The Riverfront Theatre and Arts’ programme of innovative theatre.
The aim of this programme is to curate a range of performances that are a mix of inspiring, emerging or challenging work that seeks to further develop the arts and culture audience within Newport.
The Reflekt programme consists of developmental work, contemporary dance, impactful dramas, performances with topical themes, comedy and so much more; all of which aim to encourage the audience to ”reflekt”.
We have a passion to support and develop the arts scene within Wales and providing a platform for artists and theatre companies. Reflekt enables us to continue building on our existing relationships, provides opportunities and supports the growth of arts and culture in Newport and the wider community.
Reflekt is the start of what we would like to be the home of innovative theatre in Newport, a space for artists with specialities across artforms to showcase their work, whilst also being a home to an audience who seek to engage, experience and immerse themselves within the arts and innovative theatre.
Reflekt Performances Coming Up
Ransack Dance Company: Us and Them
An ambitious double-bill production of athletic contemporary dance, spoken word and live music. Plus performances from local community members. Us and Them explores both togetherness and separation. How we connect with some people by sharing experiences, whilst disconnecting with others by creating barriers. Dividing‘us’ from ‘them’.
Every performance includes BSL interpretation
Date: Wednesday 6th March, 7:30pm
Mid Wales Opera - Verdi's Macbeth
MWO presents its first-ever production of Verdi’s Macbeth as the culmination of its Shakespeare Season. Experience a gripping tale of power, manipulation and tragic descent as Macbeth, a valiant general, succumbs to his wife's persuasion, leading to a ruthless quest for the Scottish throne.
Date: Thursday 14 March, 7.30pm
Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope
Mark Farrelly brings his hugely-acclaimed solo play to The Riverfront for an up-close encounter with the original Englishman in New York.
From a conventional upbringing to global notoriety via The Naked Civil Servant, Quentin Crisp was one of the most memorable figures of the twentieth century. Openly gay as early as the 1930s, Quentin spent decades being beaten up on London’s streets for refusing to be anything less than himself. His courage, and the philosophy that evolved from those experiences, inspire to the present day.
Naked Hope depicts Quentin at two phases of his extraordinary life: alone in his Chelsea flat in the 1960s, certain that life has passed him by, and thirty years later, performing An Evening with Quentin Crisp in New York. Packed with witty gems on everything from cleaning (“Don’t bother – after the first four years the dust won’t get any worse”) to marriage (“Is there life after marriage? The answer is no”), Naked Hope is a glorious, uplifting celebration of the urgent necessity to be your true self.
Date: Friday 12 April, 8pm
Cerys Bradley: Not Over Thinking Things 2019
Did Cerys cause their parents' divorce? Are they too mean to their work colleagues? Did they just make that interaction really awkward? Is a new year's resolution ever going to be enough to fix their personality? In this surreal and silly interactive stand-up show/birthday party, you get to decide.
Cerys is a non-binary comedian and Autistic Excellence Award Winner at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022. As seen on BBC1 Wales, BBC iPlayer & BBC Radio Wales. This will be a relaxed show.
Date: Saturday 13th April, 8pm
Operation Julie
Theatr na nÓg and Aberystwyth Arts Centre present one of the most jaw-dropping true stories ever to come out of Wales…OPERATION JULIE.
Breaking Bad collides with The Good Life in this anarchic play with music from the 70’s prog rock, performed live on stage by 9 talented actor-musicians. It tells the incredible story of the undercover operation that resulted in dozens of arrests and the discovery of LSD worth £100 million, and smashed one of the most extraordinary drug rings the world has ever seen.
Date: Wednesday 17 Dydd Mercher – Saturday 20 Dydd Sadwrn, 7.30pm
Hags: A Magical Extravaganza
In Bideford in 1682, the final witch trial in Britain took place. Three women were accused of witchcraft, tried & hanged.
Now fast forward to the present day and name one female magician…pretty tricky. But tonight, three fearless females are climbing out of their boxes, shaking off the sequins and investigating what really happened in a small town in North Devon 340 years ago.
Packed full of magic tricks, physical comedy & live music, our magiciennes explore the witch-hunt mania that swept the country and sent hundreds of innocent women to the gallows. With mind-blowing illusions, stupendous stunts and the occasional disappearing rabbit, ‘Hags’ sets the record straight for thousands of falsely accused women with all the joy, silliness & spectacle these three can muster.
Date: Friday 26th April, 8pm
The TigerFace Show
Thrown head first into a colour-filled world of puppets, balloons and poopy-loops TigerFace tries to keep his adult-cynicism at bay whilst he re-creates the last ever episode of his old kid’s TV show.
Descending into absurdism the performance quickly unfurls into an audience responsive, ragged-scream party-piece, that’s one part misery, two parts joyful.
The TigerFace Show is a weird + wonderful comedy performance that asks us to re-think what it was we wanted to be when we grew up in the hopes of finding some child-like happiness in adulthood!
Date: Wednesday 8 May, 8pm