Theatre company relaunches after founder's death

Michelle Thompson, creative director at the Orange Elephant Theatre Company, with Gretel Brice (right) who founded the company in 2018

An inclusive theatre company has relaunched to continue the work of its founder who died in 2020.

The Orange Elephant Theatre Company, based at The George Hotel in Norwich, was set up by Gretel Brice in 2018.

The group is holding a fundraising event on Sunday to raise money for future projects and deliver community workshops.

Michelle Thompson, 34, creative director said: "It's always been in the back of my mind that I need to get it going again for her and for her family - for all of us... the fog has lifted."

She said the company was set up to talk about "sensitive issues in a creative way".

"Everything we do is all inspired by Gretel... she died in 2020 and Orange Elephant is her legacy to her daughters."

Ms Brice's daughters, who now live in London, have followed in their mother's footsteps to be involved in the arts, and are proud to be able to continue her theatre legacy.

Michelle Thompson (far right) with Katy Bateman, Amy Snelling and Frankie Tidy on a creative retreat day run by the company

'Really hard to fund'

Ms Brice created the show 'Some Things Are Meant To Be, Anna' based on her resilience and navigation through cancer, which was presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019, before touring across Norfolk.

The group is currently working on two new plays which tackle the topics of grief and male suicide which were left by Ms Brice to be finished off.

The group hopes to raise money to be able to develop work which can be toured and delivered to community groups.

Ms Thompson said: "It's just to kickstart us and help us get us going and start delivering some more workshops. It's really hard to fund these things and for parents to send their children to things at the moment due to the cost of living."