Art making & Performance

Jess, a white woman with black bobbed hair and fringe holds a flaming match in her mouth. Her eyelids and lips are covered in golden glitter. She’s nude but the text 'Torch' covers her nips.

Jess Mabel Jones shines bright in a dark room. She glows.

The Stage

Jess Mabel Jones and Richard DeDomenici smile in front of a TV screen that reads 'Croytopia'. Richard has bring yellow glasses. Jess holds a pint.
Jess holds a zine that reads Fuck Off Patriarchy. She smiles gently as if saying, 'yeah, agree.'

Like the best comedy, it makes you look at the world in a different way. Remarkable.

The Independent

A Birds Eye view of a group of young people dressed as slices of toast with different toppings. They're laying down in a circle, holding hands and laughing.
The heads of three people, wearing brightly coloured balaclavas look menacingly and defiantly towards camera. Wearing stab vests with 'No DNR' stencilled on. The background is completely black.

A wonderfully silly anarchic hour of total madness.

British Theatre Guide

Jess, with a short black bob, glances to the camera. A plain calico humanoid puppet seemingly falls from the sky casting a crisp shadow on a plain white brick wall behind her.

If Monty Python ran disability awareness training with a feminist twist, this would be it.

Disability Arts Online

A group of performers hold their arms aloft, following in chorus. They're bathed in bright pink light.
A poster of a theatre show 'Ovid's Metamorphoses' by Pants On Fire. Jess is the head of a kid Cupid, dressed as a 40s evacuee with a slingshot. Loads of 4 and 5 star reviews.
Jess Mabel Jones headshot. She has long curly brown hair and looks confidently to camera. Maybe even a bit smug. She's wearing a low cut denim top showing a fair amount of boob.
Mat Fraser as Beast with lavish cape and horns stands on a grand stage. Two puppeteers use their own arms to gesture in place of his own.

What a privilege to be a part of this theatrical sorcery. It’s a leap that feels a lot like falling in love.

The New York Times

There are so many reasons to love this show. First is the terrific performance by Jones, intelligent, spirited and spontaneous.

The Scotsman

A large stage full of women and NB folks. Two of them read from a script, facing the audience. A screen at the rear reads, 'All vaginas have the right to full knowledge and choice of what goes into and near them, whether vegetable, animal or mineral
Jess Mabel Jones speaks with purpose into a mic. Her hair, body and clothes are dripping wet.

This show is so full of moments that make you squirm, and think, and rethink.

Exeunt

A piece of paper in a window reads, ' I would not become a mother because...' Beyond is colourful bunting made from West African fabric.

A cauldron of energy. A Young everywoman who absolutely nails this part.

The Times

A woman presses her hands and face into a billowing transparent sheet. Lighting colours it purple, blue and pink.
A group of performers speak into mics on stage. Behind them a huge screen reads, 'High Carbon Culture'

This piece, best described as theatre activism, is steeped in politics. References to neglect of those in need are sprinkled throughout the performance like poisonous arrows.

A Younger Theatre

A page from a parody brochure. Paradise Fields Care is a minimal intervention facility that empowers service users. On the left a sepia photo of a run-down dormitory on the right a bright, new facility. Jess wears a pink suit and proudly smiles.
A face-masked Jess Mabel Jones & Anna-Maria Nabirye study a miniature scene of Sylvanian Family figures and furniture. In the foreground is a large Sony video camera capturing the scene.
Three paper bowls of crisps, sweets and popcorn on a table with a stack of brochures for the Croydonites festival.

Jones is an absolute firecracker of a performer. She has a stunning voice, emotional vulnerability, and electric charisma.

The Play's the Thing 

The scene of a play set in the 50's. A PI's office. A man sits reading a file, disgusted by its contents. Spotlit upstage are a couple engaged in athletic sex.
Jess delicately places a miniature candelabra onto a doll's house furniture table.
A mid-shot of Jess dressed in a giant vulva costume. She's wearing a pink wig, pink earrings and pink lipstick. She smiles with a big open mouth.
Three retro nurses and a doctor look at a man's bottom and it pokes high into the air. His trousers are down and he's wearing white pants.
A paper collage of abstract shapes and cut out letters that spell 'keep it intersectional'.

It's the kind of show that ends with spontaneous hugging in the audience.

 Time Out New York

Jess dynamically strips during her burlesque act on stage. She's bathed in pink light.
A abstract shadow collage. A woman's profile, a chair, a distorted table, a red square and a hat stand.

A show that takes disability out of the theatrical ghetto and presents it full frontal.

The Guardian

Jess Mabel Jones in a pink silk dress and Iain Gibbons lean in for a kiss with their mouths enormously wide open. They wear silky 18 century costumes and big curly wigs.
A massive ghost painting onto a huge white sheet, slightly transparent. A seated figure is spotlit in the bottom right corner while little warm white lights dapple the ghost. All is bathed in a pink/purple light.
Three women dressed in black and white striped football kits hold each other and cheer triumphantly. In the background a man stands grumpily.
Props on a set. Two panicked women are pictured on a parody BBC Test Card. A yellow and black swing bin with a cartoon face looks on.

Behind the show is a concentration of talent that is almost obscene. It's theatre about gods, but if the gods were making their own theatre it might look something like this.

The Skinny

Ghostly purple shadows of the tables, chairs and tableware of a vintage cafe projected onto a paper screen.

Laying bare the layers of society, of patriarchy and white privilege, it playfully questions predominant narratives and power structures.

European Cultural News

A hand holds up a zine titled 'Motherhoody', printed in neon orange and purple.
Performers dressed casually as frogs dance frogily on a dim, smoky stage.

A hoot – an utterly improbable and saucy farce.

The Independent

A theatre in the round stage. Performers dressed in eclectic, colourful and sparkly outfits sit in a circle, cheering the performer in the middle who jumps from a crate.
Jess stands in front of a white brick wall and swooshes a transparent plastic dust sheet in an ark, which obscures her face.

Some might say it was chaos, and maybe it was; but it’s the kind of evocative chaos you could watch over and over again.

Everything Theatre

An arm reaches through a silver slash curtain becoming with a curled finger. The curtain shimmers, bouncing reflections onto the surfaces beyond. All is bathed in a pink purple light.

CV

The Hero’s Journey / 2024 / Site-Specific / ASM / AfriCoLab / Anna-Maria Nabirye & Darragh OLeary

Arietis Sisters and the Sun / 2024 / Performance Art & Film / Performer / Miroslava Večeřová & Lucie Kordačová

Burnt Out in Biscuit Land / 2023-4 / Film / Co-creator, Performer / Touretteshero

Unlikely Hikers / 2023 / R&D / Co-creator / Motherhoody & The Rivelin Co

Fragments / 2023 / Stage / Puppetry Designer / Potential Difference / Russell Bender

Croytopia / 2022-Current / Internet / Co-Creator / Croydonites / Richard Dedomenici

The Liminoid / 2021 / Stage / Director, Co-creator / Rose Bruford Drama School / Graduating Show

Joules / 2021 / Commercial / Performer / You Are Here / Ryan Schude

War of the Worlds / 2021 / Stage / Performer / Rhum & Clay / Hamish Macdougall

Unviable Cabaret / 2021 / Film / Co-creator / Where’s My Vagina? / Jenny Sealey

Love Letter to a Liveable Future / 2021 / Stage / Performer, Improvisor, Devisor / Metis Theatre / Zoe Svendson

Cadbury’s Worldwide Hide / 2021 / Commercial / Hero Lead / Friends Electric / Ewan Jones Morris

5 Minutes with Aunty Vulva / 2021 / Web Series / Performer & Filmmaker / Where’s My Vagina?

Gestational Diabetes: One Prick at Time / 2020 / Film / Filmmaker / Motherhoody

Shadow Scapes with Jess Mabel Jones / 2020 / Workshop Film / Puppetry Designer & Puppeteer / Potential Difference / Russell Bender

Signal Fires / 2020/ Site Specific / Puppetry Designer, Puppeteer / Potential Difference / Russell Bender

Arbor / 2020 / Stage / Performer / Smoking Apples / Molly Freeman & Matt Freeman

Vagina Launch / 2020 / Stage / Performer, Writer / Where’s My Vagina? / Jenny Sealey

Lex 450 Classbot / 2020 / Educational / Performer, Devisor / KIT Theatre / Russell Bender

Motherhoody / 2019 / Community Workshops, Film / Co-creator / Motherhoody

Factory of the Future / 2019 / Film / Performer, Improvisor, Devisor / Metis Theatre / Zoe Svendson

There May Be A Castle / 2019 / R&D / Performer / Little Angel Theatre / Samantha Lane

The Paper Man / 2019 / Stage / Co-creator, Performer, Puppetry Designer / Improbable / Lee Simpson

We Know Not What We May Be / 2019 / Performer, Improvisor, Devisor / Metis Arts / Zoe Svendson

A Christmas Carol / 2018 / Stage / Performer, Puppetry Designer / LAS Theatre & Quarterhouse Folkestone / Barra Collins

Madhouse Re:Exit / 2018 / Site Specific / Performer, Devisor / Access All Areas / Nick Llewellyn

Play Lab / 2018 / R&D / Performer, Divisor / Graeae / Sarah Thewlis

The Flop / 2018 / Stage / Performer, Divisor / Hijinx & Spymonkey / Ben Pettitte-Wade & Toby Park

The Mirror Crack’d / 2018 / R&D / Performer / Melly Still

Meet Fred / 2017 / Stage / Puppeteer / Hijinx / Ben Pettitte Wade

Past Lives / 2017 / R&D / Co-creator, Performer

Philosophy According to Puppets / 2017 / R&D / Co-creator, Performer / Barbican Open Lab

Pullen’s Puppet / 2017 / Site Specific / Puppeteer / Vital Xposure

Ridley Walker / 2017 / R&D / Puppeteer, Devisor / Improbable / Phelim McDermott & Mervyn Miller

The Singing Mermaid / 2017 / Stage / Puppeteer, Performer / Little Angel Theatre / Sam Lane

Catch the Baby / 2016 / Site Specific / Performer, PA / Access All Areas / Nick Llewellyn

Green Boots / 2016 / R&D / Performer, Devisor / Barbican Open Lab / Lowri James

Hardboiled / 2016 / Stage / Performer, Devisor / Rhum & Clay, The Watermill / Beth Flintoff

Torch / 2016 / Stage / Performer / Flipping the Bird / Jessica Edwards

A Little History of the World / 2016 / Stage / Performer / The Watermill / Paul Stacey

Broadcast From Biscuit Land / 2015 / Live TV / Co-creator / Touretteshero / Johnathan Haswell

Women Centre Stage / 2015 / Stage / Performer / Sphinx Theatre / Alice Hamilton

64 Squares / 2015 / R&D / Performer / Rhum & Clay

Backstage in Biscuit Land / 2014-2018 / Co-creator / Touretteshero

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt / 2014-15 / Stage / Puppeteer, Performer / Little Angel Theatre / Pete Glanville

Beauty & the Beast / 2013-16 / Performer, Puppeteer, Devisor / Improbable & OneOfUs / Phelim McDermott

My Name is Rifnur / 2013 / R&D / Creator / Battersea Arts Centre

Pinocchio / 2013 / Stage / Co-creator / Pants on Fire / Peter Bramley

Three Children / 2013 / Stage / Performer, Devisor / Jenkins Ait / Grace Hopkins

Little Stink / 2012 / Site Specific / Puppeteer / Blind Summit / Mark Down

The Bridge / 2012 / Stage / Puppeteer / Page One / Chloe Stevens

The Heads / 2012 / R&D / Puppeteer, Devisor / Blind Summit / Mark Down

The Table / 2012 / Stage / Puppeteer / Blind Summit / Mark Down

Teofila Teodora/ 2011 / Stage / Co-creator / Suspense Festival

Great Expectations / 2011 / Stage / Performer / Watermill Theatre / Paul Hart

Ovid’s Metamorphoses / 2010-12 / Stage / Co-creator / Pants on Fire / Peter Bramley

Matilda / 2009 / Performer, Puppeteer / RSC / Matthew Warchus