Name: The Red Nose: Theatre Clown and Physical Comedy Intensive (Bristol)
Start: 2026-05-30T10:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-05-31T18:00:00+01:00
Location: Tit for Tat

The Red Nose: Theatre Clown and Physical Comedy Intensive (Bristol)

“In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities” Shunryu Suzuki
This workshop is rooted in the teachings of Jacques Lecoq and is for actors, theatre-makers, musicians, dancers, circus performers and the curious who would like to explore the realm of the theatre clown.
The Red Nose is a rich tool for creators of various disciplines: it deepens our imagination and allows us to find pleasure, spontaneity and playfulness in being on stage. Exploring this style of performance helps us to overcome a range of inner blocks, for example, stage fright, stay grounded and more confidently share our humanity and vulnerability with an audience on stage.
The workshop is open to everyone with or without clowning experience. No specific knowledge or background is needed, more important is the passion, empathy, curiosity and desire to explore. The work is ensemble-oriented, with a strong emphasis on movement, play and physicality. There's time for observation, participation, feedback and reflection.
During this workshop you will:
- research and develop your clown
- play in solo and ensemble improvisations
- understand your clown’s relationship with an audience
- capture your clown’s physical impulses
- explore the scale of clowning from the mundane to the surreal, absurd and existential
- work physically and use your body as an instrument for creation
- explore a range of ideas that can be developed into a clown performance
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Date and Venue: 30-31 May, 2026 at Tit4Tat Studio (Greenbank, Bristol)
Times: 10.00-18.00 both days (with 1 hour lunch break, tea, coffee fruit and biscuits provided)
Prices: £130 Early Bird until 10 May, 2026 *** payment in 2 instalments accepted.
After 10 May: £165 (full) £150 (students, everyone under 30) £145(low-income, regular returners) ***payment in 2 instalments accepted.
Email: [email protected]
FACILITATOR
Igne Barkauskaite is a Lithuanian-born theatre-maker, performer, and musician, based in Bristol since 2008. Her practice explores lived migration, mental health, the natural world and a relationship between personal and collective memory through mixed mediums - movement, poetry and sound, often in co-creation with others.
Her role in collaborative work ranges from being a deviser, dramaturg and movement director, or a combination of these.
In 2011-13 Igne trained at Jacques Lecoq Theatre School. She has since devised work with Complicité (Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead) Mechanimal (UND; Megalith; Still Life ), Wassail Theatre (Lorna Doone), 2019 Sarah Corbett (The Swimmer; Very Modern) and Bristol Old Vic. In 2017 she founded Bristol Physical Theatre Project which facilitates theatre-making and ensemble-based training for professional performers and the wider community. She has also worked as a visiting tutor/workshop facilitator at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Bristol School of Acting and the University of the Arts London.
Igne about herself:
"I am a theatre artist working internationally, originally from Vilnius.
I trained at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, and my work centres on devising, co-creation, and the softening of rigid hierarchies in the creative process.
I love the absurd, the poetic, and the surreal. I’m drawn to works that ask difficult questions, shifts perspective, and refuses easy answers. Playfulness is central to my practice — it’s my raison d’être and an act of resistance against the conservatism that persists in the arts. I’m interested in how performance can be political without being didactic, and how it can respond to urgent themes — the climate emergency, consumerism, mental health crisis — through attention, care, and imagination.
My practice moves between theatre, sound, and, more recently, film. I work as an actor-deviser, dramaturg, and director, depending on what the work — and the people in the room — need.
I've lived in four countries: Lithuania, Italy, France, and the UK. As both an immigrant and an émigré, my creative path has been slow, non-linear, and hard to build. This experience continues to shape how I work and think, informing both my artistic values and my commitment to creating more equitable and safe spaces where others can experiment, fail, play, and be taken seriously.
I love making imaginative work, writing, listening, and collaborating — especially with people who remind me that the world is always bigger, stranger, and more generous than we think. "