About us

We are a Tower Hamlets-based, LGBTQ+ led theatre company and charity that focuses on projects which explore innovative and meaningful ways to bring together arts professionals and community members, giving both the space and support to develop and grow.

Theatre’s medium is the human being. The powerful alchemy generated when a live, flesh-and-blood actor plays a role can enable a gathered group of people to explore some of the darker, more obscure corners of human existence. It can also let us place conflicting narratives side by side and allow for a sophisticated idea of how truth works; an approach that reflects the complexity of human experience in the way a single, official version of events generally cannot. Theatre allows us to observe ourselves. That’s why Daedalus believes in using theatre to engage with and enrich society.

The company’s work has evolved into a project that, through theatre, brings together a range of art forms and non-arts practices, such as activism, in order to generate research-based performances, community events and artist development opportunities.

In practice this means that Daedalus

  • offers theatre professionals a democratic and open space to make research-based, socially engaged theatre, participatory theatre, based on the principle that form follows content;
  • seeks to use its techniques wherever possible to enable the public to engage with the issues that affect them
  • and is committed to the principle that work in communities, research, education and the making of professional arts projects should be integrated and mutually supportive, constituting a single, constantly evolving project.

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