Direction
Oli has over eight years of experience directing for stage and his work has featured in national publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, and Radio 4.
His work focuses on myth, magic, and fairytale, exploring ways of bringing storytelling traditions into contemporary theatrical forms. With his skills and experience as a composer, his directing work also often include original songs and scores.
His practice also explores ideas of spatial memory. He tends to work in unusual locations, and draws on site-specific practices to shape productions around the exciting spaces they are in.
Thematically, his work engages with key social justice questions, most notably sustainability and environmentalism. To deliver this, his work combines the intimate and the epic, using togetherness and shared experience to be genuinely empowering and impactful.
Credits
The Lost Library of Spitalfields Market – by Oli Savage
The Lost Library (pop-up venue), 2023
A unique Christmas show set in a magic library about family, loss, and the stories that bind us together.
Trump L’Oeil – by Henry Parkman Biggs
Upstairs at The Gatehouse, 2022
Original queer musical, using circus, cabaret, and surrealist art traditions to satirise the rise and (hopeful) fall of Donald Trump.
Waste Age – by Oli Savage
The National Design Museum, 2021
Musical story-telling experience for families, in association with national museum.
As You Like It – by William Shakespeare (ed. Oli Savage)
The Greenhouse Theatre, 2021
Fast-paced take on pastoral classic, with a cast of seven and a score of original indie-folk songs.
Sustainable Stories – by Various
Digital, 2020
Collection of nature-inspired stories from a range of authors, recorded over lockdown.
The Voices We Hear – by Louis Catliff
The Greenhouse Theatre, 2019
Queer love story exploring communication and relationships after a catastrophe.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – by William Shakespeare (ed. Oli Savage)
International Tour, 2018
High-energy production of Shakespeare’s most famous comedy, with original music.
Romeo and Juliet – by William Shakespeare (ed. Oli Savage)
Club 601, 2016
Immersive, promenade re-imagining of Shakespeare’s most famous love story.
To the Ocean – Devised
The Greenhouse Theatre, 2023
An original fairy-tale with music, based on the traditional myth of the Selkies, and exploring our relationship with the sea.
Echoes of You – by Henry Roberts
Lesnes Abbey Park, 2022
Immersive audio experience, exploring relationships with memory and the natural world.
12 – by Henry Roberts
Digital, 2020
Intimate two-hander discussing relationships and connection in the face of the climate crisis.
Swallows – by Henry Roberts
The Greenhouse Theatre, 2019
Absurdist piece of new-writing about eco-terrorism and violence against nature.
The March – by Oli Savage
The Irvine Laboratory, 2018
History play on the life and work of Sir James Irvine, inventor of mustard gas.
To the Ocean – by Oli Savage
The Harbour Café, 2017
Contemporary re-telling of classic Selkie myth, with an original score, in intimate setting (adapted and re-staged in 2023).
Sonnets and Soliloquies – by William Shakespeare (ed. Oli Savage)
St Andrews’ Botanical Garden, 2016
Immersive collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets and soliloquies, performed as a scavenger hunt.