing with autistic individuals in the UK and internationally. During this time, we created Hamlet, Who’s there? which toured the International Shakespeare Festivals between 2015-2018 including a sold out run at Trafalgar Studios in London in 2016. 

The Courtyard Theatre (2014)

The Courtyard Theatre (2014)

In 2017, we created A Midsummer Night’s Dream for autistic people in collaboration with Orange Tree Theatre. In 2018, Kelly Hunter returned to Teatre Lliure in Barcelona to direct the show in Catalan and the production also returned to the Orange Tree for a second run. In the UK we also delivered two runs of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for autistic people at the Bridge Theatre London in 2018 and 2019 and Chichester Festival Theatre. During 2017, we created our mainstage Twelfth Night which toured the International Shakespeare Festivals between 2017-2018 including a run at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2019. 

Orange Tree Theatre (2017)

Orange Tree Theatre (2017)

In 2019 we created Pericles for autistic people in co-production with Riksteatern, Sweden, performing on tour in translation to Sweden, Poland and Romania. During this year, we introduced our work to communities in Japan and India. In the summer of 2019, we founded our community project for autistic people and their families in West London which continues to this day as well as our long-standing collaboration with St. John’s College Brighton which similarly continues to thrive. 

Lublin (2019)

Lublin (2019)

During the pandemic we adapted our productions to be accessible online for the autistic community. Between March 2020 and July 2021, we delivered over 950 online live adapted performances for one autistic individual at a time across four continents. 

Since 2021 we have performed and toured Pericles for autistic people. This production has been partnered by our main stage adaption of Pericles, created in 2022. These two shows make a unique theatrical double wherein we offer two productions of this same play performed by the same company. During 2023, using this Double Pericles model, we performed extensively across the UK, in London, Brighton, Colchester, Devon, Sheffield, Stratford upon Avon and Oxford as well as performing internationally in translation in Russian, Romanian, Ukrainian and Serbian. 

Notre Dame Centre for Refugees, London (2023)

Notre Dame Centre for Refugees, London (2023)

In May 2022, we travelled to Sofia Bulgaria to perform our Pericles with Ukrainian refugees, creating a long-term collaboration with them at The Situational Centre in Sofia Bulgaria. In September 2023, Kelly Hunter travelled to Lima Peru to create a Peruvian version of the production in Spanish at Teatro La Plaza for the Peruvian autistic community.

Teatro La Plaza, Peru (2023)

Teatro La Plaza, Peru (2023)

In early 2024, we created Twelfth Night for autistic people returning to the Orange Tree Theatre for a successful three-week run, as well as giving a week of performances at Riverside Studios. We also created a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream which we performed alongside our existing production for autistic people in Romania, Serbia and London. At the same time, we revisited Hamlet, creating a new adaptation - Hamlet Collateral Damage which premiered at the Riverside Studios in London.  In the summer of 2024, we celebrated our tenth birthday with the world’s first Shakespeare festival for autistic people performing all four productions for autistic audiences alongside our new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Riverside Studios London. 

Novi Sad, Serbia (2024)

Novi Sad, Serbia (2024)
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Vision & Values

Theatre as a healing transformative cathartic experience.

Flute Theatre creates interactive, playful, heartfelt Shakespeare performances with autistic people.

Using the extraordinary listening skills, clarity of storytelling developed through this work, we create further productions for wider Audiences at venues ranging from refugee camps to major international festivals.

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Flexibility

Every performance is adapted to the specific needs of our participants, no matter where they are on the spectrum, what language they speak or whether they can even make it into the theatre space. We will perform in the street through a car window if a participant is too anxious to enter a buidling. Our flexibility as a company allows us to respond to the needs of marginalised people when existential crisis occur. We did this  during the pandemic with our adapted performances and through our immediate response to helping Ukrainan refugees in May 2022.

Compassion

Shakespeare’s  compassionate empathy toward mankind is at the heart of our work. This is embodied through our approach to Shakespeare; focussing on his poetic exploration of the ‘seeing mind’ and the ‘loving eye’. Our use of Shakespeare’s heartbeat offers a warm and womb like space, where autistic people may alleviate their fears and anxieties  and begin to express themselves in their own way. 

Internationalism

Many of our participants around the world are nonverbal and perform Shakespeare with us in a shared  language of heart, soul and body; the spoken word is the last tool of communication needed. We offer our productions of Shakespeare to autistic people around the world, continually learning where our similarities lie in human  rhythm and gesture rather than focussing on our differences. 

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Our Impact

What people say about Flute

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Thank you for creating your magical isle, which produced transformative effects beyond what even Prospero would have imagined. As the wonderful and unique children that took part in this performance demonstrated, the autistic spectrum is very wide and every individual with a diagnosis of autism requires a bespoke and individual response.

Rob Warner, Director of Drama, Aylesbury Grammar School

26th June 2014

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What was breathtaking, was the way the actors immediately adapted what they were doing, to incorporate what Tim was experiencing and communicating with his behaviour into the performance. In other words, they entered into Tim’s world rather than demanding that he enter theirs. Whether he was jumping, talking in a loud Cockney accent, or rocking back and forth, 2 actors worked with him to incorporate what he was bringing into the show. It worked!

Francesca Harden

10th October 2017

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This morning, Marcus, our profoundly autistic 12 year old son said ‘YES drama today.’ Given that Kelly’s one week drama course was 6 weeks ago, and Marcus rarely if ever articulates anything, illustrates the profound effect it had on him. It was extraordinary, that week in the summer. I had deliberately stayed away for the first 4 days. Marcus is usually negatively distracted by my presence anywhere.

Gill Walsh-Taylor

16th September 2018

"It's a privilege to run Flute. The plays create  a living practice for everyone involved."

— Kelly Hunter, Founder & Director

Meet the Team

Mercury Theatre, Colchester (2023)

Mercury Theatre, Colchester (2023)

Support our theatre

Funding for the arts is currently said to be at a ‘terminal decline’ but we will continue to create our life changing opportunities whatever the challenges. 

“Flute Theatre is the only place my child feels accepted” Parent. 

Please help us continue with a one off donation or a monthly subscription. Your donations go directly toward our performances with marginalised people and always will.

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