The Tenebrism Collective is a theatre laboratory dedicated to reclaiming the transformative power of the dark. By integrating the principles of tenebrism and chiaroscuro into the rehearsal room and onto the stage, we challenge practitioners, actors and audiences to look beyond the visible. We believe that in the absence of light, the imagination awakens. Our work strips away the distractions of the modern digital age to return to the primal intimacy of the campfire, using shadows to sharpen the senses, deepen character, and transport the soul to any time or landscape. In the darkened rehearsal room, we don't just use light to see; we use darkness to feel, to listen, and to find our way back to the heart of the human story.

• Darkness is our Canvas: We view the void not as an ending, but as a beginning. It is the space where the audience and performer meet to co-create the world.

• The Ancestral Echo: We return to the campfire. In the dark, we listen more intently; we feel more deeply.

• The Currency of Light: In our world, light is never accidental. It is safety, it is status, and it is power. We use it sparingly to make its impact absolute.

• Imagination as Transport: From the stones of a Tudor prison to the dust of a distant moon, the darkness is our vessel. What the eye cannot see, the mind completes.

• A Sanctuary from the Screen: In a world of frenetic noise and backlit exhaustion, we offer the quiet focus of the shadow. Darkness is our way back to story, and story is our way home.

• For more information on Tenebrism Collective workshops, email jude.c.benning@gmail.com