Laura Murphy is a genre-defying, award-winning, performance maker from Bristol, who makes text driven and dynamic physical work about things that they think need to be talked about.
Internationally recognised for their innovative approach to circus and performance making, Murphy’s work is a cross-disciplinary fusion of theatre, aerial choreography, live art, dance and verbal explosions, which integrates intimacy and spectacle.
Proudly queer and neurodivergent, Murphy’s work traverses the personal and the political, connecting the everyday and autobiographical testimony to wider global and social issues.
Laura Murphy’s debut solo Contra (directed by Ursula Martinez) was one of the first UK projects to be supported by prestigious European platform circusnext. Described as a ‘flagship UK Circus work’, Contra has achieved international acclaim, touring over 20 cities across Europe since its premiere in 2019. A ‘complex new form of solo theatre’ (The Scotsman), blending spoken text, aerial rope, lip syncing and dance, Contra investigates the social, political and historical occupations of the female body, where such bodies are positioned and how we are meant to look at them.
Their second solo A Spectacle of Herself (directed by Ursula Martinez) premiered in 2023 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and received both the Summerhall Mary Dick Award for disabled-led performance work and the Lustrum Award for excellence in theatre making. ‘Daring, dynamic, and disruptive’ (The Scotsman), A Spectacle of Herself is an exploration of mental health, queerness, rage & the 21st Century space race, navigated through Murphy’s autobiographical accounts of autism, anarchy in the supermarket and their desire to be seen as that hunky guy from the 90’s Diet Coke advert. A Spectacle of Herself was commended for its use of integrative creative captions, which were described as a ‘serious leap for accessibility’ (Broadway Baby, 2023). Laura Murphy is the Artistic Director of Contra Productions in partnership with their longstanding collaborator Nicole A’Court Stuart. Murphy holds a PhD from the University of Sheffield, which investigates aerial work’s potential as a critically engaged practice. In 2018-19 they were awarded a circusnext laureateship in recognition of their innovative contributions to international circus making.
Murphy has collaborated and worked with artists Peaches, Scottee, Ursula Martinez and Terry O’Connor. In 2021, Murphy co-directed Olga Kaleta’s solo Period Drama, along with Nicole A’Court Stuart.