Great Scott! Time for a May medley

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Conspiracy theories ~ those wild stories their wild-eyed tellers insist are fact ~ must have been around even before the first feudal baron insisted if he kept all the gold for himself it would trickle down into the populace. As arguments rage over the more outrageous modern cultural myths, Gonzo Moose Theatre Company has uncovered another bubble to pop: Great Scott, their new touring comedy, tells 'the true story of Scott of the Antarctic.'  Did his final voyage really end in failure, or is this a coverup by the authorities for the terrible truth... (no spoilers!) With the help of some OHP transparencies, various hats and pipes, variable accents and a lot of messing about, the brave team of Conspiratorians create the 'real' last journey of the explorer as reconstructed from his diaries, with much slapstick and song. There's no pretence of sophistication in costumes or props or set but there's a lot to enjoy and there was great audience rapport at the Bath Rondo on Wednesday night.

Roots Session at the Grain Bar has given Frome two excellent evenings since I last posted: the glorious Dempseys and entertaining duo Mambo Jambo who between them play (I think) 13 instruments.

And while various writerly gestations continue, an exciting hatching for Nevertheless Fringe Theatre: after auditions, our Frome Festival production Time Slides now has a terrific cast of young graduates from Bath Spa Drama course: Matt Harrison, Chloe Tailby, and Gabrielle Finnegan - welcome to pub theatre in Frome!


This post was going to finish with a comment about sizzling sunshine but the weather has wobbled a bit here and I don't know what followers in Russia & Ukraine are experiencing (or even why I have followers there ~ not complaining, just puzzled to see Blogger stats...)  So instead I'll end with this short & satisfying video: it's been exactly a year since Frome town council became fully independent, and The Guardian has featured a reminder of how the awesome Independent State of Frome now shows the way to other towns around the UK.

Current show at Theatre Royal Bath Ustinov studio is the UK Premiere of The American Plan by Richard Greenberg, set in the predominantly Jewish resort of Catskill in the 1960s.  This is a dazzling production of a brilliant play: the script is Wilde-ly witty and full of surprises, the set elegantly simple, and David Grindley's strong direction allows all five superb performances to shine.  Interestingly, the women seem to get the best lines ~ beautiful trapped Lili (Emily Taafee), an Alice-through-the-Glass whose mind is a sort of masked ball - you never know who you'll be dancing with next, enigmatic Olivia (Dona Croll) who says dryly being known is not part of my job, and most awesome of all Diana Quick as Eva, the mother whose simpering evil is breathtaking.  Social setting ~ the title refers to a full-board, all-you-can-eat, booking plan at the resort which says much about clientele aspirations & values ~ is fascinating and often satiric but this is primarily a psychological study of one family, and powerfully shows that great drama needs very little on-stage action if there's good story well-told. My only reservation is the final scene, which expositionally knots up loose ends already subtly tied, which could have been ommitted to send us out into the night still stunned by a sublime piece of theatre. But it was close to flawless anyway.

'Wild, crazy, devilishly funny' Gonzo Moose arrived at the Brewery this week with their current historical pastiche What the Dickens? inspired, loosely, by the bicentenary of Victorian London's most famous novelist and his penchant for fantastical characters and complex plots.  We watch agog & aching from laughter as sleuthing reporter Charles Dickens (co-founder, artistic director, co-writer Mark Conway, on fantastic form as always) meets with pickpockets and plotters, grave-robbers, soft-hearted tarts, hard-hearted lords and an enormous owl ~ all hilariously created with multi-costume change by Chris Porter and Emily Murphy. It's clever, classy, and immensely funny, and they're back at the Rondo next month so if you miss out in Bristol, book there now!

And finally...  summer officially begins at the end of this month, so if you're beginning to think longingly about holidays, and wondering where to find a fantastic location with fabulous food, good company and a chance to write too, then let me direct your attention my website which has links to two sensational options:  SKYROS HOLISTIC HOLIDAYS on the Greek island of Skyros and CORTIJO ROMERO in Southern Spain are both marvellous venues which provide a wide range of creative courses as well as entertainment & relaxation, so as well as Finding Your Voice with me, there are many other options to browse...  :-)

“Recognise the flotsam and jetsam of your mind- it can be a very useful source” is the first piece of advice from Dan Reballato at his workshop on Writing for Devised Drama in Salisbury on Saturday. Writing for devising is all about blurring the boundaries, he explains, and we spend the warmest day of the year indoors in the Arts Centre exploring constraints & structures, creating storylines & subtexts, and generally immersing ourselves in the somewhat shamblolic processes of such blurring and proving Dan's summative point that "when it works well you end up with something you would never have done on your own - but that's true when it goes badly too."

In the evening to Bath's Rondo, one of my favourite small theatres, to see Gonzo Moose in their new touring comedy I’m an Aristocrat, get me out of here! I'm a big fan of this anarchic trio of performers and there were superb highlights in this absurdist version the turbulence & intrigue following the French Revolution. All of the actors - Mark Conway, Jonathan Peck, & Lauren Silver - have irresistibly hilarious facial expressions, the men especially change personality with their costumes unbelievably. There are bizarre capers (I especially liked the St James Infirmary dance by bored Bastille guards) and eye-boggling sword-fights, and a less-frivolous underlying theme: “The Republic is virtue. Terror protects the republic. Therefore terror is virtue” declares Robespierre, with the deadly logic that destroys every virtuous ideal it touches. The basic plot, like much of the humour, is simple: Louis XVI and the imprisoned aristocrats are being released by counter-revolutionary group called Les Petis Pois, whose red hats are more Little Noddy than bonnets rouge and whose mysterious leader is finally revealed, of course, as the character least likely. There are glancing references to historical actuality like the revolutionary support of portraitist Jacques-Louis David, but accuracy isn't a guiding light and political commentary is deliberately aimed at contemporary grievances - as when the liberated Marie Antoinette tells her penitent husband to spread the word in England in a speech that met with a fervent cheer from the full house audience. Not quite vintage Gonzo, but jolly good fun all the same.

"When you're wasted you can be the man you want to be" says Ted in Wasted by Kate Tempest, at the Merlin on Monday night. I'd seen Kate perform in Bristol & was knocked out by her poetry, and this debut play isn't just clubber clichés, it opens wounds on wasted lives & life choices with deep empathy and lyrical language. The three young actors were all strong, especially Cary Crankson as Ted, and the writing stabs you: apart from the slightly lame Billy-Liar-style finale which would have been better left to inference, the impact never falters in a story which is both ordinary & unique.

In the fabulously inventive and audaciously absurd world of Gonzo Moose, Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, the famous fairytale-collecting brothers featured in their touring production Grimm and Grimmer, are just like Jedward, except one looks like Tweedledum and the other looks like Robin Cook. It's tempting to say that, in their various fairytale guises, Seamus Allen and Mark Conway steal every scene with their witty physicality, but I'm aware too that the charm and theatrical presence of Lauren Silver, in the single role of their sister Lotte, is the glue that holds this hilarious chaos together. The plot is essentially pure fairytale: the hero(ine)'s journey, the helpers (an ear, some lascivious elves), the darkest hour (top tip: brute force beats magic) but with a large helping of Monty Python and Gonzo Moose black humour sprinkled in. And blood. "Let's never do that again" say the Grimm boys, back in Jedward unison mode, after the (not-gratuitous-at-all) blood-gushing heart-surgery scene at the end... I've missed a bit of the story, actually. The show came to Bath's tidy little Rondo Theatre for one night only - I think you should all go & see it in Oxford next month.

Angels... what are they like? I've known some strange ones. Marian Bruce's amazing life-size installations - arguing, whoring, desolate... The Recording Angel in my play Love Bites, whose smart-arse jocularity would make him voiceover candidate for any celestial Come Dine With Me. Historically of course angels are depicted with feathery, birdlike, wings: the Tom Lomax artifacts exhibited at Rook Lane Arts are more cerebral, calculated apparently according to rules of alchemy, but the tiny ones looked to me more like mangled fondant mice. Whatever one's expectations, Rose Flint's excellent poetry workshop at that exhibition space inspired wide-ranging thoughts and feelings: Linda Perry's magnificent piece accused her chosen angel of looking for bones to hang your bare existence on, and as Rose commented, all our angels were pretty broken. I look forward to next Monday, when I hope to remeet some of these psychotic, traumatised, mutilated, angels struggling towards the Poetry Cafe to be born again....

Still on a poetic theme, a quick plug for Words & Ears, Dawn Gorman's monthly gig in Bradford on Avon, where I'm flying the flag for the Provocative Elder movement next month - also small poetic role as sexegenarian separatist at the fundraiser party for Keep Frome Local on December 1st.

"You're kidding!" said the first person to arrive for Poetry Platter at the Merlin when a steward explained that audience seating was on the stage, now transformed bistro-style for tapas suppers and poetic entertainment. Stewards were kept busy explaining, and adding extra chairs, until the stage was filled with nearly 50 people... and responses by the end of the evening were massively positive. We had one no-show poet, so I had to step into the cockpit for lift-off, but after that we soared with Rose Flint's luscious imagery, Wayne Hill's wry wit and succinct words, Alex Lackey's 'naughty alter-ego', Dianne Penny's eloquent simplicity, and David Johnson's idiosyncratic take on having a posh accent... all so varied and all delightful.
As one participant put it: "What a pleasure. Everyone loved it... the combination of voices, the words, the warm congenial atmosphere. Serious achievement. I liked the feeling of an intimate cafe, whose walls were the theatre seats rising in the dark... Such a strong thing to be able to invent and experiment and see things work so well. Hats off to the Merlin for supporting you. Lovely food, too!" So that's a big bouquet to Claudia for the concept and an extra posy to Nikki for her irresistible platters.

Bristol-based Gonzo Moose Theatre Company is touring their new show Is That A Bolt In Your Neck? to ferociously good reviews. I caught up with it in Trowbridge, in a village-hall atmosphere that seemed ideal for the chaotic capers of this Frankenstein-inspired farce - especially when a the rhetorical question "Is it murder to take one life and give it to another" is interrupted by a cellphone from the auditorium promptly used, Who wants to be a Millionaire?-style, by the cast... or was that scripted? Hard to tell in this delightfully ludicrous tale of gothic horror and romance by three incredibly talented performers: Seamus Allen, Mark Conway and Cariad Lloyd (she'd make a great stand-up comic, if she chose, though in taking on 6 roles in this show she slightly over-estimates her versatility) and the play never falters in physical comedy or witty dialogue and even manages to pack an ethical punch: "So much knowledge, so little wisdom" marvels Anastasia as the mad scientist dies along with his monster... or does she...?? No wonder Venue gave the show five stars, I would too. I especially loved the random addition of disillusioned gargoyles.
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