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About
Le Navet Bete
Hello and welcome to the world of Le Navet Bete!
In Brief…
Since our beginnings in 2008 we have been touring the UK and internationally with our unique and chaotic style of physical comedy and have earned the reputation as one of the UK’s leading midscale theatre companies. Proudly based in Exeter, Devon and supported by organisations such as the Exeter Northcott Theatre and the Exeter Phoenix we have been on a continuous mission to create and tour hilarious, physical and totally accessible comedy theatre using creative and engaging storytelling for absolutely everyone (ages 4 - 104!)
Nick Bunt
Nick has been Co-Artistic Director and performer with Le Navet Bete since 2008. Born and raised on the Gold Coast, Australia, he has always loved acting and writing comedy from a young age and has performed in some of the most widely respected venues all over the UK and internationally. He takes comedic inspiration from many things including the cleverly written farce of Fawlty Towers, the absurd slapstick in Bottom and the ridiculous character comedy in Father Ted. When not performing, Nick is an accomplished pianist and has a passion for cooking and travel.
Al Dunn
Al is one of the founding members of Le Navet Bete and performs with the company in their various shows. Particular favourite roles have been Long John Silver in Treasure Island and The Ghost of Christmas Past in A Christmas Carol. In his spare time Al is a keen pizzaiolo (pizza chef), cooking away in his wood fired oven.
Matt has been with Le Navet Bete since the beginning. He has always had a passion for comedy and is hugely proud of the extensive back catalogue of work that Le Navet Bete have written and produced over the years. A particular career high was the publication and international licensing of Dracula: The Bloody Truth. He has always loved to dress up in women’s clothing and the roles he takes on within Le Navet Bete clearly displays this! When he is not making the masses fall apart with laughter, he is growing organic vegetables on his allotment.
Matt Freeman
A Bit More About Us…
Le Navet Bete is an artist-led theatre company run by company directors Al Dunn, Nick Bunt and Matt Freeman. We all met at the University of Plymouth in 2003 and shared a passion for clowning and comedy. Over the past 16 years, along with a huge amount of hard work and a lot of fun, we have successfully turned that passion into a company with a growing and ever loyal fan-base, an extensive back catalogue of work and four internationally published scripts.
As a small core team we wear many hats - not just on stage! We write, perform, produce, production manage, market, fundraise and educate. However, the successes we have achieved need to also be attributed to the many other fantastic and talented artists and creatives that we collaborate with including Olivier award nominated John Nicholson (Co-Writer and Director), Fi Russell (Set & Costume Designer / Stage Manager), Mark Laville, Daniel Buckroyd & Alex Jackson (Directors), Stuart Billinghurst, Alex Best & Marcus Bartlett (Lighting Designers), Peter Coyte & Jonny Wharton (Composers), Sophie Cottle & Alix Harris (Associate Directors), Lea Anderson MBE, Jules Laville & Linzy Na Nakorn (Movement Directors), Ti Green, Phil Eddolls, Nina Raines & Jaq Ball (Set Designers), Sarah Dicks, Katie Haywood & Kate Lyons (Costume Designers), Abi Jones & Jess Crocker (Stage Managers), Tony Hawks MBE (Co-Writer & Composer), Simon Burbage (Videographer), Matt Austin, Mark Dawson & Craig Fuller (Photographers), Rebecca Pitt & Dave Robertson (Graphic Designers). And this really is just the tip of the iceberg! We have also had valued support from co-producing arts organisations as well as Arts Council England.
Upcoming Shows
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, Italy and even as far away as Japan, 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!
Signing Off….
Hopefully you can find what you are looking for on this website, we hope it’s all here. If it isn’t and you want to know more then please follow us on our socials and give us a message or drop us an email - we’d love to hear from you!
A huge big thank you to all of our wonderful family and friends who have been right there with us from the very beginning of our journey. Your support is, and has always been, so very much appreciated!
Finally, it’s so important to mention that the reason we do this is to make people laugh, to give our fantastic audiences an experience that they can share with friends or family, to create long-lasting memories and for people to enjoy theatre in a way theatre should be enjoyed...together!
See you soon,
Nick, Al & Matt