Tangle is South West England’s African-Caribbean theatre company. We make theatre that enables communities across the region grow appreciation for, and refocus their perception of British identity.

Tangle’s activities bring to the region a much needed injection of excellent African-Caribbean theatre, enabling a people across the region to have access to, and to appreciate high quality theatre from the African diaspora.

Alongside its touring productions, Tangle produces  Discovery Projects, incorporating a range of grass roots arts education activities for a broad age range, focusing on drama and the spoken and written word. A Discovery Pack and bespoke online resources, such as e-books, and Case Studies complement each project. Through participating in our creative programme, whether online, as audience members, employed artists or workshop participants, people of all kinds improve their ability to cope with the challenges of ‘racial difference’, and subsequently champion this change to local society.

We commission and tour a flexible township style touring work annually, presented by Tangle Company, our ensemble pool of African and Caribbean actors and practitioners specially recruited and trained each year.

Tangle Café, our annual cultural exchange event, takes place each autumn at Yinka Shonibare’s Guest Projects space in London. We also offer occasional e-mentoring and on the job training to emerging artists.

Helping to shape and place Tangle’s activities is the South West England’s Partnership for Multi-Racial Theatre, a consortium or arts organisations in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall that work in collaboration with Tangle and with Arts Council England to maximize the  impact of the 2013 ACE publication, ‘What is the Creative Case For Diversity?’ and our own research work. The partnership, which was founded in spring 2013 and is facilitated by Tangle, is an effective mechanism to embed African –Caribbean arts work more firmly into the creative life of the region. It grew from the successful delivery of our 2012 investigative research project, EVERYTHING MATTERS, which examined the challenges around programming and developing African-Caribbean arts work in the South West.

Tangle helps to increase the number of African - Caribbean artists working in the region, and with our partner organisations, we have started to generate a network of outward-looking communities, building local confidence, and professional knowledge. Our programme aims to help people of all kinds find new ways to bring the region’s many cultures and ethnicities into harmony.

Our company values reflect the need to develop unashamed and non-fearful dialogue between artists, communities and arts organisations. We believe in the need for positive conversations that travel two ways. A sense of generosity on both sides enables people of all kinds to learn about each other, and to communicate better, consequently breaking down historical racial divisions, class and social barriers.