Get Involved: Time Keeps The Drummer

Time Keeps The Drummer Performance, Hong Kong 2025.
Photo by Winnie Yeung @ visual voices

We’re currently looking for children to be a part of our new project, Time Keeps The Drummer. This new performance will tour the UK in 2025, with each performance involving a cast of local children, who will work with our award-winning artistic directors to create and perform shows at celebrated performing arts venues. The show includes movement/dance, text, and improvisation. It explores ideas about time, rest and play.

The project is open to all children, but being curious and open to new experiences is essential. We are looking for children who love to move and play, but previous dance experience isn’t required. To register for an audition workshop, please fill out this form.

Aged 8-11 and based in Camden and Islington? Find out how you can be part of our London cast…

Casting Information

Note: the cast must be available to perform in all three shows at both London locations.

The first performance at The Place will take place during the day on Friday, 12 September.

All cast members must have permission to miss school on both Thursday, 11 September for the dress rehearsal, and Friday 12 September in order to participate.
You must have permissions before signing up to the casting workshop. To register for an audition workshop, please fill out this form.

Performances:
The Place in Camden – 12-13 September
Arts Depot in Barnet – 20 September
Rehearsals:
Monday 18th to Saturday 23rd August from 10-5pm
Tuesday 26th to Friday 29th August 10-5pm
Saturday 6th September from 10-5pm
Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th September 4 to 7pm
Thursday 11th September : Dress rehearsal all day
Friday 12th September: Performance 10-5pm
Saturday 13th September : Performance 2: 10-5pm

Audition workshops will take place on the 7th and 8th June at a location near The Place in Camden.

Find out more about Time Keeps The Drummer below and via our project page

About the project

Time Keeps The Drummer is a playful physical performance, full of bold images, improvised movement and dance. It’s performed by 12 children aged 8 to 11. For each show, we recruit a new, local group of children, making every performance unique to its location.

It playfully asks us to ignore the ticking of the clock and invites us to step into a space where time is fluid, joyful, chaotic, and full of wild abandon and limitless possibility.

This brand new show was commissioned by WestK in Hong Kong, premiering there in April 2025.

Through movement, improvisation, projection, music and lighting, these young performers offer their audiences an opportunity to witness an ever-evolving experience. Each performance is shaped in real-time, making every show different and unpredictable. Sometimes it’s like a show; sometimes it’s more like a live gallery installation.

With original compositions by composer Mariam Rezaei, this 5-hour performance invites you to experience time on your own terms. Alongside this music, throughout the entire performance, a single adult drummer playing a motion capture drum kit, improvises percussion in the air. Experienced only through the headphones provided; the drums are the sound of the ceaseless beat of clock time.

Audiences are free to come and go as they please throughout the duration of the piece, to linger, to rest, and to reflect. It’s a show that evolves throughout the day, offering an opportunity to slow down, engage, and enjoy time in all its unpredictable forms.

Time Keeps The DrummerFevered Sleep22 April 2025featured--our-blog, children