Buxton Fringe 2010 Interviews
Theatremakers at Buxton Festival Fringe 2010 share their passion for their productions with FringeReview.
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FringeReview explores Somewhere between 6 and 7 with Steph Green of Too Vague Players
What's the theme of the show?
Standing. Looking over, waiting to feel again. Wanting, wanting a thrill again. Anything... It's not on the roof-
And it's not over the roof.
And it's not coming down from the roof.
Sofia is stood on the roof, just 21, numb, confused.
Katie runs up the stairs, looking for her sister...
Joanne sits at her desk, oblivious.
This is a tale of consumption, convenience, and our attempt at contentment. - hhe extraordinary lives of the ordinary, somewhere between 6 and 7...
Intriguing! So, what's new and different about this production?
A piece of new writing that rejects theatrical convention by following a stream of consciousness not only in the characters, but in us as the actors too. Like the character in our play, we wanted to break down any ideas of necessity or predictability: acting not how you're supposed to act.
What's the show's history?
Too Vague Players are three drama students who wanted to create a piece together entirely from scratch asking questions about whether we're happier in modern life. The play was conceived by taking an initial scenario (becoming the first scene of the play) from which we developed the rest of the drama instinctively. A script was written, then practically disregarded in an intense rehearsal process of 12 days; resulting in the piece we present at the Fringe.
What's your favourite show of all time?
Impossible to chose one! However inspiration for this show has certainly come from pieces that disregard any divide between audience and actors, fantasy and reality. Companies such as Improbable and Badac come to mind!
Somewhere between 6 and 7.plays on 23rd-24th July, 6pm in The Blue Room, United Reform Church. Buxton, SK17 6PT. Booking info and details here.
Visit their web site here.
FringeReview hears about The Clock Master
Tell us about The Clock Master
When a stubborn young girl enters a shop of clockwork wonders, she soon finds herself lost amongst the Clock Master’s strange stories of magic and music boxes! Of minstrels and monkeys! Of clockwork girls and paper birds! Yet there is a real twist in the tale when she discovers the true nature of her mysterious trinket. What will she decide to do?
Suitable for adults and everyone else aged 5 and upwards, The Clock Master is a visually enchanting modern fable dealing with the eternal themes of ownership and inner beauty. Performed with live music, projected animation, ensemble storytelling and moments of mild puppet-peril!
What's new and different about it?
How many times have you seen a full-on sword fight between a human character and a two person puppet? Or seen a monkey outwit a two-headed witch? Or watched paper origami birds flit above your head? Or welcomed a clockwork girl as she jumps onto your lap and proceeds to mess up your hair…
Well, it’s not impossible that you’ve experienced something similar before, but our show consists of three stories within a story… each one turning up new and exciting characters and situations using highly inventive ways to recreate them on stage… often involving the audience!
How did The Clock Master come about?
In under a year, we’ve come much further than we had ever expected! Each event so far, including Buxton, came about as a polite, casual inquiry which somehow resulted in us being invited to bring the show to the festival and a few other venues around the country! We genuinely didn’t expect to bring the show to so many places so soon. In fact, a year ago today, we weren’t even a company.
Getting a few dates at the Rosemary Branch in North London last year for The Clock Master was a surprise for us, and then being asked back for more dates was an even nicer surprise! So when we were invited to perform The Clock Master at the V&A Museum of Childhood this year, we were bowled over and could feel some strange kind of cosmic clockwork momentum building up behind us. We’ve encountered Tom and Yaz from the company Three’s Company at the Edinburgh Festival, and during a recent read-through of their play Reverie, Tom suggested we make a last-minute bid to enter Buxton. Buxton? Where’s Buxton? Is that a town or a golfing resort?
I now know it’s where the boys grew up (oops) and also where a lovely exciting fringe festival occurs once a year in July. We immediately sent off our stuff, and also put in a last minute bid for Camden Fringe (why not?), not completely sure if we’d missed the deadline. We hadn’t. And both festivals replied to us… and then the realisation of our first ever Festival production run as Sparkle and Dark’s Travelling Players hit us… and we couldn’t be more excited if you thrust electrodes up our nostrils. Buxton here we come! I won’t bother bringing the golfing clubs…
What's your favourite show of all time?
We’re huge fans of Blind Summit. Shelley Knowles-Dixon (my co-producer who is soon to be an intern with the company) saw their production of 1984 last year, and I’ve previously seen the two-part production of His Dark Materials at the National Theatre for which they made the puppets. I can’t express the deep and passionate love affair I’m secretly having with them right now… I want their puppet babies. Shelley might possibly feel the same way, although a little less fervently. I shall have to remember to ask her.
His Dark Materials was one of those rare productions that had a mammoth budget and actually put everything to good use. The show was beautiful and mind-blowing, but special effects (rotating platforms, giant moving sets, screens/footage, live orchestra, magnificent puppets and costume etc) did not deter from gorgeous performances and truthful storytelling. Everything about this production worked and every second of those four hours just made every spec of my soul ache with awe.
Interview with Louisa Ashton
The Clock Master plays Underground Venues (The Square, Buxton, SK17 6BD), 21st & 22nd July at 1pm-2pm; 23rd July at 8pm-9pm and 24th & 25th July at 2.15pm-3.15pm (approx 60 mins). Details and booking info here.
Check out their web site here.
An Interview with Sam Gibbs about Purgatory Passengers
What's the theme of the show?
Fresh from his studies under legendary clowning teacher Philippe Gaulier in Paris, and from training with internationally renowned ‘Theatre de Complicite’ Sam Gibbs brings you his latest imaginative extravaganza.
Following the story of 6 unwitting clowns, each one makes a choice that changes one person’s life forever. Taking a journey through one fateful day in an airport, a journey that brings romance, self discovery and potentially a dash of terrorism! It is a day that they will all remember forever.
Through the imaginative and daring direction of Chris Browning, this clown performance brings smiles to one and all, just when we thought we were all above fart jokes this piece has them in abundance! As Autojeu theatre proudly remark, it’s revealing, inventive, exhilarating… like a great curry!
What's different and new about the show?
It is an interactive extravaganze of a performance. The solo clown really engages with the audiences and lets them live all the fun and ejoyment he is having. The audience are triggers and help complete the show. The performence centres around an airport and all the larger than life passengers who occupy it... very larger than life as it turns out!
What's the history of the show?
The material has come about through my collaberation with Chris Browning, we go into a studio, playing with mask's, wigs, suitcases, loofers, and all maner of props, I improvise a series of clowns, Chris tells me that they arn't funny and the play continues until I can bring a smirk to his face and then (and only then!) can we consider it's inclusion into the show...
What's your favourite show of all time and why?
It has to be Theatre de Complicite's 'A Dissapearing Number' The performance brought me through so many emotions, drawing out seemingly un-linked stories, and then in moments of magic the stories came together. Powerful and beautiful.
Purgatory Passengers plays Underground Venues
Thursday 15 Jul 05:00pm to 06:00pm - Underground Venues - Pauper's Pit (10a)
Saturday 17 Jul 09:30pm to 10:30pm - Underground Venues - Pauper's Pit (10a)
Sunday 18 Jul 05:00pm to 06:00pm - Underground Venues - Pauper's Pit (10a)
Monday 19 Jul 05:00pm to 06:00pm - Underground Venues - Pauper's Pit (10a)
Details and booking here.
One Man Show Focus: An Interview with Alex Moran about Tales from the Blackjack
What's the show all about?
One man, three tales, the edge of your seat!
Tales from the Blackjack is "breathtaking" (PublicReviews) one man show that strips away the glitz and glamour of the gambling superhighway to reveal a harsh reality of debt, dirt and desperation. Join our straight talking croupier as he tells the story of Mary Maudsley, a loose living working class northern lass with an addictive personality, Mr Chang a very unlucky, lucky Chinese American who doesn't seem to mind losing thousands every weekend and Big Bad Baz, a southern gangster with a murderous mind and big secret. All is revealed in 45 minutes of "..thrilling entertainment" (Lancashire Evening Post), which will have you pinned in your seats one minute and on the edge
What's new and different about this one-man show?
The show has taken a complete facelift since it’s run at the Preston Tringe last year, including 25 minutes of extra material with even more twists and turns than ever before.
Tell us a bit about the show's history
The show is loosely based on writer Richard Holdworth’s experience as a professional croupier and was first performed at Preston’s Tringe Festival in the summer of 2009. The show received critical acclaim and was then programmed for the Lowry Theatre in Manchester. Since it's first performance the show has undertaken further production and new direction as it takes its tour to the Buxton and Edinburgh Fringe(s).
What's your favourite show ever?
Bordello’s favourite? We most recently watched Derren Brown’s enigma at the Lowry Lyric in June. The show was mesmerising and at times impossible to believe. Derren Brown is most definitely the perfect showman.
Tales From The Blackjack plays Underground Venues, Sat 17 July: 11pm to 11:45pm, Sun 18 July: 9:30pm to 10:15pm, Mon 18 July: 9:30pm to 10:15pm. Tue 19 July: 5pm to 5:45pm, Wed 20 July: 11pm to 11:45pm and then onto Edinburgh! Booking info here.
FringeReview interviews Polis Loizou from "The Sexes"
What's the show about?
Following a successful run with ‘Clothes To Fall Apart In’ last year, The Off-Off-Off-Broadway Company returns to theBuxton Festival Fringe with 'THE SEXES' – a blackly comic, gender-bending portrait of a marriage.
After years of playing lovers on stage, Lars (Laura Louise Baker) and Jaquée's (Jaacq Hugo) off-stage marriage is tested when they find they are both vying for the same film role: that of ‘a prostitute with f***ing tuberculosis.’ A blend of theatre, video and new writing, ‘The Sexes’ is ultimately the study of old wounds and crumbling façades.
What's different about it?
A male actor plays the female role, and a female actor plays the male role. However, 'The Sexes' doesn't use its gender-bending as an 'edgy' gimmick – it merely asks its audience to accept the gender reversal as part of what makes it a study about marriage.
How did "The Sexes" come about?
The show was created on the penultimate performance of the company's last show at the Buxton Fringe, when performer Jaacq Hugo sighed, 'Whatever happened to the sexes?' and writer-director Polis Loizou's head lit up.
The basic outline was created that very day, and the script was written soon afterwards with Jaacq Hugo and Laura Louise Baker in mind, as wife and husband respectively.
What's your favourite show of all time?
'The Crucible' – it managed to make its political point without being didactic. It'll always be a thrilling and relevant piece of theatre because its themes are conveyed through the friction between its characters and their cleverly interwoven lives (and motives) rather than overstatement.
'The Sexes' plays Underground Venues,, The Square, Buxton, SK17 6BD on 8th, 13th & 14th July at 10.45pm and 19th July at 6.30pm. Details and booking here.
FringeReview's One Minute chat with Ben Aitken of J & C
What is J and C about?
Question: What do you get if you cross a bombastic taxman with an elderly gravedigger? Answer: An anarchic and hapless stab at philosophical comedy that has one hand on Beckett's shoulder and the other holding Shakespeare's pint. This is theatre that will make you think, laugh and frown.
What's different about the show?
There is absolutely nothing different about this piece. Indeed, one of the issues it comically takes up is the growing impossibility of the new. In this way, ironically, it is quite different. Further, the dialogue is so fat with wit that I've recommend it go on a diet this autumn. Finally, and this should clinch it, have you ever witnessed a taxman stradle a gravedigger?
What's the show's history?
The script was written in the bath over the course of three evenings. The premier in Manchester was met with positive reviews. The writer and cast share a passion for camping and mineral water. The Buxton Fringe was the inevitable next step.
What's your favourite show of all time?
Pinter's No Man's Land - a circus of emptiness.
J and C from Candid Theatre plays Underground Venues on July 8th: 3.30-4.30pm, July 9th: 9.30-10.30pm, July 10th: 10.30-11.30pm, July 11th: 10.30-11.30pm. Booking details here.
FringeReview talks to Andy Moseley about Are You Lonesome Tonight?
What's the show all about?
It's about how the way the music we love when we're young can influence the rest of our lives. The play begins on the day Elvis died. Dwight and Leanne Carter are on a journey from Memphis to Portland. It’s the day before their twentieth wedding anniversary, and their marriage has been going through a rocky patch. Dwight has decided that the best way to save their marriage is to get them tickets for all twelve dates of a tour by the man whose music brought them together. Sadly for Dwight, fate is set to intervene before he gets the chance to find out whether this was really such a good idea after all.
Denied, or spared, the chance to see him live, they have to decide whether to do the tour without Elvis, or go home to an uncertain future. It could be a simple decision, but with so much riding on it, it is anything but, and even though he is dead Elvis continues to hold the key to their future.
What makes this a different Elvis show?
Are You Lonesome Tonight? is a new play, premiering at Buxton Fringe. There are a lot of plays about Elvis, but this is the first play about the tour he was due to start the day after he died, and the people who had tickets for it.
Tell us about the show's history
I toured round the States in 2006 and visited Memphis a week after the anniversary of Elvis' death. I was amazed by how many people there were who visited Graceland every year, and how much Elvis had influenced their lives. I decided to write a play about two of them, and to set it on the day he died. When I started doing more research I found out he'd been meant to start a tour the day after he died, and I had the story for the show.
What's your favourite show ever?
That's a difficult one, but probably One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest with Christian Slater at Edinburgh in 2004. It was the first year I'd been to the Fringe, and it was the hot ticket of the year. It felt as if you were part of a select crowd invited to watch something that was going to be big. The cast were all excellent, and it got me hooked on the Fringe and determined to put something on myself one day.
Are You Lonesome Tonight? plays Underground Venues@Buxton Fringe, The Square, Buxton, SK17 6BD. 21st to 24th July. 3:30-4:30pm (21st-23rd) 6:30-7:30pm (23rd) 9:30-10:30pm (24th). Booking info here.
Visit their web site here.
FringeReview's One Minute Interview with Gerry Howell
What's the name of the show?
The Fantastic Reality of Frederick Goodge
What's the show about?
It is about a man, loosely based on another man, who vaguely resembles myself, who gets all tangled up in his own imagination. The consequences are both hilarious and heartbreaking.
What's different about it?
It is possibly the saddest show you will ever see performed by an impossibly funny comedian.
How did it come about?
I heard about the festival from a friend of mine (David Winks) who told me it was fun and set in the lovely surroundings of Buxton and the Peak District.
What's your favourite show of all time?
My favourite theatre show was Krapp's Last Tape with Harold Pinter. A work of tragi-comic genius peformed by an old master of theatre.
The Fantastic Reality of Frederick Goodge plays Underground Venues, Buxton. July 8,10,12 AT 10pm. Booking info here.
FringeReview talks to Sophie Snell of 'Seven Deadly Sins'
What's the show all about?
“Bless me Father, for I have sinned!” Do you have anything to confess? A young girl hiding in the confessional overhears her neighbours’ confessions - lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride - whispered revelations of sinning and secret desires. As she listens with growing unease, stories unfold that should never be told…
My one hour show presents some of the lesser known folk tales from the stones and bones of the British Isles. Three stories are woven around the tale of the young girl herself. As each story unfolds, more of the seven deadly sins are divulged - in all their glorious, sometimes comic and even darkly gruesome colours. Until finally our heroine overhears one final devastating revelation – and the penny drops...
Why should people see it?
You’ll be hooked right from the start, through each twist and turn, as you try to guess where each story is finally heading. I have a wicked sense of humour and I think the performance is gripping and absorbing. So be prepared for thrills and spills on this rollicking ride through the Seven Deadly Sins!
What's new and different about the show?
Performance storytelling is a heady mix of the traditional oral art of storytelling and dramatic performance and is being brought to the festival for the first time, with this show.
How did the show come about?
I am a Derbyshire based professional storyteller who developed this piece as an experimental project. It was previewed at a few local East Midlands storytelling clubs, and then invited to be performed at the Nottinghamshire StoryFest March 2010. From there the decision was made to take it to Buxton Fringe. The show is also being performed at Stamford Riverside Festival on July 3rd and at Wirksworth Festival Sept 19th 2010.
What is your favourite show of all time?
As a child I went to see a version of Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night Dream - I can't remember the producton details but it was my first real memory of a Shakespeare produciton. I loved following the different plot strands, the inter-weaving of myth, fantasy and reality and the very human emotional storylines even for the fairies, something I love now about folk tales - real human emotional characteristics embodied in extraordinary circumstances that then resonate through time as oral folk tales ...
Seven Deadly Sins plays at Underground Venues, 9th July, 3.30pm, 14th July, 2.15pm, 15th July, 2.15pm. Details and booking here.
Visit Sophie's web site here:
FringeReview interviews Tom Crawshaw and Yaz Al-Shaater about 'Reverie'
What is Reverie about?
James embarks on a quixotic adventure to harness the power of his dreams and live forever. But once you’ve opened the door to infinite possibilities can you ever truly live in the real world?
Enchanting and funny in equal measure, Three’s Company fly you over a landscape of love, memory and unreachable perfection. Utopia, it seems, is exactly how you imagined it.
What is new and different about Reverie?
Reverie is a new play by award-winning playwright Tom Crawshaw ("master of his materials" The Spectator) and will be receiving its world première in Buxton.
Although there are lots of plays about 'dreaming' and 'dreams', Reverie tackles the bizarre and little understood world of lucid dreaming. A lucid dream is one where you know you're dreaming. Lucid dreams are rare but can be cultivated. For those who do, they offer a unique opportunity to escape their lives and do whatever they want.
What's the show's history?
Three's Company have been performing shows on the Buxton Fringe for 8 years and were individually involved in theatre in the town for years before that.
The trio performed their first independent work as a company on the Buxton Fringe and ever-since have visited their home town to première their new work.
Where is it going next?
The show has been selected to appear at the prestigious Pleasance Dome at the Edinburgh Fringe in August. Tom has had nine new plays première in Buxton and so the town - and it's wonderful Fringe - were the perfect place to bring this latest play first.
What's your favourite show of all time ?
Says Tom Crawshaw (writer): Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett. I love the fact that every line in it can be, by turns hilariously fun or tragically dramatic. It's simple and dynamic - pure theatre really.
Says Yaz Al-Shaater (actor): My favourite theatre experience was an immersive underground work which involved walking around and discovering characters and storylines as you wished. It was called 'Faust' and was a forerunner to the exciting infinite opportunities for theatre currently being explored popularly by PunchDrunk and others.
Reverie plays at Underground Venues , The Square, Buxton, SK17 6BD, 8th, 10th, 11th, 17th, 18th & 20th July 2010
at 7:45pm (1h05). Booking info here.
Visit their web site here.
A Quick Chat with Matthew Chappell about The Crozzy Show
Tell us about the show
Crozzy is a "Psychic" and thinks she can solve people problems! (a bit like jermey Kyle but good) she does this in her eunique way by contacting the dead and alive well mostly celebs. Theres alot of audience participation in the show
What's different about the show?
Th show involves the audience from the start and all the way through, and they pretty much in charge of to what subjects it covers!
How did the show come about?
Well the character for Crozzy was influenced by a teacher from school; her name was (sorry not allowed to say!) I went on a school outing to the Buxton Fringe Festival after our exams and I was hooked, and ever since then I have wanted to put on a show there - so this year it came true.
What's your all time favourite show?
That's a hard one - I see a lot of theatre, but I will say the most recent one - Beautiful House, written by Cathy Crabb - it was quite sad, but funny in parts. And also and most recently, Peter Kay - the tour that doesn't tour!
The Crozzy Show plays on 8th, 12th and 19th July 2010 19.00 to 20.00 at Underground Venues. Booking info, and a video message, here.
FringeReview Encounters The 3 Men
What's the show all about?
Chester's zestiest theatre trio investigate what it takes to be a man. A fusion of captivating performance styles and comic portrayals, from the working men's club to the office party. This raw piece of hilarious theatre follows a variety of characters in search of love, work and friendship.
3 performers deliver monologues, song, dance and group scenes in true comic style inviting the audience to empathise, sympathise as well as having a damn good laugh.
What's new and different about 3 Men?
3 guys doing what they love; performing....engaging an audience, pushing boundaries and inviting response. It's theatre, it's comedy, it's an assault on the senses.....cirque de soliel do it with costume, lights, bells and whistles.....this is '3 Men' a guitar and raw comic talent.
How did the show comes about?
This was a new piece of writing, a collaboration sparked from improvisation and observation. '3 Men' previewed at Alexander's comedy club in Chester to a full house. It was booked in again...to a full house again! The show then toured comedy clubs, bars, theatres, universities and other community venues.
What is your favourite show of all time?
Steven Berkoff's 'East' - Powerful, funny, beautifully stylised. I love this style of theatre, the fusion of monologues, group scenes, mime, dance and song and this was a massive inspiration to a lot of our companies work.
'3 Men' plays Underground Venues - Barrel Room 11 Jul 2:30pm to 3:15pm, 12-13 Jul 5:30pm to 6:15pm £7 (Child £6, Conc £6) Booking info here.
Visit their web site here.
More to follow.
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