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Welcome to Devils Advocate, a scratch night created by Elevate East and rooted in London’s underground performance culture. It’s a night where artists got the chance to share two sides of a work: two versions, two excerpts, or even two ideas. Audience feedback is central to the night, with audience members giving feedback on each version of the works shown.
Here you’ll explore how Jack has shaped a space where risk, experimentation and unfinished ideas are not only welcomed but celebrated.
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Devils Advocate is an electrifying new scratch night that invites bold artists to explore the dualities of their work in a daring, experimental space. As part of Scratch Renaissance and brought to you by Elevate East, this event pushes the boundaries of what a scratch night can be, inviting artists to present not one, but two contrasting versions of their work, live on stage.
How It Works: Each artist or collective is given two 10-minute performance slots across the night, granting them the opportunity to showcase their work in multiple dimensions. They can choose to:
Whether it's taming the beast in Act I and letting it run wild in Act II, or flipping between two radically different approaches, Devils Advocate encourages artists to test the boundaries of their work in a way that’s fun, challenging, and completely original.
One of the standout features of Devils Advocate is the involvement of the audience as active participants in the creative process. After each performance, the audience becomes the coven of critics offering real-time feedback through a simple QR code. This allows performers to gather fresh eyes and immediate reactions, which will be sent to them after the event.
Elevate East is an artistic development collective, co-founded and led by Jack Edwards, that thrives on play, failure, and the creation’s messy in-between stages. With fun as their guiding force, Elevate East curates immersive scratch nights, artist showcases, and cabaret-game-show hybrids, challenging audiences to embark on unexpected adventures. Based in East London, they've been featured in Gay Times, produced sold-out tours, and made waves performing at the National Theatre River Stage. Devils Advocate joins their growing roster of boundary-pushing scratch events, inviting artists to explore and experiment in thrilling new ways.