Farmer Drama

HTC Touch Phone

This is my new phone - an HTC touch.  It's pretty amazing.  The nice thing is you can use it on wi-fi like a mini-laptop.  It's not really a phone - it's more like a mobile PC that also happens to have a phone as part of it.  Looking forward to playing with it on the train tomorrow. I shall appear very business-like.  Or poncey.

Spamalot

I saw this show in March 2005 in New York, managing to get a last-minute seat in a box.  The theatre was packed to the rafters and they just loved the spoof Britishness of it all - I think the only actual Brit was Tim Curry.  Thoroughly good fun, with some great musical numbers.  Without revealing what happens at the end, I do wonder how it will go down with British audiences, who may not have the same attitude to Jewish jokes that the Yanks seemed to have. It opens at the Palace Theatre on the 2nd October.

A week at the Fest

Just come back from a week at the Edinburgh Fringe and my favourite shows mostly seem to be about the blurring of reality:

Insomnobabble by Big Wow
A complete surprise - two brilliant actors re-enact one man's increasingly surreal attempts to make sense of insomnia and the blurring of realities by means of a witty script, sharp direction, highly versatile acting skills and using only one piece of scenery - a single bed. A "wild-card" in the Total Theatre Awards.
The Family Semianyki
Russian clowning at its best - funny, dark, surreal and highly watchable scenes from the life of a dysfunctional family of lovable homicidal clowns. Short-listed for the Total Theatre Awards.

Floating by Hoipolloi
Hugh Hughes' attempt to escape from the isle of Anglesey as it sails away from the mainland during the Falklands war.  The logic defies logic. Winner of a Total Theatre Award.
Cooped by Spymonkey
This has been touring for years but is still fresh in its irreverent and outrageously funny treatment of a gothic murder mystery, complete with cheeky nudity and cheesy disco dancing. Short-listed for the Total Theatre Awards.
Shoe Baby by Long Nose Puppets
What better way to spend a mid-morning half-hour than enjoying this show for under-five year olds with colourful puppets and catchy songs by Tom Gray of Gomez?

Kids shows in Edinburgh

"For the 60th Edinburgh festival is about to get under way, and it would apparently take five years, 11 months and 16 days to watch back-to-back all of the 1,867 shows in this year's Fringe festival." - The Guardian.

70 of these shows are specifically for children.  Having taken Frog in Love up to Edinburgh in 2003, I have an interest in this area and have made a shortlist of some of the shows it might be worth taking your kids to.  Please bear in mind that no matter how much planning you do in advance, there is no substitute for word of mouth, randomness and pure fluke when finding a good show.  So ask around!

Shoe Baby by Long Nose Puppets plays at the Gilded Balloon. With music by Tom Gray of Gomez and a charming story by Joyce Dunbar, this show is being snapped up by venues across the UK.  See my previous blog to find out more.  On the same theme, Mike Kenny's ever-popular play Whose Shoes is being performed at Augustines. One of the most popular shows in recent years has been The Gruffalo - and this year Tall Stories follow up their mega hit with The Gruffalo's Child at the Assembly Rooms, where you also get the chance to see The Gruffalo and Friends - stories and songs performed by the author Julia Donaldson.  In 2003 I laughed my head off at a children's show where Dr Bunhead from Brainiac set fire to lots of things - this year he is back with Volcano Head at George Square Theatre, catering to the naughty child in all of us.

It's like having new ears

My listening experience has been greatly enhanced by the purchase of a new amp. I have two stereo systems - one attached to the computer for playing mp3s and for when I make my own music, and the other in the living room for playing CDs and LPs. For some reason both amps were worn out in a similar way so that one channel kept cutting out. I've been putting up with this for a very long time but finally decided to splash out on a new amp. A friend and I popped down to Richer Sounds to buy this beast - a Cambridge Audio A5 for the princely sum of £119.50.

Suddenly music is worth listening to again. Since I got an ipod I've pretty much stopped listening to CDs, so the new amp is attached to my PC, which I seem to sit in front of a lot of the time, playing mp3s on iTunes.

So my first played tracklist is as follows:
Steve Winwood: Why Can't We Live Together
An accurate but better-recorded version of the Timmy Thomas number (and just as soulful).
Fairport Convention: Meet On The Ledge
This doesn't sound quite the same without the scratch on my original LP version (on the sampler "You Can All Join In").

Why is that so funny?

If you've ever wondered why you laugh in everyday situations, this entertaining book will tell you - and show you how to create comedic improvisation in rehearsal. John Wright was the co-creator of Trestle Theatre and Told by an Idiot. He has worked with leading companies including Complicite, the RSC, the National Theatre and the Royal Opera House.

The depth of his experience is immediately apparent in these pages as he shares practical exercises, stories and observations of his life and work. Over a hundred exercises are clearly explained, taking the reader through techniques developed by LeCoq, Gaulier and the author, with relevant examples from contemporary theatre and literature. The book is jam-packed with highly readable accounts of shows, rehearsals and life experiences which have helped shape Wright's approach.

You can dip into it easily to pick up ideas for creating one of the simplest yet often elusive moments in theatre - the laugh. Highly recommended for anyone working in physical theatre or comedy, it will leave you itching to get back into the rehearsal room.

You can read more about John Wright and his current show The Evocation of Papa Mas in this interview, where you can also win a copy of his book!

Lunacy

It was almost a full moon tonight - a good occasion to tootle off to Cambridge to see the inspired lunacy of Hoipolloi's latest show The Impostor. Very loosely based on Tartuffe, it's a sort of Moliere meets New Age meets physical theatre meets romcom. Great fun to see the same company that I toured with in New York and LA last year throwing themselves around the stage with their usual reckless aplomb. While the cast were very familiar, I had difficulty recognising the venue - last time I visited The Junction, it was a lonely barren building in a car park. Now it's a central part of Cambridge Leisure Park - restaurants, nightclubs etc. The new theatre space is very snazzy indeed. It's the last show tomorrow (Saturday 13th May), but they are bringing it back in the autumn.