This professional training workshop draws on Bunkum Ensemble’s development of Honey Fungus, using fungi as a starting point to explore non-verbal storytelling through corporeal mime and live sound improvisation.

Bunkum Ensemble invites emerging and professional theatre-makers to a two-day physical theatre intensive at Farnham Maltings. Led by Artistic Director Jack Parris, the workshop shares Bunkum’s distinctive practice, combining movement, live sound, play and improvisation.

Following the company’s Pleasance Charlie Hartill Award–winning production The Unstoppable Rise of Ben Manager, participants will explore how movement and sound can be generated together to create theatrical worlds, characters and dramaturgy without text.

Designed for performers, dancers, theatre artists and interdisciplinary makers interested in working with live music and sound, the workshop explores how to generate story, structure and meaning without text, both individually and as an ensemble. Sessions draw on corporeal mime and ensemble-based improvisation, creating a playful yet rigorous space for experimentation and interdisciplinary craft.

A limited number of musicians and actor-musicians will be accepted; however, the focus remains on physical performance rather than music-making.

Across the two days, participants will:

- Improvise with musicians and develop Bunkum’s approach to interdisciplinary making
- Develop solo physical improvisation skills rooted in corporeal mime
- Develop tools for ensemble-led composition and spontaneous non-verbal storytelling rooted in listening, play and collaboration
- Explore how fungi, symbiosis and mycology inform the company’s ongoing R&D for Honey Fungus

The workshops are suitable for professional artists, emerging professionals, recent graduates, theatre makers and anyone interested in movement. No previous experience with music-making is required - just curiosity and physical openness.