Rew Lowe is a performer and theatre practitioner, of exceptional and diverse talent, who works, internationally, as an actor, director and teacher. Noted, in particular, for his physical comedy and for his dry and often profane quick wit in improvisation, he is also a highly gifted verse speaker who has consistently impressed audiences as a classical tragic actor. His work, whether as a performer, director or designer, is characterised by a passion for rhythm and for the visual and sensory feasting of his audience. Above all, it is characterised by the pervasive playfulness with which he invites then ignites his audience’s imaginations.
Originally from the Southwest of England, in 1998 Lowe moved to Australia, where he studied Film at Melbourne University. He then worked closely with German poet, playwright and director, Joachim Matchoss, and comedy director, Tania Le Page, on several shows, including Woody Allen’s ‘God’, Brecht’s ‘The Good Woman of Setzuan’ and the devised, dreamscape musical, ‘And Suddenly It’s Evening…’. Returning to the UK, he adapted, directed and designed his own version of Euripides’ ‘The Bacchae’, starring Tom Davey (Royal Shakespeare Company) and Sophie Roberts (BBC/Shared Experience) as Pentheus and Agave; a spellbinding and lascivious production which consistently drew full houses (‘a swirling dervish of dance… seriously, seriously sexy’). In 2005 he directed and designed ‘The Popular Mechanicals’, the Australian clown spoof of Shakespeare’s ‘Dream’. He has also designed for Frankly Productions, on Berkoff’s adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ (Chapel Theatre, York, 2001) and was a founding member of physical theatre company Anima Productions.
He has performed with Kris Dyer and Dave Marks of NiceMum (BBC) and the Stables Theatre Company, Hastings. He was invited to perform as part of the York Contemporary Arts Festival in 1999 and, subsequently, the York-Ghana Arts Link. He has performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s Southbank and has worked with members of Gomito and Babolin Productions and the Kensington Theatre Company. In 2001 he worked with Off Key Theatre on their award-winning production ‘Pull My Strings’ at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in Scarborough (voted best show at the NSDF).
In 2006 he moved to Paris to study with the great French clown and teacher, Philippe Gaulier (among whose other alumni stand Sacha Baron Cohen, Theatre de Complicite and Emma Thompson). Gaulier himself worked intensively with Lowe on well-noted performances of Lear, Estragon and Creon, as well as a remarkable bouffon performance. He was also directed as Richard III by Linda Kerr Scott of the RSC. He established strong links with Canadian physical theatre and clown troupe, Theatrophy, with whom he created the piece ‘The Backwards Man’, premiered in Paris in 2007. Lowe was subsequently commissioned to edit and assist in the translation of Gaulier’s seminal book on theatre, ‘Le Gegeneur (The Tormentor)’.
In 2007 Lowe set up Aitherios Theatre, a international artistic collective, uniting performers from the UK, Germany, Austria, Italy, the USA, Japan and, most recently, Canada. ‘Highly visual, colourful, poetic and subversive… enchanting to watch’ (Zitty Berlin), their debut show, ‘The Fish is Open’, played to popular and critical acclaim in Berlin, London and Cambridge: ‘so present and so beautiful’ (Curtain Rising).
Aitherios are currently redeveloping ‘The Fish is Open’, working closely with Jesko von den Steinen (Cirque du Soleil), for a second European tour in early 2009. Meanwhile, the Canada Council and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts are funding an exciting collaboration between Lowe and Betty Mitchell Award nominee, Aron Coates, who has been commissioned to write a second show, for an Aitherios/Trepan Theatre Company collaboration: ‘La Mexicaine de Perforation (The Society of Tunnelling Mexicans)’ opens at The Pumphouse, Calgary, in June 2008, before touring Canada and Europe.
Now based in the UK, Lowe continues to work as an actor, director and teacher. In addition to several films, he has recently performed in the Scene Pool, at the Camden People’s Theatre, in Theatre unknown’s, ‘A Secret Man’, based on Dostoyevsky’s ‘The Double’. He is currently working on Caryl Churchill’s translation of Strindberg’s ‘The Dream Play’, to be performed at The Cochrane Theatre in London’s West End in May, and has recently been invited to teach clown at a major Canadian theatre festival.
He writes and performs poetry and is currently walking around the coast of England, Scotland and Wales, piecemeal, writing a book about the changing face of Britain as he goes. He is a staunch member of the Tooting Bec Progressive Working Men’s Club.
e: rewlowe@hotmail.com m: 07951918118
w: www.castnetwebsites.co.uk/site/RewLowe
