Superheroes: South of the River

South of the River

Our local project turning the word on the streets into bold and exciting theatre for young local audiences.

Superheroes: South of the River is a unique cross-arts project bringing together theatre, martial arts and comic book storytelling to create new diverse superheroes and superheroines with young people.

Superheroes: South of the River
Superheroes: South of the River

Creating new diverse superheroes and superheroines with young people

Superheroes: South of the River

Inspired by the lack of representation of ethnically diverse characters in western comic books and films the project has worked with over 200 young refugees and other young Londoners since 2015.

2018

To coincide with refugee week and the tour of the Croydon Avengers we ran a video project with young refugees in Croydon. Led by Victor Rios and designer Marina Hadjilouca the young people created superhero characters, costumes, stories and a short video that was shown at Ovalhouse.

2017

In Summer 2017 we were thrilled to work with Croydon Disability Youth Project to explore diverse role models and superheroes with a group of disabled young people aged 14 – 18 in Croydon.

The project aimed to benefit young people by developing a range of creative skills by creating their own superheroes and superhero tales. These were shared in a performance for family, friends and the local community and through the creation of a new comic book: The Great Heroes of Croydon.

Please see below for our video, comic book and impact report.
View our comic here : The Great Heroes of Croydon

2015

In 2015 we worked with young refugees from Refugee Youth and Young Roots to create a multi-discipline performance about superheroes. Inspired by this work, Oladipo Agboluaje wrote The Croydon Avengers, a new play for young audiences that toured in 2018.

Superheroes South of the River from Suzanne Gorman on Vimeo.

Read the Great Heroes of Croydon Impact report here: IMPACT REPORT

View our comic here : Superheroes: South of the River Comic

Theatre Peckham

Photos from Superheroes: South of the River Performance.

Partners have included:

British Red Cross
Refugee Youth
Theatre Peckham
Croydon Youth Arts
Young Roots

Funded by Arts Council England, Teale Charitable Trust, The Zakir Family Centre.

Photos by Katherine Leedale and Roxanne Grant

“Really interesting the way the characters’ stories open up the politics of the time but how that directly links to issues of today related to immigration, Brexit, diversity of Britain”

“Good challenging themes, the need to assimilate and integrate”

“Great humour and very poignant story”

“Interesting and little explored story, Anglo-Indian v Indian/post empire fallout. Right to be challenging and real – the price of dreams can be high.”

“The relationship between the family, mother and son especially was moving”

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