Accidental Collective is Daisy Orton and Pablo Pakula. There are two of us, but we are not really a duo. We have been working together long enough to feel like family, but we are definitely not a couple. We like strong coffee, small beautiful things, mindboggling Postmodern theory, watching BBC4 documentaries and crap American dramas, rummaging through attics, discovering new places, and having a really good cry. We also like lists.
Our work does not easily fit into a box because it tends to mix genres and art forms. We have created outdoor performances, theatre shows, one-to-one encounters, participatory installations, immersive experiences, and public interventions. We often find ourselves straddling theatre, live art, and popular performance styles. To find out more about our practice have a read here.
Drawn together by an obstinate desire to keep creating and a fear of normal 9-5 jobs, we formed Accidental Collective in 2005. After graduating we helped to kick-start a new generation of Kent-based theatre-makers. Since then we have been invested and actively involved in the region’s developing performance scene. Over the years we have offered peer support and mentoring to other performers and companies, which led to setting up Pot Luck in 2011. The following year we began working with the Marlowe Theatre to establish their Scratch Nights. These activities are part and parcel of Accidental Collective’s ethos, and link back to our work: a process informed by connection, conversation and collaboration.
You can find our company CV here.
Reviews
- - here is where we meet has been reviewed by The Public Reviews, Total Theatre, and The Void.
- - Pause; has been reviewed by Exeunt Magazine.
Press
- - A Younger Theatre ran a feature on us on the 20th June 2013. Read it here.
- - here is where we meet was mentioned in What to see: Lyn Gardner’s theatre tips on 14th June 2013.
- - Spotlight Magazine, a seasonal publication by the Marlowe Theatre, ran an article about us in its issue 6, Summer 2013. Read it here. If you’d like to read our answers to Amy Smith’s questions, read them here.
Accidental Collective has been the Associate Theatre Company of the University of Kent’s School of Arts since 2009.
In 2013 Accidental Collective was chosen as the first Resident Associate Company at the Marlowe Theatre. Read the Press Release here.
In 2012 the company won the Canterbury Culture award in the category of ‘Cultural Pioneer’.
Some of our friends and previous collaborators: Laura Jane Dean, Phoebe Marsh, Duska Radosavljevic, and Fiona Watt, amongst others.
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