About
Le Navet Bete

The Work We Make….

Is it clowning? Is it physical comedy? Is it panto? For us it doesn't really matter what you call it as long as it makes you laugh and have a great time.

Summer 2007. All working full-time jobs, we started off meeting once a week in a church hall in Exmouth, Devon and just played, experimenting with ideas, routines, acrobatics, music and more. We knew we wanted to make a piece of theatre and were influenced by our enormous enjoyment of clowning and physical comedy. We ended up making two 60 minute clowning shows, Serendipity and Zemblanity, for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2008 and 2009 respectively that were routed in the absurd and utterly ridiculous. Thankfully they did pretty well and we toured them around the country and even internationally to anywhere that would have us, performing in the streets, festivals, village halls, arts centres and also the odd wedding! It was during these formative years that we began to develop an approach to performing and creating work that takes inspiration from street theatre, clowning, panto, physical theatre and attempts to blend it into a style of performance that gives audiences a hugely well-rounded fun, laughter-filled trip to the theatre.

Early on in our journey we diversified into outdoor performance, quickly becoming one of the UK’s most ridiculously outrageous, much-loved outdoor acts performing to hundreds of thousands from the legendary circus fields at Glastonbury Festival, the beautiful gardens of the Herrenhausen Palace in Hanover, Germany and a classic yacht festival on the Italian Riviera to the ruins of an old colonial church in the heart of Mexico City, an industrial factory in Prague and high up on a cliff on the Rock of Gibraltar. 

As we developed over the following years we began to blend our inimitable style of performance with narrative, producing shows that deliver on witty story, great drama and intention while including audience interaction, music, songs, dance, comic routines, gameshows and really putting silliness and comedy at the front and centre.

Following huge touring successes with Dick Tracy and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at a small scale level we finally broke into the midscale in 2017 with our smash-hit Dracula: The Bloody Truth. Having now toured all over the UK to over 50 midscale theatres this show really helped to put us on the map! As our reputation grew so did our ambition. We went on to produce, create and tour The Three Musketeers: A Comedy Adventure and Treasure Island across the country before most recently launching King Arthur in 2023 which is currently touring to packed out houses at some of the most prominent UK theatres with our trusty team including technical wizard Stuart and our wonderful stage managers Fi and Jess.

Is it panto? Oh yes it is! Unfortunately after ten years of delivering a festive alternative to panto in Plymouth, Devon, the Covid-19 pandemic put an end to what was an incredible relationship with the city and it’s people over the festive period. However we weren't going to let that keep us down and in 2020 we began a new partnership with the Exeter Northcott Theatre which has seen us involved in the last four Christmas offers and we’re about to collaborate on our third panto, Cinderella, in 2024 / 2025. Our aim is to deliver a modern take on pantomime by merging our style of chaotic physical comedy and storytelling with the classic traditions of pantomime, alongside a larger cast of usually nine or ten. It also gives Matt an excuse to wear loads of dresses!

As well as performing, we have a widely renowned education programme specialising in clowning, physical comedy, performer-audience relationships and play, that we have taught in schools, colleges and universities across the world from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London to the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City.

We also have four of our shows published and licensed to be performed here in the UK and internationally. We’ve had amateur and professional companies perform our work all across the world from the United States, Canada, France, Austria and even as far away as Australia and New Zealand. If you want to find out more about how to license one of our shows then just click the button below!