Continuing with the highlights of our upcoming super-celebration of stories here’s another handful of incredible acts you can look forward to. Off we go! Continue reading
Posted in Books, Event, Illustration, Meanwhile..., Zines
Tagged Abe Christie, annexe, betsey trotwood, festival, gareth brookes, interrobang, jamie mills, Poetry, prose, Spoken word, theatre, zine fair, zines
More from our Edinburgh Ones to Watch series. Annexe Editor Nick Murray reviews Comedian Dies in the Middle of a Joke.
The Edinburgh Fringe has become renowned for theatre companies taking experimental and interactive performances and casting them at an unsuspecting audience. They can be interesting and inventive, or they can be an ever-stretching hour of self indulgence. Whether that kind of thing is your cup of tea or not is up to you. However, finally a show is coming to Edinburgh, crossing the boundaries of interactive theatre, spoken word and performance that feels genuine while also trying something really new.
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Continuing our Ones to Watch series highlighting the hit acts of the Edinburgh Fringe, Pauline Stobbs reviews comedic duo Taylor and Bird’s ‘Blind Date Ruined My Life’.
Taylor and Bird have got guts. Forgetting the slow and steady path to comedy, these two have fast tracked straight to the fringe festival with their first show Blind Date Ruined my Life. “What?” I hear you cry. “How could a classic ITV show have any damaging consequences to anyone ever?”
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Posted in edinburgh, Review, Theatre
Tagged blind date, edinburgh, festival, fringe, pauline stobbs, taylor and bird, theatre
What happens when one man decides to sing instead of speak for two whole months? Greg McLaren found out.
Posted in Music, Review, Theatre
Tagged annexe, can fuck off, doris day, greg mclaren, review, singin, soho theatre, theatre
Pauline Stobbs delves into a night of new theatre from Tiny Dog Productions.
It was a sunny evening in Forest Hill, a lot further south of the river than I usually go, when I was led into the basement of a pub. The reason? To see six plays of new writing each lasting no more than twenty minutes.
I had my concerns that six back-to-back plays by writers I’d never heard of could feel relentless. However Theatre Breaks offers a winning format. Run by Tiny Dog productions, a multi-disciplinary theatre company based in London, the festival is designed to be a platform for new work, and often the first chance for writers and directors to gauge the audience’s reaction. Having six plays offers a diverse programme of themes and styles, and most audiences are fair enough to gamble twenty minutes of time for the benefit. And there were some real winners in the night’s performances.
Tagged forest hill, pauline stobbs, review, theatre, theatre breaks, tiny dog
We’ve got an Annexe favourite for Two Poems today. Poetic stalwart, Gloria Sanders reads her piece, The Contortionist, and a work by Felix Dennis.
Posted in Poetry, Sound, Two Poems, Two Texts
Tagged contortionist, felix dennis, gloria sanders, ink, squid, theatre, Two Poems
Fresh from the full month stretch at the Edinburgh Fringe, the folks that make up Misshapen Theatre aren’t a bunch to rest on their laurels. Back on the opposite end of the UK, they presented their two plays as a double bill to the eager audiences of London Town. Now, before the final leg of the current tour, we managed to catch up with Jon Brittain, the pen behind the performance, to chat about the plays and how it all came about.
Posted in Funnies, Interview, Theatre
Tagged brighton, edinburgh, Jack Swain, jon brittain, london, lucy jackson, misshapen, theatre
Annexe Editor, Nick Murray, rekindled his love for the magnificent Globe Theatre this week when he went to see Christopher Marlowe’s masterpiece, Doctor Faustus.
Read about his admiration for authentic woodwork, 16th century comedy and the nostalgia of Cities after the jump.
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Posted in Event, Fiction, Review, Theatre
Tagged 16th century, doctor faustus, doctor who, globe, london, Marlowe, nostalgia, play, shakespeare, Southbank, thames, theatre
Giving a review of Punchdrunk’s latest immersive offering, we have our guest writer, the inimitable Pauline Stobbs. The Uncommercial Traveller is a snapshot of the dark and fractured underbelly of Victorian London that Dickens spent so much time observing.
To witness any Punchdrunk performance is an essential part of your theatrical education.
The Uncommercial Traveller is a brief example of the fragmentary storytelling, blurry depths of characterisation and superb set design on which Punchdrunk has made its name. Their collaborations include the ENO, Battersea Arts Centre and most recently, the BBC’s Doctor Who team for the Manchester International festival. This collaboration with east-focused Arcola theatre promised to draw out the past documented so acutely in Dickens’ collection of literary sketches.
Keep reading after the jump.
A Screenplay for Sir Michael Gambon
by Jack Swain
Recently the all-round creative powerhouse, Jack Swain, confessed a secret love for Michael Gambon. Naturally, we weren’t surprised. Who can say that deep down in their heart of hearts they don’t keep a special space reserved for The Great Gambon. Following this statement, Jack presented us with a screenplay, written with Sir Michael in mind. It’s part biting satire and part affectionate send-up of theatre and all it stands for. The hope is that Gambon will take the lead role. Watch this space.
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