Performer

Clown, Actor, Theatre-Maker

Photo by Guy Bellingham Photography

CURRENT AND PAST PROJECTS

Kith and Kin/Cyð and Cynn

written and performed by

Leela Bunce,

direction and the voiced part of

"The Mother" - Maxine Ridout Prime

This warm-hearted, funny solo show centres on a day in the life of an everyday 9th century Somerset woman, a day that turns out to be unexpectedly and spectacularly anything but "everyday". From milking the stubborn cow to seeing off Viking invaders to preparing for a great feast, the Saxon hall and the vibrant community who knew it are brought to life in a blend of spoken and sung modern English and Old English. The show can be performed in varied theatre, heritage or education settings, both modern and historic. It is aimed at adult audiences &

young people 6+. More info CLICK HERE

Next dates:

14 Sep 24 Avalon Archaeology

13 Nov 24 Lighthouse Poole

24 Jan 25 Butser Ancient Farm

April 25 Glastonbury Abbey

Sep 25 Glastonbury Abbey

Photos by Pauline Burr

"A perfectly pitched window into the past, showing us that we have more in common with life 1200 years ago than perhaps we realise"

Nick White, Wassail Theatre

"It was truly wonderful" * "Very clever, beautifully performed, great fun" * "We learnt so much about those times, with humour and pathos" * "Brilliant character, great story, fantastic pacing, incredible performance. Loved the ordinariness and humour" *

Audience Feedback for Kith and Kin

I loved touring the UK in Summer 2024 with Calf2Cow as Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock and Watson: A Murder in the Garden! as well as reprising my role as Big Hands in The Wave for the third year!

TOUR DATES!

6 June – S&W Preview (Bath)

7 June - S&W Maumbury Rings, Dorchester Arts Centre

8 June - S&W Stone Lane Gardens, Chagford, Devon

9 June - S&W Theatre at the Bowl, Swindon

12 June - S&W The Torch Theatre, Milford Haven

14 June - S&W Southwark Cathedral, London

15 June - S&W The Old Bowling Green, Broomfield Park, London

16 June - S&W Winterborne Stickland, Dorset

20 June - S&W Walled Garden, Helmsley

22 June - S&W Westacre Theatre, Norfolk

23 June - S&W Thorington Theatre, Suffolk

26 June - S&W Brighton Open-air Theatre

27 June - S&W Arundells,Salisbury

28 June - S&W Corsham Almshouse

29 June - S&W The Point, Eastleigh

30 June - S&W Plough Arts Centre, Arlington Court

2 July - S&W North Coast Arts Open Air Theatre, Tapeley Park

3 July - S&W North Coast Arts Open Air Theatre, Norton Barton

4 July - S&W Trebah Garden, Falmouth

5 July - S&W Penlee Park Theatre, Penzance

6 July - S&W Knackershole Garden Theatre, Dulverton

13 July - THE WAVE - Kaleidoscope Festival, London

16-20 July - S&W Garden Theatre Festival, Bath

27-28 July - THE WAVE - Latitude Festival

2 August - THE WAVE - East Quay, Watchet

3 August - THE WAVE - Theatre Shop, Clevedon

4 August - THE WAVE - Queen's Park, Swindon

I was super lucky to work with wonderful joymongers aKa Dance Theatre as part of the R&D company for their new show, which they will continue to develop and tour in 2024:

shed-ache

I am delighted to be part of the wonderful company making new early-years dance-theatre show Early Weaves, touring in 2023-24.

Hannah Lefeuvre - Artistic Director, Choreographer and Early Years Specialist

Del Taylor - Assistant Director, Designer and Early Years Specialist

Leela Bunce - "Willow" / deviser

Takeshi Matsumoto - "Weave" /deviser

Ashley Jordan - "Weave"

Abigail Huan - "Willow"

Serena de la Hey - Willow consultant

Mark Helyar - Dramaturg and mentor

Gina Westbrook - Dramaturg and mentor

Photos by Richard Tomlinson

I played Barbara Best in Wassail Theatre's epic Apples & Angels, a beautiful immersive modern fairytale

set at Burrow Hill, Somerset, summer 2022

THE OWL MAN

(Over the Wall Productions)

in partnership with Strode Theatre 2020-22

https://overthewallproductions.com/

Photos by Pauline Burr

Photo by Jonathan Sawyer

We were hugely fortunate to receive Arts Council England funding for the R&D for a new show exploring land rights and enclosures

Tomorrow the Fox

(or The Tragedy of the Commons)

working with the brilliant

Dan Gaisford

(When the Eye Has Gone),

Shane Morgan (Roughhouse Theatre) and

Emma Callander (Theatre Uncut)

with kind support from Strode Theatre

Photos by Pauline Burr

Shoebox Theatre

The Library of Lost Memories

The Library of Lost Memories is a devised clown show exploring dementia, memory and identity. With a brilliant Somerset-based creative team, we toured the SW in 2019 and have plans to tour more widely once it is possible to do so. Supported by Take Art and Arts Council England.

_______________________________

"Brilliantly crafted, performed, thought provoking....a delight"

"A wonderful piece of theatre - exquisite clowning and storytelling with real emotional punch."

Audience Feedback

Devised and Performed by: Leela Bunce and Ged Stephenson

Sound design: Jules Bushell

Lighting design: Joe Rockett

Design: Mumblecrust Theatre

Direction & Dramaturgy: Matthew Floyd Jones

Tour Technician: Stuart Comley

"A Walk on the Wild Side"

An outdoor/promenade clown show exploring nature and connection, which premiered at the Norton-sub-Hambdon Show Safari on June 19th.

Devised and Performed by

Leela Bunce & Ged Stephenson

with artist support from the Brewhouse Theatre, Taunton (thank you!)

Photo by James Millar

After years of running acclaimed cabaret show Night of the Bluestockings in London (Time Out Critics Choice), The Bluestocking Society are BACK, with our touring theatre-cabaret show

SECRETS OF THE BLUESTOCKINGS

"...a riotous sell-out success.

Definitely recommended!"

Theatre Royal, Nottingham

Telling the fascinating stories of trailblazing, little-known women in history, Secrets of the Bluestockings is "like Horrible Histories meets a WI meeting meets a MI5 recruitment drive."

(The show has always been technically self-sufficient

and we have adapted it to be

fully socially distanced and Covid-safe while restrictions continue)

Devised and Performed by:

Leela Bunce, Heather Tyrrell, Emma Waterford

Direction and Dramaturgy by: Matthew Floyd Jones

For the last three years,

the Bluestockings have

also made original pieces

about the voyage of the

Mayflower for the

Illuminate Rotherhithe

Festival, in partnership

with Sands Films.

My solo show, produced by the brilliant Finger in the Pie Theatre Company & directed by Alexander Parsonage, was a five-star hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2012 and toured the UK Spring 2015. TOP 10 BEST REVIEWED SHOWS OF EDINBURGH FRINGE 2012 – THE LIST

Using clown and puppetry, and based entirely on true stories, the show told the story of women's experience on the Home Front in World War 2

AUDIENCE REACTION TO WAITING FOR STANLEY AT EDINBURGH FRINGE

OTHER WORK

"This charming solo performance by Leela Bunce captured my attention and my heart from the off"

Devised by Leela Bunce and Alexander Parsonage

Performer/Puppeteer: Leela Bunce

Direction: Alexander Parsonage

Movement Director: Robin Guiver

Puppet Designer: Oliver Smart

Lighting and Sound Design: Ed Elbourne

Design: Fiammetta Horvat

Produced by: Finger in the Pie Theatre Company

REVIEWS

Cream of the Fringe – ★★★★★

This charming solo performance by Leela Bunce captured my attention and my heart from the off. The performance is compelling and affecting; humorous, moving and vibrant...The design of the piece is stunning and inventive, with beautiful use of props and music. Highly recommended!

Fest Theatre (FEST BEST) – ★★★★★

With endearing warmth and beguilingly subtle humour

EdinburghGuide.com – ★★★★★

It’s been a long time since I’ve been swept off my feet. But tonight, my heart remembered the joyous call of love. Waiting For Stanley is the reason the weather has been so nice at the Fringe this year. It is the friendly glow and cosy warmth that the city has been missing. It is the sunshine of the Fringe...

Endlessly inventive and blessed with a charming central performance by the female lead, the beauty of this show can be felt all around. Hilariously funny as well as deeply poignant, this is a show that you simply have to see. A work of pure genius.

Hairline Fringe – ★★★★★

The performance of Leela Bunce is simply delightful. Whether she is leading the audience in a rousing chorus of daisy-daisy or miming the characters stiff upper lip as her son is evacuated from the city, the audience can find easy empathy with her portrayal. Superb and extremely touching, ‘Waiting for Stanley’ might just be the show not to miss at the Fringe 2012

Theatre Guide London – ★★★★★

A warm, moving, cheering hour, this is a theatrical experience that cleanses your soul and sends you out feeling that life is, all things considered, pretty good.

The List – ★★★★

Leela Bunce is the architect of this captivating one-woman performance, opening each box of tricks to reveal a world rich in imagination. Never has a pile of socks had such an illustrious career in metaphor.

Fringe Review – ★★★★★

This is fast paced physical theatre combining clowning, puppetry, mime and visual storytelling delivered with panache, humour and warmth. Bunce’s performance is outstanding, the pace never flags and each story element moves seamlessly into the next, punctuated at intervals by the next delivery of letters... This show offers so much more than an entertaining hour for physical theatre enthusiasts – it is a master class for any performer, as well as a poignant reminder of the incredible resilience of our mothers and grandmothers who fought on the home front.

Sublime Boudoir, New York, 2017

I was thrilled to be asked to reprise my role of the Housekeeper as part of the brilliant cast of Sublime Boudoir, an immersive theatre and cabaret show set at the achingly beautiful Alder Manor in Yonkers, New York

Photo Credit: Allan Amato

One Minute Theatre Festival 2020

Photos by Pauline Burr

IN SEARCH OF CINDERELLA 2021

I was overjoyed to be part of the brilliant cast and crew of In Search of Cinderella, a unique pantomime, written and produced by Richard Crowe (Over the Wall) for the people of Somerset, filmed in various of the county's fantastic arts venues. It premiered online on

20 January 2021, a much needed bit of fun and laughter in the depths of lockdown 3!

Photos by Greg Veit

I have worked with East London based Chiffchaff Children's Theatre for the last ten years, playing Baby Bear and the puppeteer in Jill Murphy's Peace at Last and Whatever Next, at Leytonstone Library, Woolwich Bathway Theatre and Greenwich Theatre

Photo by James Millar

A dream come true being cast as the Tuppence half of Agatha Christie's famed detective duo Tommy and Tuppence in Tricity Vogue's brilliant touring show "Blue Murder",

Performed by Dusty Limits, Tricity Vogue,

Leela Bunce, Michael Roulston and Champagne Charlie. Such a delicious vintage treat!

Photo by Clive Holland