Beauty & the Beast Living Spit 24th May – 17th June 7.30pm Age guidance 12+
The classic French tale of Beauty and the Beast tells of a bright and beautiful young woman who is taken prisoner by a beast in his castle. She learns to look beyond the Beast’s hideous exterior and realise the kind heart and soul that lies within.
Howard Coggins is beautiful. There’s no escaping that. But then so is Stu Mcloughlin.
In fact, Living Spit is widely known as the most physically attractive two-man musical comedy theatre company in the South-West. However, in this tale as old as time one of them will have to portray an ugly, foul-tempered beast. But which one will it be?
From the creators of the Offie award-nominated Six Wives of Henry VIII, the perennial Christmas favourite Living Spit’s Nativity and the “beguiling rib-tickler” (The Times) Living Spit’s Frankenstein The Musical comes a brand-new, monstrously-musical, Disney-defying version of this classic French tale about what it means to be truly beautiful in the 18th century.
Three Suns Paper Jungle 2nd June 2.30pm For everyone aged 5+ who enjoys stories.
In the kitchen a boy and his aunty are cooking up a storm, as they cook they remember familiar flavours and begin to unravel magical folktales from around the world.
Three Suns tells three stories from three different continents – Africa, Europe and Asia. We rejoice in the cosy relationship we have with our home, whilst being transported to other cultures where we taste the flavour of new lands.
Powerful storytelling, captivating puppetry, beautiful design, enchanting music and a sprinkling of magic sums up this very special show.
The Ballad Seller Luke Wright 11th June 7.30pm Age guidance 12+ Hosted in partnership with Clevedon Literary Festival
Back in Georgian times we got our news from poetry. Before papers, broadcasts or the internet, ballad sellers would hawk their doggerel on street corners for a penny. Scandalous affairs, grisly crimes, and colourful characters were brought to life in rhyming verse long before the first tabloid was printed.
Now Luke Wright has rewritten the very best of these stories for the modern ear: take a trip through the Drury Lane gin shops with the Boxing Baroness; filch oysters by the dozen with Dando, the celebrated gormandiser; and escape the Bull Ring with Jemmy the Rockman. Expect scandal, excess, and beautiful flawed humanity.
Luke Wright is a spit and sawdust wordsmith. His poems are inventive and engaging, documenting 21st century British life with wit, humanity, and panache. He performs his work with snarl and spit and he’s toured his wares around the world for 20 years.
Eschewing the formal structures of his first two collections, Wright’s latest batch of poems are splenetic and free-wheeling. They’re also his most personal writing to date.
Dylan’s Invisible Friend Wild Words 12th June 2.00pm Age guidance 5+ 12th June Hosted in partnership with Clevedon Literary Festival
Dylan was in search of something, but he didn’t know what… so he listened to the sea and before he knew it he had found a new invisible friend!
Join Wild Words in their latest family show that fuses the artistry of Dylan Thomas with echoes of Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Cohen, atmospheric Jazz and sea shanties, through the musicianship of Tim Hill (reeds), Martin Solomon (strings) alongside storyteller/ storywriter Michael Loader (horns).
Well-honed melodies, spontaneous mayhem, crazy characters and overtones of hoover drones all abound in a profound message about finding what you like doing and making your own special friend.
Clevedon Literary Festival Poetry Open Mic 12th June 5.00pm to 7.00pm. Hosted in partnership with Clevedon Literary Festival
Sit back and relax at Clevedon Literary Festival’s poetry open-mic. Let our local poets entertain and amuse you with a rich variety of engaging, wonderful words.
Pre booking needed. Please see Discover Clevedon for further details. https://www.discoverclevedon.co.uk/blog/clevedon-literary-festival-needs-you/
Stand up for the shop 25th June 7.30pm Age guidance 14+
An evening of some of the best Stand-up acts from across the country in our little Theatre Shop.
Curated and compered by the incomparable Sally-Anne Hayward. Guest panellist on BBC NI The Blame Game and BBC Radio 4 Elephant in the Room and Comedians Comedian Best MC 2019.
Sally-Anne is a stalwart of the comedy circuit and has performed stand-up in all five continents of the world. She is a regular at The Comedy Store and has supported Sarah Millican on her UK and International tour.
“Exceptionally funny” The Independent
“innate, effusive likeability with straightforward but effective writing… a primetime act.” Chortle
Superheroes Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre 3rd July 7.30pm Age guidance 14+
Sock! Pow! Wham! The award-winning Socks – winners of the 2018 Bath Comedy Festival Best Joke Award – are coming to town with their 10th new show of songs, sketches, socks & violence. This time they’re real live Superheroes! You think you’ve seen heroes in tights before? This pair will run and run.
In Superheroes, the Scottish Falsetto Socks tackle all the comic book greats from Superman to Spider-Man, The Avengers to The Fantastic Four, in songs, sketches, socks & violence.
This show follows the sellout success of The Socks’ last 9 shows which have included their stabs at sci-fi in Socks In Space, crime in Minging Detectives, their Shakespeare show, and the socky horror hour Boo Lingerie. Since the summer of 2020 they’ve been doing their shows on Zoom, so they couldn’t be happier to be live once more.
Superheroes is a show particularly close to the heart of the Socks’ writer and performer Kev F Sutherland who, when he’s not entertaining in a silly voice, has been writing and drawing comics for longer than he cares to remember, including working for Marvel drawing Doctor Strange, Star Trek, and Werewolf By Night. He’s also a regular contributor to The Beano, but be warned the Scottish Falsetto Socks are not for younger readers.
“Space age comedy to knock your socks off” – ★★★★ Daily Record
“Had every single audience member… laughing until they cried.” ★★★★★ Edinburgh Evening News
The Canterbury Tales David Mynne 9th July 7.30pm For adults and older children (12+)
Welcome to ‘The Canterbury’, an Olde English Inn:
Infamous around these parts for villainy and sin.
The floor is fresh with sawdust for soaking up the spit.
And the air is full of stories, told with wisdom, guile and wit.
Some of them romantic, some are bawdy, others scary
And there are tales about the devil that should make you oh so wary.
Some are beautifully poetic and some a little coarser;
A medieval medley from the pen of Geoffrey Chaucer!
From the company that brought you ‘A Christmas Carol’, ‘Great Expectations’, ‘Dracula’ and ‘The Odyssey’ comes a one-man performance of ‘The Canterbury Tales’. Revered as one of the most important works in English literature, ‘The Canterbury Tales’ paints an ironic and critical portrait of English society in the middle-ages.
Expect archaic naughtiness and nonsense! Possibly tights and a codpiece! Definitely medieval swearing! Let’s party like it’s 1387! This is Chaucer… but not as you think you know it!
The Grimm Sisters Scratchworks Theatre Company 23rd July Age Guidance 5+
Would you like to hear a remarkable story?
We promise it will only be a little bit gory…
We are two sisters, The Sisters Grimm.
One is quite clever and one is quite… musical.
Our tales are greater than any others,
But they were stolen by our beastly brothers!
Now we must journey to fix their lies…
Or else the birds will pluck out our eyes!
You know the Brothers Grimm? The famous storytellers…or story stealers more like! Their sisters were the true brains behind the books, but thanks to a treacherous father, a nasty curse and a great big dollop of bad luck, you’ve probably never heard of them.
The Grimm Sisters are here to set the record straight. Join them on the journey as they tell their twisted tales with a marvellous mix of live music, singing & comedy. Dive headfirst into their weird world of poisonous parents, courageous quests & a magical frog called Jeremy (Jeremy is not to be trusted).
Keep your mind sharp and your guts gory,
because in the blink of an eyelash,
you might find yourself within the story…
Created brand new for Summer 2021, Scratchworks Theatre Company takes you by the socially-distanced hand and leads you outdoors to discover a joyful & mischievous interruption to the everyday.
This will be a free outdoor event in Queens Square. More details to follow…
King Arthur The Last Baguette 28 July 2.30pm Suitable for ages 6+
Somewhere in England, a long time ago, a very, very, very long time ago. So long ago that nobody quite knows whether it happened or not. Or where it happened or not. A boy pulled a sword from a stone and became King.
A story of the old world, with knights, wizards, mist, and magic. This fun and farcical adventure is a deliberately anarchic and anachronistic re-telling of the Arthurian Legend with live music, physical comedy and lo-fi acrobatics.The Last Baguette make entertaining, accessible and eccentric work for family audiences, and are resident artists at Pound Arts, Corsham.
The company was formed from a shared love of theatre, bakery and humour in Paris by graduates of the Philippe Gaulier and Jacques Lecoq schools.
“The energy and commitment of the company is infectious…this is unique small scale theatre with a great heart” -Theatre Bath on The Little Match Girl
This will be a free outdoor event in Queens Square. More details to follow…
What a season! Absolutely inspirational!
Book your tickets here: https://www.theatreshop.org.uk/shows
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