Press & Media Releases
The Complete World of Sports (Abridged)
09 May 2012
Tues 19 & Wed 20 June
Click here to download a Word version of this Media Release
Newbury Productions (UK) Limited in association with York Theatre Royal
Reduced Shakespeare Company® in
The Complete World of Sports (abridged)
Every sport ever played on every continent in the entire history of the world in under two hours!
“The pacing and timing are crackerjack. It’s hard not to grin all night, give ‘em a medal!”
WASHINGTON POST
Just in time for the Olympic frenzy, and following a highly successful US tour and run in New York, the Reduced Shakespeare Company are back in the UK with the European premiere of their new show, The Complete World of Sports (abridged). Playing away at the Exeter Northcott Theatre on Tues 19 and Wed 20 June, the entire history of athletic competition is revisited in a marathon of madness and mayhem that sees the world's great sporting events shrunk down to theatrical size. The creators and original cast of RSC’s latest comic outrage will tour the UK prior to a season at London’s iconic Arts Theatre.
Among the many questions answered: Is darts really a sport? What does NASCAR stand for? Why do Americans insist on calling a contest in which only they compete the "World Series"? Which is more boring – baseball or cricket? Who invented wife-carrying, bog-snorkelling and cheese-rolling? And why aren’t they in the Olympics?
Whether it's the ancient cavemen or the Classical Greeks, the Romans, the Elizabethans or the modern sports media, The Complete World of Sports (abridged) brings you all the emotion, the drama and the random drug testing of sports…
"The Complete World of Sports (abridged) owes as much to the insanity of Monty Python as to the inanity of actual sports programs.”
BOSTON GLOBE
“This frenetic show leaves you with a new appreciation for just how dull life would be had the idea of athletic competition never been invented.”
NEW YORK TIMES
Let the games begin!
The Complete World of Sports (Abridged)
Tues 19 & Wed 20 June, 7.30pm
Tickets: £18
Conc. £2 off
Age: PG13 – pretty good if you’re 13!
Running Time: 2 hrs
ENDS
Tickets are available by calling the Exeter Northcott Theatre Box Office on 01392 493493, or choose your seats online at www.exeternorthcott.co.uk Alternatively buy in person from Exeter Northcott Theatre, Stocker Road, EX4 4QB. Tickets can now also be purchased from Exeter Visitors Information & Tickets, Dix’s Field, Exeter, EX1 1GF.
Please click here to get to our Press and media Downloads Section.
For further information, please contact Matt Newbury on 01392 223 989 or email him here
- Editor’s Notes -
The Reduced Shakespeare Company is a three-man comedy troupe that takes long, serious subjects and reduces them to short, sharp comedies.
Since 1981, ‘The Bad Boys of Abridgement’ have created eight stage shows, two television specials, several failed TV pilots and numerous radio pieces – all of which have been performed, seen, heard and translated into Klingon the world over.
The company’s first three shows, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), The Complete History of America (abridged) and The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged) enjoyed a nine-year run at the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus. They were London’s longest-running comedies, and at one point the Reduced Shakespeare Company had more shows running in the West End than Andrew Lloyd Webber. Some of them were funnier too!
Gripping Yarns - Turning Stories into Drama
08 May 2012
Sat 12 & Sun 13 May
Click here to download a Word version of this Media Release
Drop into the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 May to enjoy some very special live performances inspired by objects on display in the museum. A series of five minute monologues will be performed by professional actors in the galleries at the museum, close to the objects that inspired them.
These Gripping Yarns are by new and experienced writers and were developed in a series of workshops held by Show of Strength Theatre Company in March and April this year. From the dozens of scripts submitted, twelve were chosen to be transformed into live performances. All of the performers and writers are regionally based, as is the Director Tony Lidington, who is a writer, performer and director from Dawlish.
The short monologues will range from intimate, thought provoking experiences to big, brash and exciting interactions with the museum visitors.
Alice Tatton-Brown will be performing:
Posh Face by Marilyn Langridge-Jones
FREE THINKING by Gill Barr
ACTUAL REALITY by Annette Chown
David Reakes will be performing:
TIGER HUNT by Bill Eaton
KICK OFF by Tim Sansom
A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS by Joe Loxton
Jill Lamede will be performing:
NKISI by Su Bristow
MISERICORD by Yasmin Wilde
NEW BEGINNINGS by Lori Hilson
Anthony Richards will be performing:
VANISHING by Samantha Randall
A CIVIL WAR HELMET by Matthew Roberton
MOOSE TALK by Deborah January
These live performances will take place in the RAMM galleries between 10.30am and 4.30pm and are FREE for everyone to enjoy. Pick up a map with a schedule of events on the day and prepare to see museum objects in a completely new light.
Gripping Yarns is a partnership project with RAMM, Exeter Northcott Theatre and Show of Strength Theatre Company and had been funded by Renaissance.
Click here to download and print a map with a schedule of events for the day and prepare to see museum objects in a completely new light.
ENDS
For further information or to arrange interviews, please contact Matt Newbury on 01392 223 989 or email him here
The Hound of the Baskervilles
16 Apr 2012
Tues 8 - Sat 12 May
Click here for a Word version of this Media release
Sherlock Holmes’ famous west country adventure comes to the Exeter Northcott Theatre
A bloodcurdling howl is heard
across a cold, moonlit moor;
the spectral hound has
claimed another victim…
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s chilling tale The Hound of the Baskervilles comes to the Exeter Northcott Theatre (Tues 8 – Sat 12 May) in a stunning new resurrection. Sherlock Holmes, the world famous detective of Baker Street with a keen eye, acute intelligence and logical mind is called upon to investigate the legend of Baskerville Manor.
When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on the wild Devon moorland with the footprints of a giant hound nearby, the blame is placed on an ancient family curse. It is up to Holmes and his trusty sidekick Dr Watson to solve the legend of the deadly Hound of the Baskervilles, before Sir Charles’s heir meets an equally horrific end.
As one of the greatest stories of the 20th century and the most popular Sherlock Holmes adventure, the challenge for the producers (Oldham Coliseum Theatre) was how to bring to the stage both an atmospheric and smog shrouded Victorian London and a wild and menacing Dartmoor…
The solution came in the form of Imitating The Dog, a ground-breaking Leeds-based visual arts collective, who make innovative use of digital media, design and physical performance to take audiences to truly unexpected places.
For this inventive show they have created a clever set, which they describe as a “giant box of tricks on stage.” As well as having moving elements, amazing imagery is projected and in combination with other devices including state-of-the-art sound effects, the actors are completely immersed in the action. The whole effect is truly impressive for a touring production, while as for the hound itself – well expect to be kept on the edge of your seat, but with a big smile on your face as well.
Tues 8 – Sat 12 May: 7.30pm
Sat Matinee: 2.30pm
Tickets: £12.50 - £20.50
Sat Matinee: all seats £12.50
Conc. £2 off
Student Standby: £8
Age: 10 yrs+
Post Show Talk: Wed 9 May
ENDS
Tickets are available by calling the Exeter Northcott Theatre Box Office on 01392 493493, or choose your seats online at www.exeternorthcott.co.uk Alternatively buy in person from Exeter Northcott Theatre, Stocker Road, EX4 4QB. Tickets can now also be purchased from Exeter Visitors Information & Tickets, Dix’s Field, Exeter, EX1 1GF.
Please click here to get to our Press and media Downloads Section.
For further information, please contact Matt Newbury on 01392 223 989 or email him here
-Editor’s Notes-
Written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Adapted by Clive Francis
Directed by Kevin Shaw
Designed by imitatingthedog
Cast:
Gwynfor Jones (Sherlock Holmes)
Leigh Symonds (Doctor Watson)
Robin Simpson (Sir Henry Baskerville)
Steven O’Neill (Mortimer)
Amy Ewbank (Mrs Hudson)
About Oldham Coliseum Theatre:
Oldham Coliseum is a producing theatre company, producing eight shows a year on its main stage, offering a balanced programme of drama, comedy, musical, new writing and the annual pantomime. During 2012 the theatre’s usual building is temporarily closing for a season to allow essential refurbishment work to take place. This is a fantastic opportunity for the company to extend their touring policy and take their work to new venues across Oldham and further afield.
About imitatingthedog:
Formed in 1998, imitatingthedog(itd) is a UK based theatre company making performance work that tours extensively both nationally and internationally. From the outset itdhave been committed to developing critically acclaimed work that experiments with innovative scenographic techniques that explore the narrative potential of theatre and to locate new modes of story-telling for a culture where the concepts of narrative linearity and coherent identity no longer seem to hold sway.
The Guardian has described imitatingthedogas ‘a company at the forefront of testing the nature of theatre’ and The Observer commented that their production of Kellerman was ‘as near as dammit a total work of art’.
Ballet Black return to Exeter Northcott
29 Mar 2012
Wed 2 & Thurs 3 May
Click here to download a Word version of this media release
“For unflagging energy and unstoppable spirit, Ballet Black is phenomenal.”
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
“A ballet company to watch…”
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Founded in 2001, Cassa Pancho’s Ballet Black is a modern ballet company and associate company of the Royal Opera House, dedicated to diversifying classical ballet. The company is made up of eight international dancers of black and Asian descent (including 2 apprentice dancers) and has recently won a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award (Dance Europe Award for Outstanding Company) and a further nomination for Best Classical Female Dancer.
The entirely original repertoire covers a broad spectrum of ballet, from classical work to highly contemporary pieces. Since 2001, the company has built a varied repertoire from some of the country’s leading choreographers, including Liam Scarlett, Henri Oguike, Shobana Jeyasingh, Martin Lawrance, Will Tuckett, Christopher Hampson and Richard Alston.
For their return to the Exeter Northcott, the company are delighted to present a mixed bill of premieres from the latest in choreographic talent; Jonathan Goddard (Rambert Dance Company), Jonathan Watkins (The Royal Ballet) and Martin Lawrance (creator of Pendulum for Ballet Black in 2009). They also debut Storyville, a new story ballet by Christopher Hampson.
Storyville is the tender yet bittersweet story of a young girl’s journey from rages to riches and back to rags again, set in the suburb of Storyville, New Orleans in the early
1900s. A tale of love, corruption and survival set in the nightclubs of Storyville, a salacious world where anything goes. Set to music from the chamber version of Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera, including the well‐known Mack The Knife.
Ballet Black
Wed 2 & Thurs 3 May: 7.30pm
Tickets: £10 - £18.50
Conc. £2 off
Student Standby: £8
Age: 6 yrs+
Running Time: 1 hr 30 mins
Post Show Talk: Wed 2 May
More information: www.balletblack.co.uk
ENDS
Tickets are available by calling the Exeter Northcott Theatre Box Office on 01392 493493, or choose your seats online at www.exeternorthcott.co.uk Alternatively buy in person from Exeter Northcott Theatre, Stocker Road, EX4 4QB. Tickets can now also be purchased from Exeter Visitors Information & Tickets, Dix’s Field, Exeter, EX1 1GF.
Please click here to get to our Press and Media Downloads Section.
For further information, please contact Matt Newbury on 01392 223 989 or email him here
Lord of the Flies comes to Exeter
17 Feb 2012
Wed 25 - Sat 28 April 7.30pm
Schools Matinee Thurs 26 April 1.30pm
William Golding's Lord of the Flies is one of the most disturbing and celebrated novels of modern times, Multi award-winning Sell a Door Theatre Company return to Exeter Northcott Theatre with this classic tale of morality vs immorality.
A plane has crashed on an uninhabited island. The only survivors are a group of school boys. There are no homes or schools, no adults, no rules and before long the boys' fragile sense of order begins to collapse.
With the discovery of 'the beast', their games take on a more sinister significance and this once well-behaved group of children quickly turns into a bloodthirsty, murderous tribe.
Originally produced to mark the centenary of William Golding, the run of this critically acclaimed production has been extended right across the UK due to popular demand. Directed by David Hutchinson and choreographed by Nicola London, the show also features the voice of Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) as the Naval Officer.
Robust Work"
THE HERALD
Masterfully executed production"
EVENING POST
Outstanding Cast"
PRESS & JOURNAL
Tickets: £12.50
Conc. £2 off
Schools: £7.50 for groups 10+
Student Standby: £8
Age: 12yrs+
Running Time: 2hrs
Post Show Talks: Wed 25 & Thurs 26 April (School's Matinee)
Tickets are available by calling the Exeter Northcott Theatre Box Office on 01392 493493, or choose your seats online at www.exeternorthcott.co.uk. Alternatively buy in person from Exeter Northcott Theatre, Stocker Road, EX4 4QB. Tickets can now also be purchased from Exeter Visitors Information & Tickets, Dix’s Field, Exeter, EX1 1GF.
For further information and to request interviews, review tickets and images, please contact Matt Newbury on 01392 223 989 or email him here
- ends -
Spiffing good fun with The Fitzrovia Radio Hour
16 Feb 2012
Sat 21 April
Following sell‐out seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2010 and 2011, their first national tour and a West End season, The Fitzrovia Radio Hour is coming the Exeter Northcott Theatre with a brand spanking new show.
Celebrating an age when radio was brand new and radio drama was stuffed with more stereotypes and cut‐glass accents than afternoon tea at Lords, the show’s writer/performers use new material to recreate the spirit of vintage radio plays for a modern audience.
Vowels are as neatly clipped as the gentlemen's moustaches, upper lips as stiff as their shirt collars, and emotions are kept as concealed as a woman's knee… Huzzah for the Empire's finest!" MAIL ON SUNDAY
The show includes three rip‐roaring tales: George Albion & the War of the Roses, Nazi Firemen in Westminster and Tin!
All are new yet delightfully reminiscent of the golden age of radio. Witness vegetables simulating fistfights, thrill to a whisky bottle which is a dead ringer for a Nazi midget submarine and gasp at a watering can playing the roaring Atlantic. All these sound effects, and more, are created live on stage!
This new show is sponsored by Clipstone Ceylon Tea! The Fitzrovians revel in the glamour of a bygone era, from costume and performance to props. They transport audiences to their unique universe ‐ a wonderful imagining of how commercial 1940s radio should have been done.
The Fitzrovia Radio Hour lovingly satirise the casual imperialism and stiff upper lips of the period, throwing them into relief with physical comedy and a modern twist to produce a heady comic cocktail.
Absolutely spiffing show that recreates the innocent spirit of Forties live radio drama.’ TELEGRAPH * * * *
The troupe began in 2008, when founding members restaged vintage radio plays from America. They enjoyed wearing pencil moustaches so much that they were inspired to write original material in a period style. Since then they have won widespread acclaim and performed extensively to soldout houses including a season at Trafalgar Studios and a year‐long residency at Shakespeare’s
Globe, London (Swan at The Globe / Underglobe).
Dramatic entertainment redolent of a bygone era… recreates its chosen era with
just the right mixture of fondness and irreverence… jolly good show, chaps!"
THE GUARDIAN
The Fitzrovia Radio Hour is written and performed by Jon Edgley Bond, Tom Mallaburn, Phil Mulryne, Martin Pengelly and Alex Ratcliffe. The show is directed by Phoebe Barran and the cast includes Fiona Sheehan and Natalie Ball.
The Fitzrovia Radio Hour
Tickets: A £16.50 B £15 C £12.50 D £10
Conc. £2 off
Student Standby: £8
Age: 12yrs+
Running Time: 1 hr 40 mins
Tickets are available by calling the Exeter Northcott Theatre Box Office on 01392 493493, or choose your seats online at www.exeternorthcott.co.uk Alternatively buy in person from Exeter Northcott Theatre, Stocker Road, EX4 4QB. Tickets can now also be purchased from Exeter Visitors Information & Tickets, Dix’s Field, Exeter, EX1 1GF.
- Ends -
For further information and to request interviews, review tickets and images, please contact Matt Newbury on 01392 223 989 or email him here
* Please note that some of the material performed may vary from this list: The Fitzrovia Radio Hour will occasionally perform alternative stories to those listed as part of the shows during the spring 2012 tour.
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