Pericles for autistic individuals and their families is created using Flute’s founder and director Kelly Hunter MBE’s acclaimed Hunter’s Heartbeat method – a series of sensory games which allow participants to share how it feels to be alive and celebrate their identity. This work is a living practice that continues to change and respond to whoever is using it, enabling refugees to engage with the production, along with those autistic individuals.
Flute Theatre’s Pericles is a full-scale production for general audiences that is informed by the company’s work with autistic individuals. The company share all the roles and play music live on stage.
Two adaptations for audiences that include autistic individuals and refugees
The Mercury Theatre Colchester March 10th & 11th
Virginia Primary School, Tower Hamlets, London March 13th-15th
Notre Dame Refugee Centre London March 20th & 24th
The Beehive Honiton Devon April 6th
Sheffield University Drama Studio– April 15th
Brighton Fringe Festival, Caravanserai May 23rd – 26th
Old Fire Station – Off-Beat Festival Oxford – 17th of June
Itaka Shakespeare Festival, Cortanovci Serbia- 2nd July
“The finest Pericles of recent years” ★★★★★ Fringe Review
“Groundbreaking Shakespeare” ★★★★ The Guardian
“Storytelling at its best” ★★★★★BritishTheatre.com
“This is more than an arts experience. It’s a rare moment of creating a world for autistic people, rather than one they have to survive in.” – Parent of autistic child
“The impact you have had on the children, their enjoyment and self esteem has been profound. Flute theatre is a transformational experience for all lucky enough to be a part of. You have inspired children, staff and parents in the most warm, fun and magical way”. Headteacher Virginia Primary School, Tower Hamlets
“A BIG thank you to the Flute Theatre for this amazing experience, all the feedback was so good!! I am so happy that our clients got to participate in such a great show with amazing people. Hopefully, we can do some more things in the future”. Notre Dame Refugee Centre.
This unique double performance pushes the boundaries of what is possible for live Shakespeare performance in the 21st century, both in terms of audience reach and artistic vision.
Kelly Hunter MBE: “I created Flute Theatre to perform Shakespeare for audiences where the need for transcendence in theatre is greatest. With our double Pericles performances we offer a transformational experience to a genuinely inclusive audience who may not otherwise have the chance to attend. The story of people fleeing for their lives, losing loved ones at sea and experiencing miraculous reunions speaks loudly to our audiences today. To watch both shows allows an audience to see deeper into Shakespeare’s mysterious late play, and offers a unique way into Shakespeare’s ‘music of the spheres’.”
Parent of participant: “It was breath-taking, the way the actors adapted to incorporate what my autistic son was experiencing and communicating with his behavior into the performance. They entered his world rather than demanding that he enter theirs. I could relax because my son was with people who really “got” him and understood how to work with autism.”
The production of Pericles for autistic individuals was created in Sweden in 2019 and has since been performed internationally by the company including an online adapted version during the pandemic in three languages across five continents. Flute’s double Pericles productions were first performed in May 2022, at the Craiova Shakespeare Festival in Romania, with a full-scale production of Pericles in English and Pericles for autistic individuals and refugee families in Romanian and Russian. They follow the success of Flute’s adaptations of Hamlet and Twelfth Night which toured the European festival circuit between 2015-2019.
