I Dream in Colour - 5 star review at the Bloomsbury Festival 2023

I Dream in Colour – 5 star review at the Bloomsbury Festival 2023

October was a busy month for Extant with our Associate Artist, Jasmin Thien. First we presented an excerpt of her show I Dream in Colour at Camden People’s Theatre to a packed crowd, then later in the month we held a full-length performance of the play at the Bloomsbury Festival 2023 in front of a sold-out audience. We received a 5 star review for the show!

Jasmin has been developing I Dream in Colour with dramaturgical and production support from Extant since spring this year. We produced a work-in-progress of the show at Camden People’s Theatre’s Sprint Festival in March, then across the summer worked alongside Jasmin to put together a fantastic team of artists to help create an incredible show for Bloomsbury Festival.

It was important to Jasmin, and to Extant, that the creative team was representative of Jasmin’s Chinese and East Asian heritage, and made space for blind, visually impaired and other disabled artists. We achieved this target, with one third of the team being blind and VI, and more than one third of the team hailing from an East Asian background.

The diverse and supportive audience gave some wonderful feedback following the show, with one audience member saying, ‘an amazing show’ and another praising it as ‘a terrific performance.’

Binge Fringe gave the performance 5 stars, describing it as ‘spectacular’ and ‘an incredibly mesmerising feat of storytelling.’ As well as praise for Jasmin’s performance and writing, the reviewer also noted ‘incredible’ sound design by another of Extant’s Associate Artists, Ian Rattray.

You can read the full review at the following link:

https://www.bingefringe.com/2023/10/15/i-dream-in-colour-jasmin-thien-bloomsbury-festival-2023-%E2%98%85%E2%98%85%E2%98%85%E2%98%85%E2%98%85/

Jasmin hopes to take I Dream in Colour further and is working with the show’s director Max Percy to plan a future tour – watch this space!

Extant is proud to support the most innovative new work by blind and visually impaired artists through our pioneering artist development programme, generously supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. I Dream in Colour also received support from Camden People’s Theatre and Arts Council England.

Jasmin Thien sits on a wooden chair in a black box theatre. Jasmin is a young Chinese-British woman with long dark hair pinned back off her face. She wears a white top and skirt decorated with floral motifs, and white trainers. The floor under the chair and around the stage is marked with white tactile flooring tiles.