Let's face it. Summer didn't really happen did it? So we're back to school, heading into Autumn, thinking about making Christmas cakes.

But before that, we're making a new show. We're also trying a new way of working. Our work has always been devised collaboratively and democratically, which means we often ended up with long, long discussions over tiny quibbles with what we were making, and the work sometimes, not always, but sometimes suffered because of that. It meant that we ended up with a lack of clarity over what we were trying to say, to achieve with each piece. So when we wrapped up Nightfall, our most ambitious and longest project to date, we realised we needed to make some changes.

So this new show, the first (and possibly only - we're going to see where we end up) incarnation of which we're making this October, is going to be led for the first time by an outside eye, a director, a leader, whatever you want to call it. We're hoping that this will bring a clarity to the work and enable us to make work faster and more efficiently.

So anyway, we spent last week exploring some ideas associated with religious cults. We're interested in power, the mis-use of power and charisma and the reasons why people become drawn in to these often tragic social orders. We're also interested in society's reaction and means of dealing with cults and how that complicates our idea of being free. We've been especially interested in Waco and Jonestown as two differing examples of how cults work.

We start rehearsals proper in the next couple of weeks and will be showing the results of our work on Friday 17 October. We're still deciding on a location and all those details, but we'd love anyone who is interested to come along and give us your comments on the work. If you are drop an email to matthew@thespecialguests.co.uk and we'll send through details of when and where as soon as we know them.

We'll also be using the showing as a mini-fundraiser for the company, so do bring along any spare change. Any donations gratefully received.

Until then,

The Special Guests