Rent from Vivid

This October Vivid Theatre Productions present RENT.  With a stunning cast performing this ground-breaking ROCK MUSICAL by JONATHAN LARSON in the intimate auditorium of BRENTWOOD THEATRE you'll be swept into the wild bohemian East Village of New York City.
The cast consists of ex-professionals, newly trained performers and some of the best amateurs in the local area.  This semi professional production is full of energy and sincerity that you will be taken on an emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end. Containing the classic songs Seasons of Love and La Vie Boheme this show is not to be missed so book your tickets now...
Brentwood Theatre Box Office - 01277 200305
or
online http://vividmusicaltheatre.ticketsource.co.uk

The Incredible Adventures of Clown Slut

The Incredible Adventures of Clown Slut
Mon 14 October  8pm  in the foyer of the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch

“Let me get this straight, I’m getting kicked out of a nightclub for dancing too aggressively?"
This is one girl’s journey through the confusion and mayhem of growing up - dancing her way from the sticky floors of the under 18s disco to the luminous lights of Abra-Kebabra (via Freshers' Week), will Clown Slut ever figure out what it takes to fit in? Muscles will be pulled and trousers will be split as this stand-up theatre piece explores what it means to be a woman today. To wax or not to wax? That is the question...
Local Girl Productions bring you their latest piece of original theatre - created as a response to a remark from a stranger on a bus:
"Do you know what you are?  You're a slut - trapped in the body of a clown".
Written and performed by Joanna Griffin
Directed by Lauren Bracewell    

The Incredible Adventures of Clown Slut is about 1 hour and a half (inc interval) long.

Dark Earth

Dark Earth: a historical drama staged at Flag Fen

Acclaimed theatre company, Eastern Angles are returning to Peterborough with Dark Earth, a magical and atmospheric new production performed at Flag Fen. Written, directed and produced by Eastern Angles’ professional creative team, the cast will be made up of performers drawn from the local community including members of Mask Theatre group. The play will be staged in a special covered auditorium with full stage, lighting, sound and tiered seating in the grounds of the historic archaeological site.

Dark Earth by Scottish playwright Forbes Bramble, is set in the Fens during the 1600s and tells of the drainage of the land and the story of two young lovers against the background of the discovery of a disturbing archaeological find. The play shows how the expertise of Dutch engineers was used to transform the landscape in an enthralling play that sets priest against churchgoers, landlords against tenants and engineers against eel-catchers.

Eastern Angles are delighted with the level of local support for this new venture. Produced in association with Vivacity, the production has been enthusiastically supported by local community performers all keen to get involved. This exciting and unique project will become an example of how Peterborough’s community performers and professional theatre-makers can successfully come together to create fantastic new work. 

Director Naomi Jones said, “The atmosphere is the rehearsal room is great – very lively and positive. We have attracted  a really good mix of actors, some with lots of experience of the local amateur dramatic scene, others are pupils from local schools like Jack Hunt. It’s a really good dynamic.”

“These people are telling an atmospheric story all about their local area, and some cases their ancestors. It gives the whole project a very special feel.”

Naomi Jones has directed many shows for Eastern Angles, including Return to Akenfield, Lincoln Road, The Long Way Home and most recently Private Resistance. Formerly with Out of Joint, for whom she directed Flight Path, she has also worked extensively for Oxford School of Drama and seen her productions performed at Hampstead Theatre Studio, Clerkenwell Theatre and Southwark Playhouse.

Writer Forbes Bramble worked with the prestigious new writing venue The Royal Court in the 1960s before training to become an architect. Based in Suffolk, his East Anglian connections led him to write this historical new play set in the Fens.

The show will also include puppetry from Polly Beestone (Spielgel Tent, Unicorn Theatre, Eastern Angles) and music by Chris Warner (RSC, The Lyric Theatre Belfast, Grand Opera House in Belfast).

Under the banner Platform Peterborough, Eastern Angles have been creating and performing nationally-acclaimed new theatre work inspired by the people of Peterborough for the last four years. Highlights have included the play Our Nobby, which featured the city’s best-loved tramp, Lincoln Road, based on stories from people living in the city, I Heart Peterborough, which took the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by storm and Parkway Dreams a critically-acclaimed musical documentary based on interviews with Peterborough Development Corporation employees.

Dark Earth will be performed at Flag Fen 
from September 12th – 15th and from September 19th – 22nd.
Preview tickets £8 (Thursday 12th Sept)
Tickets: £12 (£10)
Vivacity Heritage Pass Holders £8
Ring: 01473 211498 or book online www.easternangles.co.uk

Chelmsford Theatres new season

Autumn/Winter season
Civic and Cramphorn Theatres

Our city's theatre are set to open after the summer break with a rich mix of theatre, music, comedy, dance, film and much more

The Civic stage hosts an impressive roster of big name comedians in the biggest comedy series ever staged in Chelmsford. Phill Jupitus, Russell Kane, Alexei Sayle, Josh Widdicombe, Andy Parsons and Chris Ramsey will be performing their latest stand up shows. The Cramphorn studio theatre is the venue for more comedy including duo Peacock and Gamble with all their fun, idiocy and handsomeness, Andrew Lawrence the supreme misfit and even stand-up Comedy Club 4 Kids in a new venture that promises to be great comedy but without the rude bits. Plus there will be more monthly Comedy Showcase events featuring more of the UK’s best comedians on the comedy circuit.

There will be gritty drama in the form of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, a depiction of the mystery behind the infamous East End murders in The Ripper Files and powerful theatre in an innovative new staging of Dracula. 

Musically, there will be blasts from the past in Soul Legends featuring favourite covers from the likes of James Brown, Tina Turner, Sam and Dave, Barry White and many more; The Bay City Rollers Story will bring original ‘Roller’ Les McKeown to the stage; The Rat Pack Vegas Spectacular Show will be recreating the purveyors of cool and some of the greatest music of the 20th century; Arrival UK perform the ultimate Abba tribute and there will be original music from 90s hit maker Beverley Craven and regular favourite Joe Brown. Wonderful sitar music will be played in a superbly unusual evening of music in Indian Dimensions and Balkan and gypsy music band Dunajaska Kapelye lead by Polish jazz violinist Piotr Jordan perform a wonderful musical journey. Not forgetting another season of M&G Civic Concerts staring with the City of London Sinfonia.

To keep the little ones entertained Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s book The Snail and the Whale will be coming to life and there is more popular children’s entertainment with Aliens Love Underpants in a zany stage show. 

A one off special day of back stage tours will be taking place on Saturday 21 September. The tours will take people behind the scenes of the Civic Theatre with an introduction to the technical side of what goes on as well as a demonstration of the digital projector at the Chelmsford Picture House. Tickets must be booked early to avoid disappointment. 

To find out about all the shows on at Chelmsford City Theatres and to book tickets visit www.chelmsford.gov.uk/theatres or call the Box Office on 01245 606505.

Ha Ha Holmes

The inimitable Joe Pasquale, currently starring as King Arthur, will soon be preparing for his week long run in Ha Ha Holmes which premières in one of Joe’s most favourite theatres, the Civic Theatre on Fairfield Road, Chelmsford. What’s more it will be downright hilarious, as the comedian and national treasure follows in the illustrious footsteps of the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller and serves up his own unique and very individual comedic portrayal of super sleuth Sherlock Holmes in the touring stage production Ha Ha Homes! The Hound of the Baskervilles. 

Joe Pasquale’s Sherlock Holmes will undoubtedly bring chaos to the proceedings when Holmes and Watson investigate their most dangerous case yet – hunting down the Hounds of the Baskervilles. With writer Ben Langley as Doctor Watson and Andrew Fettes playing everyone else, this sure-fire, wonderfully ridiculous show, is well worth an investigation.

Has the beast bitten off more than he can chew when confronted by our crime stopping team?  Will Holmes find his deerstalker and will the deer be happy when he does?    Stick some shag in your pipe and visit 221b Baker Street for the most gripping comic caper of the age!

Swapping spandex for Sherlock’s famous get-up Joe Pasquale recently tested his skills on the ice rink in ITV’s Dancing on Ice having previously captured the nation’s hearts to be crowned celebrity King of the Jungle in 2004’s I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.   Our high achieving hero and action man is a trained pilot, charity marathon runner, Geoscience degree student and all round good egg.  

Sherlock Holmes has never been more popular with the current crop of films and television series honouring the tradition and you’d be absolutely barking mad to miss this pipe-smoking new interpretation of the most popular of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels from theatre’s funniest parodists!

Tickets cost from £17.00 - £24.50. (A £1.50 booking fee is applicable per transaction, except for cash and debit card payments made in person and by telephone). To book tickets call the theatre Box Office on 01245 606505 or go online and select your own seats at www.chelmsford.gov.uk/theatres. 

Spamalot backstage

I'm locked in a poky subterranean lavatory, struggling to get into silver leggings originally made for Matthew Kelly.

In less than an hour, I shall be enjoying my five seconds of fame, walking on to the Playhouse stage in Spamalot. It's not a demanding role. Listen for the cue, stride on, left hand on Sir Robin's right shoulder, double take, apologize and off Stage Right. But I do get a full costume, with plastic breastplate and rather nice soft leather boots, a radio mic for my one word of dialogue, a rehearsal and ceaseless support and encouragement from the friendly but very busy company, including the lovely Bonnie Langford, Joe [Arthur King] Pasquale, Kit Orton [whom I last saw in The Hired Man] and of course the endlessly reassuring Rob Delaney [whom I last saw as Posner in Chichester]. And not forgetting the patient, unflappable stage management team and the wardrobe ladies whose space I invaded for a couple of hours.

The cramped wings are noisy and very busy – a plague cart here, a shrubbery there – but I can see most of the action as well as the quick changes and the props grabbed from the offstage racks. And then it's that "aptly" cue, and I'm on … and off, all too soon, my one moment of West End glory gone in a flash.

Spamalot is running all summer and into the autumn, with stars appearing as God [on video] for charity, and the new Friday schedule, which has a 6pm post-work slot as well as a 9pm.

My brief review here ...

CAODS IN CONCERT … ‘FROM STAGE AND SCREEN’

CAODS IN CONCERT … ‘FROM STAGE AND SCREEN’

Known to Civic Theatre audiences for their lavish musicals, Chelmsford Amateur Operatic & Dramatic Society return with their summer concert on Sunday 2nd June 2013, for two performances only. The winning combination of CAODS, with iconic hits from shows, the big screen and popular music delivers a singing-sensation for the summer season.

Under the expert baton of Musical Director Patrick Tucker, CAODS versatile vocal talents performed with energy and excitement make ‘From Stage and Screen’ a must-see.  CAODS appeal is their ability to simultaneously surprise and delight, and this celebration of songs, spanning the decades from Jersey Boys, 50 Years Of The Beatles, A Chorus Line, Shrek, Ghost, The Book of Mormon, James Bond and Take That,  provides a defining and dynamic tribute to stage and screen.  

With performances at 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm and all tickets just £10, book now to avoid disappointment on CAODS Box Office tel: 01245 263537